Current affairs......2020

currents affairs

• Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson has been named Instagram's highest-paid celebrity, the title which was earlier held by Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez
• The 48-year-old star charges approximately USD 1,015,000 (Rs 7,59,93,050) for a sponsored post
• According to a BBC report, Kylie Jenner, who earlier held the position, used to charge USD 1.2 million (Rs 8,98,44,000) for a
• As of now, while Kylie has 184 million followers, and Johnson has 189 million followers.
•  Before this, Dwayne Johnson was also named Hollywood's highest-paid actor of 2019 by Forbes.
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Internet search giant Google has relaunched its social networking platform Google+ as Currents.

• The company has rebranded the app to Google Currents on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
• The Google Play Store listing describes the app as a place where people can connect with their colleagues, exchange documents, interact with like-minded people who have similar interests.
•  In April 2019, a Google spokesperson announced that the official process for the shut down of google+ has started.

• The reason stated was low usage and some security bugs that were recently discovered. 

Nelson Mandela International Day is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, Mandela's birthday.

• The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010.
•  Nelson Mandela was born as Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July, 1918

In 1993, Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ‘for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.

• International Tiger Day is being celebrated on 29 July 2020. The Day is celebrated across the globe to create awareness about tiger conservation.
•  Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar released All India Tiger Estimation Report-2018 .
• India is home to nearly 70 per cent of the global tiger population and it leads the world in showing effective conservation of the wild species.
•  In 1973 there were only 9 tiger reserves in the country, which has now gone up to 50. 
• The Heads of the governments of Tiger range countries had resolved to double the tiger population by the year 2022. 

• Van Mahotsav is an annual one week tree planting festival observed from 1-7 July 2020 in India.
• During this festival thousands of trees are planted all over India
•  In 1950, it was started by K. M. Munshi, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Food at that time.  
•  It was started to create awareness in the mind of the people for the conservation of forests and planting of new trees.

• MGNREGA continues to attract rural labourers pushed into distress due to the Covid-19 crisis triggering calls for increasing the mandatory workdays to 200 and raising the minimum wages under the scheme to Rs 600 per day
• Presently, under MGNREGA, the Law guarantees 100 days of work, though the actual days of work provided is much less, while the minimum wages for 2020-21 is around Rs 200 per day
• Data sourced from the MGNREGA website till July 1 shows that in June around 43.7 million households sought work under the scheme that was the highest in the last seven years.