current affairs 20 April 2022

BRO to construct world’s highest tunnel at Shinku La Pass connecting Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh.

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will construct the world’s highest tunnel connecting Himachal Pradesh to Zanskar Valley in Ladakh.
• The tunnel will be constructed by BRO at Shinku La Pass at 16,580 feet.
• BRO will execute this ambitious project under Project Yojak.
• This tunnel is proposed to be completed by 2025.

World Bank Report States Extreme Poverty in India Decline by 12.3% between 2011-2019.

• The extreme poverty rate in India fell from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019 as per World Bank Policy Research Working Paper.
• This represents a decline of 12.3 percentage points in extreme poverty count between 2011 to 2019 in the country.
• The decline in rural areas was much higher than in urban areas.
• While the reduction in rural poverty dropped by 14.7 percentage points, the poverty in urban areas dropped by 7.9 percentage points.
• The paper titled Poverty has Declined over the last decade But Not As Much As Previously Thought was jointly authored by economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide.

Lt Gen Manoj Pande named as India’s next Chief of Army Staff.

• Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has been appointed as the next Chief of Army Staff.
• Lt Gen Pande is the incumbent Vice-Chief of the Army.
• He will take over from General MM Naravane, who is set to retire on April 30, 2022.
• Lt Gen Manoj Pande is the first-ever officer from the Corps of Engineer to be appointed as Army Chief.

India Elected to Four UN ECOSOC Bodies.

• India has been elected to four key United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN-ECOSOC) Bodies in April 2022.
• These bodies include:
• Commission for Social Development,
• Committee on NGOs,
• Commission on Science & Technology for Development
• Ambassador Preeti Saran has been re-elected to Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
• Apart from this, India has contributed US$ 200,000 to UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes by Da’esh/ ISIL (UNITAD).
• The contribution will be used to support the two areas of UNITAD’s investigations, which are: Development and use of chemical and biological weapons by ISIL and ISIL crimes against cultural heritage in Iraq.

Haryana beat Tamil Nadu to win 12th Senior Men’s National Hockey Championship.

• Haryana has emerged as the champions of the 12th Senior Men’s National Hockey Championship by defeating Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the shootout after the final ended 1-1 in the regulation time.
• The tournament was held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh from April 6 to 17, 2022.
• Haryana has won the trophy for the first time since 2011.