The Daily Brief – 14th December 2019

The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft successfully took its inaugural test flight, taking off from Vancouver, Canada. It was designed by Harbour Air and magniX. The flight involved a six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver with a 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system. It was piloted by Greg McDougall, founder and chief executive of Harbour Air.

India finished on top with the highest ever medal haul of 312 medals, comprising of 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze medals, at the 13^th South Asian Games (SAG), which concluded on 10^th December, 2019 in Nepal. The host nation Nepal stood second with 206 medals and Sri Lanka at third position with 251 medals. The South Asian Games is a biennial multi-sporting event of South Asia, governed by the South Asia Olympic Council (SAOC), which was formed in 1983.

Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty has been appointed as the brand ambassador of India’s anti-doping body National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). It is expected that his celebrity status will help the NADA’s efforts to clean up sports in the country from the menace. More than 150 athletes have failed dope tests this year. Because of the suspension of the National Anti-Doping Laboratory (NADL) by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in 2019, dope samples collected by the NADA from the athletes will have to be tested outside India.

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which measures renewable energy share, emissions and climate policies of 57 countries and the European Union, was released at the COP25 on 10^th December, 2019 in Madrid. Sweden topped the index and India was ranked 9^th. India ranked among top 10 countries for the first time. The United States was included in the worst-performing countries for the first time.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added 1,840 new species to its catalogue of plants and animals that risk extinction. With this, the Red List of Threatened Species now contains more than 30,000 species under threat of disappearing. The IUCN released its updated list at the COP25 held in Madrid, Spain. Founded on 5^th October 1948, the IUCN is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

International Mountain Day is observed every year across the globe on 11^th December to raise awareness about indigenous peoples and minorities, who live in mountain environments and the relevance of their cultural heritage, traditions and customs. The theme for 2019 is ‘Mountains matter for youth’. The United Nations declared the year 2002 as the UN International Year of Mountains. The first international day was celebrated for the first time in the following year, 2003.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia for four years from international sports events, including the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, over its longstanding doping scandal. Russia can appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has started a pilot project for using FASTag for parking purpose at the Hyderabad airport to ensure the benefits of FASTag beyond tolling. Conceptualised as “FASTag 2.0”, it covers parking payments, fuel payments, etc. The pilot project has been launched in two phases, the first being a controlled pilot testing, wherein only ICICI tags would be used. The second phase of pilot shall cover all the other Issuer Bank tags.