DAILY GK: 29 APRIL 2021

 DAILY GK: 29 APRIL 2021

1. BILATERAL EXERCISE ‘VARUNA-2021’

·         The 19th Edition of the Indian and French Navy Bilateral Exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ took place in the Arabian Sea.

·         The Indian side was led by Rear Admiral Ajay Kochhar, while the French side was led by Rear Admiral Marc Aussedat, Commander Task Force 473.

 

2. ‘SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE INITIATIVE’

·         During a trilateral Ministerial Meeting, the Trade Ministers of India, Japan & Australia virtually launched the ‘Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI)’.

·         Objective – SCRI aims to build a resilient supply chain with focus on free, transparent trade & investment environment in the Indo-Pacific region.

·         It will reduce the dependency of the 3 countries on China and counter its dominance on Trade.

 

3. A&N ISLANDS TO GET ORGANIC CERTIFICATION

·         Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has certified around 14, 491 Hectares of land in Car Nicobar and nancowry group of Islands in UT of A&N as ‘Organic Area’ under the ‘Large Area Certification (LAC)’ scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification programme.

·         It became the 1st large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic certification.LAC is a certification programme under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare’s (DAC&FW) flagship scheme ‘Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)’.

 

4. GOOGLE’S RS 135 CRORE FUND TO TACKLE THE COVID-19

·         Sundar Pichai,  CEO of Google and Alphabet, announced that Google will provide Rs 135 crore as an aid to India to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in India.

·         Google’s fund will help India to procure medical supplies including oxygen and testing equipment.

·         Mastercard, the US-based multinational financial service company, has announced a 10 Million USD fund to support India’s combat against COVID-19 crisis.

 

5. CHANDLER GOOD GOVERNMENT INDEX 2021

·         India with an index score of 0.516 has been ranked 49th in ‘Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) 2021’ – 1st Edition  produced by Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG).

·         The Index was topped by  Finland, Switzerland & Singapore.

·         The Index is made up of 34 Indicators which are organized into 7 pillars.

 

6. US PUTS INDIA IN CURRENCY MANIPULATOR WATCHLIST

·         The US Department of Treasury has put India in its monitoring list of countries for Currency Manipulation.

·         It has been included in the watchlist for two major reasons

·         High dollar purchases done by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (close to 5% of GDP), these purchases breached the 2% threshold.

·         India’s trade surplus with the US has increased by around USD 5 Billion to USD 23 Billion in the FY 2020-21 (from USD 18 Billion in FY 2019-20).

 

7.   GOVT INFUSED RS 200 CRORE INTO IFCI

·         In order to improve the financial health of the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), in April 2021, the Government has infused Rs 200 crore capital in IFCI through issue of equity shares.

·         After the capital infusion, the government’s holding in IFCI was increased from 61.02 per cent to 63.8 per cent.

8.    ADB PROVIDED $1.5 BILLION TO INDIA

·         The latest Annual Report of Asian Development Bank(ADB) released on 27^th April 2021 showed that ADB had provided $1.5 billion(~Rs 1.11 lakh crore) to India in supporting the response to tackle covid-19.
About the funding:

·         The $1.5 billion financing to India is a part of the ADB’s $16.1 billion pandemic response in 2020 through a $20 billion assistance package announced by ADB in April 2020 to help its 26 member countries in managing the pandemic.

·         In 2020,ADB has committed  to provide $31.6 billion to help Asia and the Pacific .

 

9.   ADB PROJECTED 11% GDP GROWTH FOR INDIA IN FY22

·         Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2021 was released by Asian Development Bank (ADB) on April 26, 2021, in which it forecasted the Indian economy to grow at 11 per cent in FY22 and it also predicted a GDP expansion in FY22 at 7 per cent.

·         It also pointed out the risk in economic recovery due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

10.  IND-RA ON COST OF VACCINATING INDIA POPULATION

·         The India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) recently said the estimated cost to vaccinate all the Indians of age 18 years will be Rs 67,193 crores. 

·         This is 0.36% of the GDP of the country.

·         The Union Government will incur Rs 20,870 crores of the cost (12% of GDP)and the state government shall incur Rs 46,323 crores(0.24% of GDP).

 

11. ‘WILD INNOVATOR AWARD’

·         WILD ELEMENTS Foundation has awarded Dr Krithi K Karanth, Chief Conservation Scientist at Bengaluru-based Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), the ‘WILD Innovator Award’ for 2021, she became the first Indian and Asian woman to receive such an award.

12.  CUBA’S NEW CHIEF OF COMMUNIST PARTY

·         Miguel Díaz-Canel, The President of Cuba has been named as the first secretary of the Central committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

·         He succeeded Raúl Castro as the first non Castro First Secretary of the communist party since the cuban revolution in 1959.

 

13. ADITYA L1 INDIA’S FIRST SOLAR SPACE MISSION

·         The Aditya-L1 Support Cell (AL1SC), the Community service centre, was established at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) transit campus in Haldwani, Uttarakhand,as a part of the efforts of Indian Researchers to create a skilled community of solar scientists to make use of the data from the Aditya L1, the first Solar Mission of India.

14. WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK 2021

·         The United Nations(UN)’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work is annually observed across the globe on 28th April to highlight the prevention of accidents and diseases at work and to raise awareness about occupational safety and health.