DAILY GK: 26 , 27 AUG 2021

 DAILY GK: 26 , 27 AUG 2021

1. COUNTER TERRORISM EXERCISE ‘GANDIV’ CONDUCTED

•      The 3rd Edition of the annual Counter Terrorism Exercise named ‘Gandiv’ is being conducted by the National Security Guard (NSG) across National Capital Region (NCR), Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Gujarat.

•      NSG founded in September 1986.

•      It is an Elite Counter-terrorism unit functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

 

2. GOI LAUNCHES SAMRIDH PROGRAMME

•      Government of India (GoI) has launched the Startup Accelerator of Meity for Product Innovation, Development & Growth (SAMRIDH) programme to support 300 Information Technology (IT) enabled Startups for a period of 6 months.

•      It aims to create 100 unicorns out of the selected IT Startups by  providing Seed funding, Mentorship and Market access.

•      The programme has been modelled on the basis of Ycombinator, one of the successful startup accelerator programmes started in the United States.

 

3. WORLD’S 1ST FOSSIL-FREE STEEL TO VOLVO AB

•      Sweden’s green steel venture HYBRIT had made the world’s first customer delivery of steel produced without using coal and coke, to its truck-manufacturer Volvo AB (Aktiebolaget Volvo) as a trial run.

•      This steel is produced with 100% fossil-free hydrogen.

•      HYBRIT stands for Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology.

•      This was the raw material used to manufacture the so-called ‘green steel.

 

4. SAFE CITIES INDEX 2021

•      The Capital City and Financial Capital City of India i.e. New Delhi and Mumbai respectively have found place in 4th Safe Cities Index 2021 of 60 global cities, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) sponsored by NEC.

•      The index report is titled as ‘Safe Cities Index 2021- New expectations demand a new coherence’.

 

5.1ST INDIAN RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANY TO LIST ON NASDAQ

•      ReNew Power, India’s largest renewable energy company, has become the first Indian renewable energy company to get listed on the NASDAQ, an American stock exchange based in New York, USA.

•      ReNew Power has been listed on the NASDAQ following the merger with RMG Acquisition Corporation II (RMG II), a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

•      The merged company has been named ReNew Energy Global Plc.

 

6. BPCL LAUNCHED AI-ENABLED CHATBOT ‘URJA’

•      Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) launched a virtual assistant named ‘Urja’ with AI/NLP (Artificial Intelligence/Natural Language Processing) technology.

•      It is trained on more than 600 use cases.

•      Urja speaks in 13 languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Assamese).

 

7. SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS 2020

•      The Sahitya Akademi has announced the winners of the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2020 for Odia and Malayalam.

•      Yashodhara Mishra and Omcherry NN Pillai have been declared as the winners of the 2020 Sahitya Akademi Awards for Odia and Malayalam respectively.

•      Yashodhara Mishra has been awarded for her book titled “Samudrakula Ghara”.

•      Omcherry NN Pillai has been awarded for his memoir titled “Akasmikam: Omcheriyute Ormmakkurippukal”.

 

8. RBI APPROVES REAPPOINTMENT OF MD& CEO OF ICICI BANK

•      The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has approved the reappointment of Sandeep Bakhshi as the Managing Director(MD) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of ICICI Bank with effect from 15th October 2021 to 3rd October 2023.

 

9. PAKISTAN SUCCESSFULLY TESTFIRES ‘FATAH-1’

•      Pakistan has successfully test-fired Fatah-1, an Indigenously developed Guided Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS) which has the capability of precision target engagement deep into the enemy territories

•      It is capable of carrying conventional warheads & has a range of 140 km.

 

10. INDIAN ARMY RECEIVES 1ST BATCH OF MMHG

•      Indian Army received the delivery of 1st batch of Multi-Mode Hand Grenade (MMHG) manufactured by Nagpur based private company Economic Explosives Limited (EEL).

•      MMHG has been designed by Chandigarh based Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratories (TBRL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) & is manufactured by EEL, Nagpur.

•      In October 2020, Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with EEL for supply of 10 lakh MMHG to Indian Army at cost of around INR 409 crore

 

11. ‘SUJALAM’ , A 100 DAYS ODF PLUS CAMPAIGN

•      The Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a 100 Days campaign – ‘SUJALAM’ as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus Status in villages across the country by undertaking waste water management at the village level.

•      It aims to create 1 million Soak-pits & other grey water management activities in the villages.

 

12. US-INDIA CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES ACTION GROUP         

•      The United States (US) Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) launched the US-India Climate Technologies Action Group (CTAG) which aims to integrate private and public sector inputs on a concrete initiative that can contribute to advanced global action on climate.

 

13. INDIA-ISA ENERGY TRANSITION DIALOGUE, 2021

•      India-International Solar Alliance (ISA) Energy Transition Dialogue, 2021 held on August 24th, 2021 virtually.

•      R K Singh, Union Minister of Power, New & Renewable Energy has highlighted that India’s Emissions have reduced about 28% from 2005 levels, against the target of 35% by 2030 in India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) at the Paris Agreement, 2015.

•      Currently, 38.5% of India’s Installed power generation capacity is from clean Renewable energy sources when 46 GW of hydropower is included.

•      It is expected by 2050, 80-85% of India’s overall power capacity will come from Renewables.

•      Target by 2030: India plans to have 450GW of Renewable energy capacity by 2030

 

14. 25TH EDITION OF ‘EXERCISE MALABAR’

•      The 25th Edition of Naval Exercise Malabar is conducted between the India Navy, the United States (US) Navy, Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) & the Royal Australian Navy (RAF) in the Western Pacific Ocean.

•      The exercise is hosted by the US Navy from 26th-29th August, 2021.

 

15. INDIA EXTENDS USD 1 MILLION AID TO ZIMBABWE

•      The government of India provides USD 1 million aid to Zimbabwe under United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

•      This aid will help to tackle affected populations due to climate shocks.

•      It will help in climate resilient agriculture in Zimbabwe.

 

16. PAWANDEEP RAJAN APPOINTED AS UTTARAKHAND’S BRAND AMBASSADOR

•      Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Minister(CM) of Uttarakhand, has announced that Pawandeep Rajan, winner of the Indian Idol Season 12(2021), a music reality show, has been appointed as the brand ambassador of Uttarakhand’s art, tourism and culture.

 

17. 2021 ITTF CZECH INTERNATIONAL OPEN

•      Indian Table Tennis Player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the 2021 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Czech International Open.

•      Sathiyan beat Yevhen Ryshchepa of Ukraine in the finals in straight sets 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 14-12. He did not lose a single set throughout the tournament.

 

18. TED DEXTER PASSES AWAY

•      Former England Cricket team Captain & Journalist Ted Dexter passed away at 86 due to illness in Wolverhampton, England.

•      He was instrumental in devising the players ranking system that was later adopted by the ICC and is currently known as the ICC Player Rankings.