DAILY GK: 28 AUG 2021

 DAILY GK: 28 AUG 2021

1. NER DISTRICT SDG INDEX & DASHBOARD 2021-22

•      The 1st Edition of North Eastern Region (NER) District Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index & Dashboard 2021-22 was released.

•      The district of East Sikkim topped the rankings.

•      It was prepared by Niti Aayog & Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M/DoNER) with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

RANK                                            DISTRICT                                                           STATE

1.                                                     East Sikkim                                                          Sikkim

2.                                                     Gomati                                                                  Tripura

2.                                                     North Tripura                                                       Tripura

 

2. ‘WEP NXT’ TO BOOST WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA

•      NITI Aayog launched the next phase of its flagship platform Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) titled ‘WEP Nxt’ in partnership with Cisco.

•      Under this, Cisco’s technology and experience of working with India’s startups will be utilized to foster women entrepreneurship in India.

 

3. BRICS FINANCE MINISTERS, CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS MEETING

•      Finance Minister(FM) of India, Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 2nd meeting of BRICS(Brazil,Russia,India,China,and South Africa) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) along with the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das under the Indian BRICS chairmanship.

 

4. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY BY 2030 WEF- KEARNEY REPORT

•      Kearney in association with WEF(World Economic Forum) released a report titled,   ‘Shifting Global Value Chains: the India Opportunity’ states that Coordinated action between the government and the private sector can help create globally competitive manufacturing companies in the country.

•      Manufacturing sector’s share towards India’s GDP in 2030 could potentially reach 19-20%.

 

5. G20 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

•      Italy (2021 G20 Presidency) hosted the first-ever G20 Ministerial conference on Women’s Empowerment at Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy in Hybrid format.

•      Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Women and Child Development(WCD), Government of India virtually represented India and addressed the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment.

 

6. CHAIRPERSON OF STOP TB PARTNERSHIP BOARD

•      Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has taken charge as the Chairperson of the Board of Stop TB partnership.

•      He will hold the responsibility of the chairman of the board with immediate effect until 2024.

•      He took over the responsibility from Dr Harsh Vardhan, former Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

 

7. WORLD ATHLETICS U20 CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2021

•      The World Athletics Under20 Championships, 2021 held in the city of Nairobi, Kenya.

•      The tournament was held from 18th-22nd August, 2021.

•      India finished at the 21st place by winning 3 Medals (2-Silver & 1-Bronze).

•      Kenya ranked 1st place by winning 16 Medals (8-Gold, 1-Silver & 7-Bronze)

Rank              Country                Gold                       Silver                     Bronze                  Total

21                   India                      0                              2                              1                              3

1                      Kenya                    8                              1                              7                              16

2                      Finland                  4                              1                              0                              5

3                      Nigeria                   4                              0                              3                              7

 

8. WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY 2021 – AUGUST 26

•      Women’s Equality Day is annually celebrated across the United States of America(USA) on 26th August to mark the achievements and advancements made by women across various fields.

 

9. DELHI GOVT’S ‘ DESH KE MENTORS’ PROGRAM

•      Bollywood Actor, Sonu Sonu will be appointed as  brand ambassador of the programme of Delhi Government ‘’Desh Ke Mentor” by the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.

•      It’s a mentorship programme where around 3 lakh experts and professionals will guide the 10 lakh Delhi government school students.

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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.

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DAILY GK : 25 AUG 2021

 DAILY GK : 25 AUG 2021

1.NATIONAL MONETISATION PIPELINE

•      Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman launched the asset monetisation pipeline of Central ministries and public sector entities named National Monetisation pipeline (NMP).

•      The NMP report was developed by NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) in consultation with infrastructure line ministries.

•      Objective: To list out the government’s (govt) infrastructure assets that are to be sold in the next 4 years.

•      The aggregate monetisation potential under NMP through core assets of the central govt over the 4-year period (i.e. from FY22 to FY25) is estimated at Rs 6 lakh crores.

•      Monetisation: It is the process of earning revenue from an asset business by converting the assets into cash or a form that is easily convertible into cash.

 

2.LOCKHEED MARTIN GETS USD 328 MN INDIAN CONTRACT

•      Lockheed Martin, US based Company has received USD 328 Million worth Contract from the Indian Government to provide comprehensive support for the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet of 12C-130J-30 Super Hercules Aircraft for a period of 5 years.

 

3.‘FORUM FOR DECARBONIZING TRANSPORT’

•      As a part of the Nationally Determined Contributions-Transport Initiative for Asia(NDC-TIA) project, NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute(WRI), India has jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India.

•      The forum will act as a channel to bring in the diverse needs to adopt an integrated approach for greening the transport sector in India.

•      Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog inaugurated the forum over the virtual event.

 

4.‘OPERATION DEVI SHAKTI’

•      The Government of India (GoI) has launched a rescue mission named ‘Operation Devi Shakti’ to evacuate stranded Indians from the Taliban-Captured Afghanistan.

•      The operation is carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air India & the officials at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in collaboration with the US and several other countries.

•      Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s 1st Vice President declared himself as the caretaker president of Afghanistan, after former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

 

5.‘OPERATION BLUE FREEDOM – LAND WORLD RECORD AT SIACHEN GLACIER’

•      People with disabilities from across the country will undertake an expedition till Siachen Glacier to create a new World Record for the largest team of people with disabilities to reach the world’s highest battlefield.

•      The Government of India has permitted a team of people with disabilities to scale Siachen Glacier.

•      The team of people with disabilities trained by ‘Team CLAW’ a team of Armed Forces veterans.

•      The successful execution of this pioneering expedition will be named as ‘Operation Blue Freedom’ and empowering Divyangjan to set a benchmark for other nations to emulate.

 

6.NCCR REPORT

•      In accordance with the recent technical report by the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, 32% of India’s coastline underwent sea erosion and 27% of it expanded in a time span of 28 years i.e. between 1990 and 2018.

•      This information was provided by Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal, Husbandry and Dairying in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.

 

7.CUSHMAN GLOBAL MANUFACTURING RISK INDEX 2021

•      In accordance with the Cushman & Wakefield’s 2021 ‘Global Manufacturing Risk Index-Assessing Costs, Risks and Conditions Impacting Manufacturing‘, India became the world’s second most desired manufacturing destination globally surpassing the United States (US) which stood at 3rd place.  

•      The top position is retained by China.

 

8.RBI TO LAUNCH GAAR REGULATIONS FOR ROUND-TRIPPING

•      Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the recommendation report of the Expert Committee on Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) under the chairmanship of N. S. Vishwanathan, which was constituted by RBI to review the issues of UCBs and to provide a road map for strengthening the sector.

•      Committee’s Recommendation:To ease the regulatory process, the committee has recommended a 4-tier structure for the UCBs, based on their capital availability and other factors.

•      Tier 1 – All unit UCBs and salary earner’s UCBs (irrespective of deposit size), and all other UCBs having deposits up to Rs 100 crore

•      Tier 2 – UCBs with deposits between Rs 100 crore – Rs 1000 crore

•      Tier 3 – UCBs with deposits between Rs 1000 crore – Rs 10,000 crore

•      Tier 4 – UCBs with deposits more than Rs 10,000 crore

 

9.GEOSPATIAL PLANNING PORTAL ‘YUKTDHARA’

•      Government of India had launched a new geo-spatial planning portal ‘’Yuktdhara’’ under Bhuvan.

•      It would enable MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) assets planning by using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) data.

•      The portal Yuktdhara was launched by Giriraj Singh, Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

•      Objective– Yuktdhara platform will serve as a repository of assets and facilitate the Gram Panchayat level planning of MGNREGA activities across India.

 

10.WTT CONTENDER 2021

•      The Indian duo of table tennis players  Manika Batra and G Sathiyan defeated Hungary’s Dora Madarasz and Nandor Ecseki with 3-1 in the final match of World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender 2021 which held at Budapest,capital of Hungary.

•      With this achievement, they became the first table tennis players from India to win a WTT Contender title.

 

11.‘THE KAPIL SHARMA STORY’

•      The renowned writer Ajitabha Bose wrote a book ‘The Kapil Sharma Story’, a biography of the famous Indian Stand-up comedian and self-made superstar,  Kapil Sharma.

•      The book narrates about the journey and struggling life of Kapil Sharma.

 

12.NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY DAY – AUGUST 20

•      Akshay Urja Diwas also known as National Renewable Energy Day, is annually observed across India on 20th August to create awareness about the benefits of natural energies such as Biogas, Solar Energy, Wind Energy and Hydroelectric Power.

•      The day also marks the birth anniversary of Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

 

13.WORLD WATER WEEK 2021 – 23 TO 27 AUGUST

•      World Water Week(WWWeek) is annually celebrated across the globe in the month of August to address the major water issues across the globe.

•      The WWWeek 2021 is being held as an online event from 23rd to 27th August.

•      WWWeek has been an annual event organised by Stockholm International Water Institute(SIWI) since 1991.

•      The theme of 2021 World water Week is “Building Resilience Faster”.

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DAILY GK: 24 AUG 2021

 DAILY GK: 24 AUG 2021

1.ARIOUS PROJECTS IN SOMNATH, GUJARAT

•      Prime Minister Narendra Modi has Inaugurated & laid foundation Stone for various projects in Somnath, Gujarat Virtually.

•      PM Modi inaugurated the following projects

•      The Somnath Promenade,

•      The Somnath Exhibition Centre

•      Reconstructed Temple precinct of Old (Juna) Somnath.

•      PM laid the foundation Stone of Parvatimata Temple in Somnath Temple premises.

•      Under Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) Scheme, announced in 2014, is developing 40 major places of pilgrimage out of which, 15 are already completed.

•      In Gujarat, work is on for three projects worth around Rs.180 crore.

 

2.INR 250 CRORE UBHARTE SITAARE FUND

•      Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has launched Ubharte Sitaare Fund (USF) of Corpus INR 250 crore with a green shoe option of INR 250 crore for Export oriented Small & mid sized companies across the country.

•      USF is jointly funded by Export and Import (EXIM) Bank of India & Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

 

3.INDIA’S FIRST SMOG TOWER INAUGURATED

•      India’s first smog tower launched in Delhi as a pilot project by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Baba Kharak Marg, Connaught Place.

•      It was developed by  IIT-Delhi and IIT- Bombay.

•      This smog tower has the capacity to purify 1000 cubic metres of air per second and it is estimated that it will reduce PM2.5 concentration by around 70%.

 

4.INDIA TO HOST 2ND UNWGIC IN 2022 AT HYDERABAD, TELANGANA

•      India is all set to host the 2nd United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in October 2022 in Hyderabad, Telangana on the theme ‘Towards Geo-enabling the Global Village’.

•      It will be organized as a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (Celebration of 75 Years of Indian Independence)’.

 

5.RBI INTRODUCED AUTOMATION SYSTEM ‘PRISM’

•      The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced a web-based and end-to-end workflow automation system named ‘Platform for Regulated Entities for Integrated Supervision and Monitoring’ (PRISM) to strengthen the compliance of the entities that are supervised by RBI.

•      Objective: To make continuous supervision of entities for – earlier identification of risks; conduct of supervisory actions; and strengthen their internal resilience.

 

6.CITIBANK GOT APPROVAL FROM IFSCA

•      US-based Citibank NA received the approval from International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to open a banking unit at India’s GIFT IFSC (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City – International Financial Services Centre) at Gandhinagar, Gujarat to carry out offshore transactions.

•      In 2020, Citibank received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start a banking unit after which it has waited for the final nod from IFSCA to start operations.

 

7.17TH GOVERNOR OF MANIPUR

•      President Ramnath Kovind has appointed senior BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader from Tamil Nadu, La.

•      Ganesan as 17th Governor of Manipur.

•      He Succeeded Najma Heptulla, who retired earlier this month.

 

8.ONEWEB LAUNCHES 34 SATELLITES INTO LEO

•      OneWeb, Satellite Communications Operator Co-owned by Bharti Airtel & United Kingdom (UK) Government has launched another batch of 34 Satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on August 22, 2021.

•      It was the 5th launch of OneWeb satellites in 2021, thereby  making a total of 288 Satellites in the Orbit.

 

9.INDIA’S 1ST INDIGENOUS MOTORISED WHEELCHAIR VEHICLE, NEOBOLT

•      IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras has developed India’s 1st indigenous motorised wheelchair vehicle, NeoBolt, which could be used even on uneven terrains (land).

•      NeoBolt was developed by a team led by Sujatha Srinivasan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras.

•      A start-up called ‘NeoMotion’ has commercialised the NeoBolt.

 

10.FORMER UTTAR PRADESH CM KALYAN SINGH PASSES AWAY

•      The former Chief Minister(CM) of Uttar Pradesh(UP), BJP leader Kalyan Singh passed away at the age of 89 in Lucknow due to age related diseases.

•      He was born in Atrauli, Uttar Pradesh.

•      Kalyan Singh served as Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Governor of Rajasthan(2014-19).

•      He served as the Chief Minister of UP for 2 terms, i.e.,1991-92 & 1997-99.

 

11.WORLD SANSKRIT DAY 2021 – AUGUST 22

•      World Sanskrit Day, also known as Vishva-Samskrita-dinam and Sanskrit Diwas, is annually observed on ‘Sawan Poornima’ to create awareness, promote and revive Sanskrit, one of the ancient Indian languages.

•      World Sanskrit day 2021 falls on 22nd August 2021.

 

12.WORLD ENTREPRENEURS’ DAY 2021 – AUGUST 21

•      World Entrepreneurs’ Day(WED) is annually observed across the globe on 21st August to create awareness about entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership among the stakeholders.

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