DAILY GK: 23 FEB 2021

 DAILY GK: 23 FEB 2021

1. 8 TOY MANUFACTURING CLUSTERS WORTH RS 2,300 CRORE

•      Central Government has approved 8 toy manufacturing clusters at a cost of Rs 2,300 crore viz. three clusters in Madhya Pradesh, two in Rajasthan, and one each in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

•      This decision has been taken on the lines of “National Action Plan for Indian Toy Story” that seeks to reduce import dependence of toys which was around $1.5 billion in FY2020 of which 90% of imports was from China and Taiwan.

•      The plan is to have 35 toy clusters under the scheme.

 

2. INDIA’S FIRST DIGITAL UNIVERSITY

•      State government of Kerala, on the line of its Digital Transformation Initiatives announced in Budget 2021, has launched India’s first Digital University, Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology (KUDSIT) in Technocity at Mangalapuram in Thiruvananthapuram.

•      The Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan inaugurated the KUDSIT through videoconferencing.

 

3. INTENSIFIED MISSION INDRADHANUSH (IMI) 3.0

•      Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) virtually launched Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0. 

•      He also released the Operational Guidelines for IMI 3.0 and the awareness material/IEC package developed as part of the campaign.

•      The focus of the IMI 3.0 is to reach children and pregnant women with the 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) who have missed these vaccine doses during the COVID-19.

 

4. RBI HAS BROUGHT STATE BANK OF SIKKIM UNDER ITS REGULATORY PURVIEW

•      The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has brought the State Bank of Sikkim under its regulatory purview.

•      The bank only operates within Sikkim and is wholly-owned by the state government.

•      With this regulatory purview, the ownership structure of the bank will not be changed and will be regulated by the RBI on a par with other banks.

 

5. RBI PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS ON CYBER FRAUDS

•      RBI has roped in Punjabi Singer-Rapper Viruss to drive its public awareness campaigns on cyber frauds.

•      RBI in its official twitter handle, launched the campaign, featuring Viruss.

•      This is part of its awareness campaign ‘RBI Kehta Hai’: Jaankar Baniye, Satark Rahiye!(RBI Says: Be knowledgeable, Be cautious) that was launched in 2016 and has been running in social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube .

 

6. SUPPLY SHIP NAMED AFTER S.S. KATHERINE JOHNSON

•      NASA launched the Space Station Supply Ship, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule named after S.S. Katherine Johnson, to the International Space Station (ISS).

•      The numbers of S.S. Katherine Johnson, a Black NASA mathematician, featured in the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures”, contributed to the flight of John Glenn on 20th February 1962, who became the first American to orbit the world.

 

7. KHELO INDIA UNIVERSITY GAMES IN 2021

•      Karnataka is set to host the 2nd Edition of Khelo India University Games (KIUG) in 2021.

•      The games will be hosted in Jain University, Bengaluru and other venues in Karnataka in collaboration with Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

•      KIUG is the largest University level sports competition in India.

•      The KIUG 2021 will see the addition of 2 new native sports namely ‘Yogasana’ & ‘Mallakhamb’ in the medal events.

•      The total number of medal events/sports will be 19.

 

8. 2021 AUSTRALIAN OPEN

•      The 109th Edition of Australian Open (53rd in Open Era) took place at Melbourne, Australia.

•      Chronologically, it is the First Grand Slam event (out of 4) of each Year in both the Men’s & Women’s Tour. 

•      It takes place on a Hard surface (called as Hard Courts).

Category                      Winner                                                  Runner-up

Men’s Singles               Novak Djokovic (Serbia)                   Daniil Medvedev (Russia)

Women’s Singles         Naomi Osaka (Japan)                        Jennifer Brady (USA)

 

9. BOOK ‘AGRICULTURE ACTS 2020’

•      Dravidar Kazhagam president K. Veeramani released a book “Agriculture Acts 2020” written by Justice A.K. Rajan, former judge of the Madras High Court.

•      The book is about the three controversial Central farm laws, which resulted in a months-long massive protest by farmers in New Delhi.

 

10. INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY

•      The United Nations (UN)’s International Mother Language Day is annually observed across the globe on 21st February to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

•      The theme of the 2021 International Mother Language Day is “Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society”.

 

11. PUNJAB CABINET APPROVES MISSION ‘LAL LAKIR’ IN ALL VILLAGES

•      Cabinet of Punjab chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has approved the implementation of mission ‘Lal Lakir’ to enable villagers living within the ‘Lal Lakir’ to monetise their property rights and for availing benefits provided by the government departments, institutions and banks.

•      Lal Lakir refers to land that is a part of the village habitation and is used for non-agriculture purposes only.