DAILY GK: 4, 5 MAR 2021

 DAILY GK: 4, 5 MAR 2021

1. ‘THE INDIA TOY FAIR 2021’

      The first ever ‘The India Toy Fair 2021’ was held virtually on February 27, 2021 – March 2, 2021 on the underlying themes of ‘Atmanirbhar (Self Reliant) Bharat’ and ‘Vocal for Local’ to boost the India toy manufacturing industry.

      It was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi.

 

2. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PHARMACEUTICAL 2021

      The 6th edition of International Conference on Pharmaceutical & Medical Device sector i.e. India Pharma 2021 & India Medical Device 2021 was inaugurated by Union Minister Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

      The special focus of this edition was Global Investors Meet by Invest India.

      The theme for India Medical Device 2021 was ‘India MedTech Future: Innovate & Make in India through Global’.

      The theme for India Pharma 2021 was ‘Indian Pharma Industry: Future is Now’.

 

3. WCT OF COLOMBO PORT WILL BE DEVELOPED BY INDIA & JAPAN

      Sri Lankan Cabinet approved a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) proposal for developing the West Container Terminal (WCT) of Colombo South Port with parties nominated by Indian & Japanese Government.

      Indian High Commission has nominated Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ Consortium) while the Japanese government is yet to nominate a party.

      India & Japan will have 85% stake in the WCT.

 

4. SBI JOINS ‘LIINK’

      State Bank of India (SBI) joined ‘Liink’, a peer-to-peer Blockchain-based data network of US based Investment Banking Company JPMorgan chase.

      The partnership will help SBI to reduce transaction costs, speed up Consumer transactions (including International transactions).

      SBI became the 1st bank in India to go live on the blockchain-based payment network of JPMorgan.

 

5. GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS 2021

      The 78th Golden Globes Awards 2021 took place in a Hybrid Format.

      It was the first bi-coastal ceremony, hosted by Amy Poehler from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and Tina Fey from New York’s Rainbow Room.

      Nomadland by chinese Female director Chloé Zhao won the Best Pictures Drama and Chloé Zhao won the Best Director Motion Picture.

      Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman and only the 2nd woman to win the best director award after Barbra Streisand who won the award for “Yentl.” in 1984.

      The Crown, a television series, has the highest nominations for any tele series and it has won in 4 categories (Best Drama Series, Best Television Actress, Best Television Actor, Best Supporting Actress).

 

6. DADASAHEB PHALKE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS 2021

      The Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (DPIFF) Awards 2021 were announced.

      DPIFF was introduced by the Government of India in 1969 to commemorate the Father of Indian Cinema Dadasaheb Phalke.

      Late Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was awarded the ‘Critics Best Actor’ award for his performance in the movie ‘Dil Bechara’.

 

7. MAPMYINDIA INTEGRATED WITH CO-WIN PORTAL

      MapmyIndia has been integrated with India’s official vaccination registration portal – ‘Co-WIN’ (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network) to enable users to locate nearby COVID-19 vaccine centres.

      India had integrated COVID-19 Tracing App ‘Aarogya Setu’ & Co-WIN portal to enable users to download Vaccination certificates after they have received at least one dose of COVID-19 Vaccination.

 

8. KHELO INDIA WINTER GAMES 2021

      Jammu & Kashmir retained the top spot in the 2nd Edition of Khelo India Winter Games, which was held at Gulmarg, J&K. With 11 Gold, 18 Silver and 5 Bronze Medals J&K led the medal tally during the closing ceremony of the Khelo India Winter Games in Ski Resort of Gulmarg.

 

9. WORLD WILDLIFE DAY 2021

      United Nations(UN)’s World Wildlife Day is annually observed across the globe on 3rd March.

      World Wildlife day 2021 on 3rd march 2021 is celebrated under the theme “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”.

      The transaction will now move to the second stage.

 

10. LANKA AIR FORCE’S 70TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

      Suryakirans, Sarang and Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will participate in an air show in Colombo from March 3 to 5 as part of the 70th-anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lankan Air Force.

 

11. INDIA TO IMPROVE TECHNICAL EDUCATION

      The Government of India is planning to replace the World Bank Assisted ‘Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)’ with a new programme called ‘Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE)’ project for improving the Technical Education system in India.

 

12. INDIA’S FIRST DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTRE

      India’s and Asia’s first National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC) will come up on the bank of the Ganges in the premises of Patna University in Bihar.

      50% of the world’s river dolphin population are in Bihar, Dolphin a highly endangered species under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and declared the National Aquatic Animal in 2009.

 

13. INDIA SIGNS PACT WITH PHILIPPINES FOR SALE OF DEFENCE EQUIPMENT

      Philippines has signed a implementing arrangement for ‘procurement of defence material and equipment’ with India during a pact’s signing ceremony at the Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

 

14. UNGA TO MARK 2023 AS ‘INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF MILLETS’

      United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution sponsored by India to mark 2023 as ‘International Year of Millets’.

      The resolution was initiated by India along with Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia & Senegal.

      The resolution titled ‘International Year of Millets 2023’ was supported by over 70 nations.

 

15. ‘DESERT FLAG VI’ IN UAE

      For the First Time, Indian Air Force (IAF) is participating in the Annual Multinational Large force employment warfare exercise ‘Desert Flag VI’ held at the Al-Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates. 

      The exercise is hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force.

 

16. WORLD’S 1ST PLATYPUS SANCTUARY

      Australia is building the World’s 1st Sanctuary for ‘Platypus’, an egg laying mammal is a semi-aquatic creature that generally lives in small streams & slow-moving rivers at cool temperature.

      Platypus is considered to be a protected species in Australia, whose population was severely affected in 2019-20 Australia bushfires.

      The sanctuary is built to promote its breeding & rehabilitation, consisting of mostly ponds & burrows housing up to 65 platypuses is planned to be built by 2022.

 

17. PAKISTAN TO REMAIN IN FATF’S ‘GREYLIST’ TILL JUNE, 2021

      Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering & terrorist financing watchdog (headquarters in Paris, France) has retained Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ (also called as ‘Increased monitoring group’) till June, 2021 as Pakistan had failed to implement the 27-point action plan mandated by FATF.

      It means that Pakistan will have difficulties getting financial aid from International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) & European Union.

 

18. MARY KOM APPOINTED AS CHAIRPERSON OF AIBA CHAMPION

      AIBA International Boxing Association has appointed 6-time Boxing World Champion Mary Kom (37 years old) as the new chairperson of the AIBA Champion and Veterans Committee.

      She was elected by the mail vote of the Board Member of AIBA.

      Olympic medalist Michael Philip Carruth of Ireland was appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the committee by the board of directors.

 

19. BPCL TO SELL ITS 61.65% STAKE IN NUMALIGARH REFINERY LTD

      Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) approved to sell its 61.65% stake in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) to a consortium of Oil India, Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and Government of Assam for Rs. 9875.96 crore.

      The Government is set to sell its entire stake (52.98%) in BPCL.

 

20. ISRO’S SEED PROGRAM

      Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is on formulating an exclusive space startup programme “Space Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (SEED)” to take startups in the space sector to a higher orbit with a string of initiatives to help them realise their business potential.

 

21. THIRD BATSMAN TO HIT SIX 6S IN AN OVER

      West Indies limited-overs format skipper Kieron Pollard  became the third batsman in the history of international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs(South Africa) and Yuvraj Singh(India) to hit six 6s in an over.

      He achieved the feat in the first T20I of the three-match series against Sri Lanka here at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

 

22. INDIA SENDING HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO MADAGASCAR

      India announced it will send a consignment of 1,000 metric tonnes of rice and 100,000 tablets of Hydroxychloroquine to drought-hit Madagascar.

      The supplies of food assistance and support for capacity building to the friendly countries of Madagascar and Comoros is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of SAGAR and India’s time-tested role as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region.

 

23. LOK SABHA TV & RAJYA SABHA TV MERGED

      The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Television channels that broadcast the proceedings of the upper and lower Houses of Parliament, respectively, have been merged into a single entity.

      Retired Indian Administrative Service officer Ravi Capoor was appointed the chief executive officer of the channel for one year.

 

24. ISRAEL OFFICIALLY RECEIVES FIRST EVER UAE AMBASSADOR

      Israel’s president formally received the first-ever ambassador from the United Arab Emirates, following last year’s historic agreement between the countries.

      The UAE was the first country to agree to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state under the Abraham Accords, a pact brokered by former US president Donald Trump.

 

25. SEBI EASES LISTING RULES FOR LARGE IPOS

      The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) eased the listing norms for large companies, apparently paving the way for the much-awaited mega float of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

      The regulator said large companies can now divest a minimum 5 per cent in the IPO, instead of 10 per cent. Further, they will get five years, instead of three, to raise the public float to 25 per cent.

 

26. GST COLLECTIONS UP BY 7 % IN FEB

      The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February is one lakh 13 thousand 143 crore rupees.

      In addition, the Centre has also settled 48 thousand crore rupees as IGST ad-hoc settlement in the ratio of 50:50 between Centre and States and UTs.