DAILY GK: 2,3 APRIL 2021

 DAILY GK: 2,3 APRIL 2021

1. GOVERNMENT RETAINS THE INTEREST RATE OF SSS

•      Government of India(GoI) had retained the Interest Rate of Small Savings Scheme for the 1st quarter(Q1) for the Financial Year 2021-22 (FY22) same as 4th quarter (Q4) for the Financial Year 2020-21 (FY 21).

Interest Rates of the Small Savings Schemes are:

Schemes	Rates of Interest from 1st April, 2021 to 30th June, 2021	Compounding Frequency
Post Office Savings Account (SB)​	4.0%	Annually
National Savings Monthly Income Account (MIS)	6.6%	Monthly and Paid
Senior Citizens Savings Scheme Account (SCSS)​	7.4%	Quarterly and Paid
Public Provident Fund Account (PPF )	7.1%	Annually
Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA)​	7.6%	Annually
National Savings Certificates (NSC)	6.8%	Annually
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP )	6.9%(will mature in 124 months)	Annually

2.WEF’S GLOBAL GENDER GAP REPORT 2021

•      India with a score of 0.625 has been ranked 140th out of 156 countries in the 15th edition of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’.

•      Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world (for the 12th time) followed by Finland & Norway.

•      India has slipped 28 places to 140 in 2021 (from 112 in 2020).

•      Among the South Asian Countries, Bangladesh was the top performer on the Gender Gap Index with a global ranking of 65.

Rank                      Country                                 Score (0-1)

1                              Iceland                                  0.892

2                              Finland                                  0.861

3                              Norway                                  0.849

 

3.‘WORLD IMMUNISATION AND LOGISTICS SUMMIT 2021’ VIRTUALLY

•      HOPE Consortium’s first ever World Immunisation & Logistics Summit 2021 held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

•      Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare of India virtually participated in a final panel discussion on  ‘Focus on Asia: Vaccine production and distribution across Asia’.

•      Abu Dhabi launches The Hope Consortium launched by Department of Health ,Abu Dhabi for full global vaccine distribution.

 

4.RBI FIXED THE WMA LIMIT FOR THE 1ST HALF OF FY22

•      The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in consultation with the Government, decided the limits for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) for the centre to Rs 1.2 lakh crore for the first half of the financial year 2021-22(FY22) i.e. April 2021 to September 2021.

 

5.WORLD BANK REPORT ON INDIA’S GDP

•      The World Bank reported its South Asia Economic Focus report for the year 2021, titled “Sour Asia Economic Focus Spring 2021: South Asia Vaccinates” and it has estimated India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth to be in the range of 7.5% to 12.5% for the Financial year 2021-22 (FY22) and contraction of 8.5% (-8.5%) for FY21.

 

6.INDIA’S LATEST DISCUS THROW SENSATION

•      Kamalpreet Kaur, An Indian women’s Discus thrower qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games set to be held in Japan (from July 23 – 8 August, 2021), after she sent the discus to 65.06 metres at the 24th Federation cup Senior Athletics Championships held in Patiala, Punjab.

•      With this, she set a new national record & breached the Olympic Qualification mark of 63.50 m.

•      She became the 1st Indian women to breach the 65m Barrier in discus throw.

 

7.GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES RS 14,500-CRORE CAPITAL INFUSION IN 4 PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS

•      The government announced capital infusion totalling Rs 14,500 crore in four public sector banks (PSBs) through zero-coupon bonds.

•      The four public sector banks (PSBs) namely Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of India and UCO Bank in 2020-21, by issuing non-interest bearing bonds to these banks.

•      The government will charge Rs 4,800 crore in Central Bank of India, Rs 4,100 crore in Indian Overseas Bank, Rs 3,000 crore in Bank of India and Rs 2,600 crore in UCO Bank.

•      Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 announced a capital infusion of Rs 20,000 public sector banks for the current financial year 2021-2022.

 

8.UNION CABINET APPROVES PLI SCHEME FOR FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY

•      Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Central Sector Scheme – ‘Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI)’ with a total outlay of INR 10, 900 Crores.

•      Duration – six-year period from 2021-22 to 2026-27.Implementation – Rolled out on an All India basis, and will be implemented through Project Management Agency (PMA).

•      It will facilitate expansion of processing capacity to generate processed food output of INR 33, 494 crores.

•      It is expected to create employment for around 2.5 Lakh persons by 2026-27.

 

9.17TH BIMSTEC MINISTERIAL MEET

•      External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar virtually addressed the 17th BIMSTEC (The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

•      He highlighted the strategic importance of the master connectivity plan among the South and Southeast Asian countries.

•      BIMSTEC is group of 7 Asian countries,

•      5 South Asia Countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka

•      2 Southeast Asia Countries – Myanmar and Thailand.

 

10.ULPIN FOR ALL LAND RECORDS BY MARCH 2022

•      Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development announced, The Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN), 14-digit unique identification number to every plot of land in India.

•      Currently, the ULPIN scheme has been launched in 10 States and will be extended all over the country by March 2022.

•      ULPIN is a part of India’s Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP).

 

11.FOURTH BATCH OF 3 RAFALE JETS REACHED INDIA

•      Indian Air Force (IAF) received the fourth batch of 3 Rafale fighter jets from France, raising the total fleet count to 14.

•      Previously, India ordered 36 fighter jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation for a cost of Rs. 59,000 crores. The 1st batch of 5 Rafale jets reached India in July 2020.

•      Notably, this is India’s 1st major acquisition of fighter planes in the last 23 years, only after Russia’s Sukhoi jets.

 

12.ACI REPORT 2021

•      According to the report ‘Prime-Time for Real Time’-2021 launched by ACI Worldwide and GlobalData, India with 25.5 Billion transactions topped the list of countries with most number of real-time transactions in Digital Payments in 2020.

•      It was followed by China (15.7 Billion) & South Korea (6.0 Billion).

•      Digital Payments will account for 7% of all Transactions in India by 2025, while Cash, Cheques & other forms of payments will occupy only 28.3 %.Globally, Total number of real-time transactions in 2020 was 70.3 Billion, an increase of 41% compared to 2019 (50 Billion Transactions).

 

13.GOVERNMENT RETAINED THE INFLATION TARGET FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS

•      Government of India has decided to continue the existing inflation-targeting framework which fixed the inflation target (price stability) of 4% with a +/- 2% tolerance band (in the range of 2% – 6%) for the next 5 fiscal years i.e. FY22 to FY26.

•      After framing the inflation target in 2016 the Retail inflation has fallen from26% in the pre inflation targeting phase to an average of 3.9% post its adoption (excluding the pandemic period).

 

14.NPCI SET UP A SUBSIDIARY FIRM

•      National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) formed its wholly-owned subsidiary firm called NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL) to offer recurring payment services. NPCI transferred all its Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) transaction mandates to the newly formed subsidiary.

•      It has a paid-up capital of Rs 5 lakh and a Share capital of Rs 1 crore.

 

15. RBI REPORT ON CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

•      As per the RBI’s report “Developments in India’s Balance of Payments during the Third Quarter (October-December) of 2020-21(Q3FY21)” on March 31, 2021, India has recorded a current account balance deficit of $1.7 billion with a current account at 0.2% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) in Q3FY21 due to the COVID-19’s impact on trade.

•      The current account stood at a surplus of $15.1 billion and $19 billion in the first two quarters (Q1 & Q2) of FY21.

 

16. DADASAHEB PHALKE AWARD 2019

•      Prakash Javadekar announced that Rajinikanth will be honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2019 as a recognition of his contribution to the film industry as Actor, Producer and screenwriter.

•      Rajinikanth will be the 12th South Indian to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

 

17. MALLIKA SRINIVASAN APPOINTED AS CHAIRPERSON OF PESB

•      Appointment Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) approved the appointment of Padma Shri Mallika Srinivasan, CMD of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE), India’s 2nd and World’s 3rd  largest tractor manufacturer, as the Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board(PESB), which is responsible for the appointment of top management posts in Central Public Sector Enterprises(CPSEs).

•      This is the first time where a private sector specialist was appointed as the head of PESB.

 

18. MUKHMEET S BHATIA TAKES OVER AS THE DG OF ESIC

•      Mukhmeet S Bhatia assumed the charge as the Director General(DG) of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.

•      Previously He served as the Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

 

19. URJIT PATEL APPOINTED ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR OF BRITANNIA

•      Urjit Patel, former Reserve Bank Governor has been appointed as the Britannia Industry’s Additional Director in the category of Non-Executive and Independent Director with effect from 31st March 2021 for a term of 5 years i.e up to 30th March 2026.

•      He is currently the chairman of the governing body of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

•      He is also on the Investment Advisory Committee of the Army Group Insurance.

 

20. BOOK ‘AGRICULTURE IN INDIA: CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES’

•      M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India released the book titled “Agriculture in India: Contemporary Challenges – in the Context of Doubling Farmers Income” authored by Dr. Mohan Kanda, former Chief Secretary(CS) of Andhra Pradesh(AP).

•      The book is published by BSP Books Private Limited.

 

21. WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY 2021

•      United Nations(UN)’s World Autism Awareness Day is annually observed across the globe on 2nd April to highlight the needs to improve the quality of the life of the people living with autism.

 

22.  LIGHT WEIGHT BULLET PROOF JACKET DEVELOPED BY DRDO LAB

•      Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has congratulated DRDO and DMSRDE Kanpur for developing a LightWeight Bullet Proof Jacket.

•      DMSRDE Kanpur, a DRDO laboratory has developed a LightWeight Bullet Proof Jacket weighing 9 kg meeting the qualitative requirements of Indian Army.

•      The Front Hard Armour Panel jacket was tested successfully at TBRL Chandigarh and met relevant BIS standards.