DAILY GK: 30, 31 MAY 2021
1.
MONETARY ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS UNDER MDM SCHEME
• As a
special welfare measure, Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
approved the proposal to provide monetary assistance to 11.8 Crore
students through Direct Benefit Transfer
(DBT) of the cooking cost component of the Mid-Day-Meal Scheme (MDM).
• INR 1200
Crore has been allocated to State Governments/UT for this purpose.
• Beneficiaries
– Class 1-8 students who are studying in 11.20 Lakh Government and Government
aided schools across India will be benefitted.
• Each
Child will get approximately INR 100 under the One-time welfare measure.
2.
SEPARATE SECTION ON HATE SPEECH IN IPC
• The
5-member Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws headed by Vice Chancellor of
National Law University (NLU), Delhi (Currently – Srikrishna Deva Rao).
• The
Committee is appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to reform Indian
Penal Code (IPC) is set to propose a separate Section in IPC on ‘Offences
relating to speech and expression’.
• Purpose
– At present there is no definition of what is ‘Hate Speech’ in IPC, The
Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws is attempting for the 1st time to define
it.
• Several
‘hate speech’ cases are pending in courts across India, as there is no clear
definition of it in the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
3.
NATO CONDUCTS WAR GAMES ‘STEADFAST DEFENDER 21’
• North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is conducting War Games ‘Steadfast Defender
21’ from May-June 2021.
• Majority
of the exercise will take place in Germany, Portugal and Romania.
• Objective
– to improve the ability of the Allied forces to move quickly across the
Atlantic and Europe to protect each other, if need arises.
4.
INDIA’S FIRST CRYPTO BASED LENDING PLATFORM
• ZebPay
launched India’s 1st lending platform under the cryptocurrency exchange for the
investors to invest their coins and earn returns (interest).
• Currently
the exchange will support the bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), tether (USDT) and dai
(DAI) tokens.
• Under
the ZebPay Lending Platform, the investors could deposit their Bitcoins/other
coins and earn returns like the bank’s fixed deposits(FD).
5.
UCO BANK ALLOTED PREFERENTIAL SHARES TO GOVT
• UCO Bank
allotted 203,76,17,554 preferential shares (PS) (equity shares of Rs 10 each)
to the Government of India at an issue price of Rs 12.76 per share against a
capital contribution of Rs 2,600 crore received by the Bank on March 31, 2021.
• The
bank’s board has approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 3,000 crore equity
capital in 2021-22.
6.
2021 RUDOLF V SCHINDLER AWARD
• The
American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has honoured Dr Duvvur(D)
Nageshwar Reddy with the renowned Rudolf V Schindler Award 2021.
• He is
the first Indian medical practitioner to win this award.
• He won
the award for his work in the field of endoscopy.
• The
award was presented at the ASGE’s 2021 Annual Crystal Awards virtual ceremony.
7.
INDIA’S 1ST PRIVATELY BUILT HALL-EFFECT THRUSTER
• Bellatrix
Aerospace, a Bengaluru based Space Transportation company has successfully
tested India’s 1st Hall-effect Thruster, a highly efficient electric propulsion
system for microsatellites.
• The
tests were conducted at the Spacecraft Propulsion Research Laboratory (Asia’s
largest privately funded lab) set up by Bellatrix at Society for Innovation and
Development-Indian Institute of Science (SID-IISc), Bengaluru, Karnataka.
8.
8 FEATURES ON MOON WITH CHINESE NAMES
• International
Astronomical Union (IAU)’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
(WGPSN) gave approval for naming 8 features in the Moon with Chinese names
around the location where China’s Chang’e-5 Spacecraft landed in December 2020.
• Chang’e-5
brought back fresh Lunar samples to Earth, which was previously bought 40-years
back by the USA’s 1969 Apollo 11 Mission.
9.
BOOK-“SAVARKAR: A CONTESTED LEGACY (1924-1966)”
• Bangalore
based Historian VikramSampath has authored a new book titled “Savarkar: A
Contested Legacy (1924- 1966)”, the 2nd & concluding volume of the life and
works of VinayakDamodarSavarkar(Veera Savarkar).
• The
release of the book was announced on the occasion of the 138th birth
anniversary of Veer Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue.
10.
BOOK- ‘STARGAZING: THE PLAYERS IN MY LIFE’
• Cricket
legend, commentator and one of Team India’s most successful coaches, Ravi
Shastri has penned a book titled ‘Stargazing: The Players in My Life’.
• It will
be published by Harper Collins India.
• The Book
is about some 60 extraordinary talents that Ravi Shastri has met from across
the world who have inspired him.
11.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF UN PEACEKEEPERS 2021
• The
United Nations (UN)’s International Day of UN Peacekeepers is annually observed
across the globe on 29th May.
• The
theme of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers 2021 is “The road to a
lasting peace: Leveraging the power of youth for peace and security.”
12.
INTERNATIONAL EVEREST DAY 2021
• International
Everest Day is annually observed across the globe on 29th May to mark the first
summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay
Sherpa of Nepal on 29th May 1953.
• Sir
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first people to scale the
world’s highest mountain.
