DAILY GK: 11, 12 JULY 2021

 DAILY GK: 11, 12 JULY 2021

1.ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON “ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA”

•      Nitin Gadkari virtually participated in the 16th Annual Conference on “Road Development in India”.

•      The conference was organised by India Infrastructure Publishing, a leading provider of information on the infrastructure sectors.

•      Objective – To discuss emerging trends in roadways & with special focus on import substitution, cost-effective, pollution-free alternative fuel.

•      India surpassed its targets and constructed over 13,000 km of national highways in 2020-21, averaging 37 km per day.

•      Indian Government will invest 1.4 trillion dollars (Rs 111 lakh crores) in infrastructure development through the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)

 

2.‘VIDYA BALAN FIRING RANGE’

•      Indian Army named a military firing range in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir as “Vidya Balan Firing Range”.

•      This comes as a move to honour the veteran Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, for her varied accomplishments in the field of Cinema & as a woman.

•      Notably, she was the only actor to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the governing body behind the Oscars.

 

3.MARITIME PARTNERSHIP EXERCISE WITH ITALIAN NAVY

•      Indian Naval Ship (INS) Tabar participated in a Maritime Partnership Exercise with ITS Antonio Marceglia, a frontline frigate of the Italian Navy,  in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

•      They conducted a wide range of naval operations including – Air defence procedures, replenishment at sea, communication drills and cross deck helo operations by day and night.

 

4.RBI ISSUED 10-YEAR G-SEC AT HIGHER CUT-OFF YIELD

•      Reserve Bank of India (RBI), issued the new 10-year Government Security (G-Sec) (that would mature in 2031), at a cut-off yield of 6.10 percent per annum, higher than the earlier cut-off yield of 5.85 percent.

•      RBI sold 3 auctions such as New 10-year G-Sec 2031 at 6.10 percent (for Rs 14,000 crore), 2023 G-Sec at 4.3 percent (Rs 3,000 crore), and 2061 G-Sec at 7.18 percent (for Rs 9,000 crore).

 

5.FINANCE MINISTRY SCRAPPED LIC’S CHAIRMAN POST

•      Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, removed the position of chairman from the IPO (Initial Public Offer) bound – Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and replaced it with Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), by making amendments over the LIC Act 1956.

•      The MD and CEOs will be appointed by the Central Government under section 4 of the LIC Act 1956.

 

6.LARGEST CRUDE OIL SUPPLIER TO INDIA IN 2020

•      As per the 70th edition of BP’s report named ‘Statistical Review of World Energy 2021’, the United States (US) became the 4th largest supplier of crude oil and natural gas to India in 2020.

•      Even though the US has started exporting oil to India in 2017, its supply accounted for about 5 percent of India’s total imports of 204 million tonnes in 2020.

•      TOP 4 CRUDE OIL SUPPLIER TO INDIA IN 2020:

S.No.              Country                                                                 Oil Supplied (million tonnes)

1.                     Iraq                                                                                        47

2.                     Saudi Arabia                                                                        38

3.                     United Arab Emirates (UAE)                                             22

4.                     US                                                                                           10.7

 

7.INDIA 1ST ‘DIGITAL KENDRA’

•      Amazon India launched its 1st ‘Digital Kendra’ in Krushi Bazar (APMC Market), Surat, Gujarat as part of its commitment to digitize 10 million Indian micro, small and medium enterprises by 2025.

•      In January 2020, Amazon had announced a USD 1 billion (over INR 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online and committed to export USD 10 billion worth of India-made goods by 2025.

 

8.BOOK “THE RAMAYANA OF SHRI GURU GOBIND SINGH JI”

•      PM Narendra Modi received the first copy of the book “The Ramayana of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji” authored by Late Baljit Kaur Tulsi, from KTS Tulsi, Member of Parliament(MP) (Rajya Sabha – Chhattisgarh) and son of Baljit Kaur Tulsi.

•      The book was published by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts(IGNCA).