DAILY GK: 08 , 09 AUGUST 2021

 DAILY GK: 08 , 09 AUGUST 2021

1.FINDING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO COMBAT COVID-19

•      The 2nd Edition of the ‘COVID-19 Innovation report 2021’ released by Startup Blink in association with Health Innovation Exchange & UNAIDS (United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) has ranked India 32nd (score 0.396) in the global coronavirus innovation rankings for countries.

•      The US has topped the rankings, followed by Israel & Canada.

•      In the Cities Rankings, San Francisco Bay (US), New York (US) & Moscow (Russia) were ranked as the Top 3 cities.

•      India has 2 cities – Bengaluru, Karnataka (49th Rank), New Delhi (55th) in the top 100 rankings.

 

2.ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM FOREIGN MINISTERS MEETING 2021

•      Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh led the Indian Delegation at the 28th Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers Meeting 2021.

•      The meeting was held virtually under the Chairmanship of Brunei Darussalam.

•      During the meeting, S. Jaishankar proposed to commemorate 2022 as the ASEAN-India friendship year on occasion of the 30th Anniversary (India joined ASEAN in 1992).

 

3.AGENCY BANK TO RBI

•      The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has empanelled the Karnataka Bank as the ‘Agency Bank’ to facilitate transactions related to government (govt) businesses.

•      RBI has allowed Karnataka Bank to handle transactions related to revenue receipts under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) on behalf of the state/central govt.

 

4.NASSCOM’S AI GAMECHANGER AWARD 2021

•      The Information Technology, Electronics and Communication(ITE&C) Department of the Government of Telangana has won the AI Game Changer Award 2021 for the implementation of the ‘Crowd Monitoring using AI’ scheme.

•      The winners of the awards were announced at the Xperience AI Summit 2021 organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies(NASSCOM).

 

5.CHAIRPERSON OF NCW

•      The government of India has nominated Rekha Sharma as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women(NCW) for another term of 3 years with effect from 7th August 2021 or till the age of 65 or until further orders.

•      She has been serving as the chairperson of NCW since 7th August 2018.

 

6.NISAR PROPOSED TO BE LAUNCHED EARLY 2023

•      Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh stated about the proposed launch of ‘NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar’ (NISAR) in early 2023.

•      NISAR is a joint Earth-observation satellite mission between ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and US space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for global observations over all land masses including the Polar cryosphere and the Indian Ocean region.

 

7.7TH NATIONAL HANDLOOM DAY

•      The National Handloom Day(NHD) is annually observed across India on 7th August to create awareness about the handloom works in India and to recognise its contribution to the socio-economic development of India.

•      The annual celebration of the national Handloom day is organised by the Ministry of