DAILY GK: 23 , 24 DEC

 DAILY GK: 23 , 24 DEC

1.             RBI EMPANELED CSB BANK AS AGENCY BANK TO UNDERTAKE GOVERNMENT BUSINESSES

·               RBI announced empanelment of CSB Bank, a private sector lender as an ‘Agency Bank’ to undertake general banking business of central and state governments.

·               An agent bank is a bank that performs services in some capacity on behalf of the government. An agent bank, also known as agency bank, can offer a wide variety of services for businesses looking to expand internationally.

 

2.             HDFC LIFE WINS THE ‘BEST GOVERNED COMPANY LISTED SEGMENT

·               HDFC Life, one of India’s leading life insurance companies has won the ‘Best Governed Company Listed Segment: Large Category’ at the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

·               The awardees were selected through a comprehensive six-step evaluation process with various compliance and governance parameters followed by the evaluation based on principles of good corporate governance.

 

3.             JGU WINS “DIGITAL INNOVATION OF THE YEAR” AT THE THE ASIA AWARDS 2021

·               O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) won the ‘Digital Innovation of the Year Award’ in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Asia Awards 2021 for creating a free, cloud-based application to help schools and universities manage data.

·               JGU was the only Indian University to be shortlisted for the “Digital Innovation of the Year”.

·               Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) bagged the prize for Asia’s ‘Leadership and Management Team of the Year’ category at THE Asia Awards 2021.

·               JGU has created a free, cloud-based application ‘Tou’ to help schools and universities manage data. It is an amalgamated version of the internal software tools that JGU uses to operate the University online.

 

4.             INDIA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS ‘PRALAY’ MISSILE

·               India successfully test fired short-range, surface to surface-guided ballistic missile ‘Pralay’ from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha

·               Pralay is the solid-fuel, battlefield missile developed by DRDO based on Prithvi Defence Vehicle from the Indian ballistic missile programme.

·               Pralay is a 350-500 km short-range, surface-to-surface missile with a payload capacity of 500-1,000 kg.

·               The missile is powered with a solid propellant rocket motor with state-of-the-art navigation system and integrated avionics which can be launched from a mobile launcher.

 

5.             PAKISTAN SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRES BABUR CRUISE MISSILE 1B

·               Pakistan successfully test-fired an enhanced range version of its indigenously-built surface-to-surface Babur cruise missile namely ‘Babur Cruise Missile 1B’ that can strike targets up to 900 kilometres from 450 km of former missile.

·               The Babur missile is capable of engaging targets at land and sea with high precision.

 

6.             NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY 2021 – DECEMBER 22

·               National Mathematics Day is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was born on 22nd December 1887 in Erode, Madras Presidency, British India (now Tamil Nadu).

·               In 2012, to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the 22nd December of every year as the National Mathematics Day.

 

7.             INDIGENOUS MULTI-TERRAIN ARTILLERY GUN 155– BR

·               The Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministry of Defence (MoD) unveiled indigenously built Multi-terrain Artillery Gun (MArG 155) – BR which is the only 155mm 39 calibre gun system mounted on 4×4 HMV (High Mobility Vehicle) in the world.

·               It was unveiled in the presence of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Manoj Mukund Naravane.

·               It is developed by Pune (Maharashtra)-based Indian MNC (Multinational Company) Bharat Forge Ltd.

·               The weight of a fully kitted gun is 18 ton.

 

8.             GLOBAL UNICORN INDEX 2021: INDIA RANKED 3RD

·               As per the Global Unicorn Index 2021 report released by the Hurun Research Institute, India ranked at third (by adding 33 ‘unicorns’) in 2021 by displacing the United Kingdom (UK) to the 4th spot.

·               US, China comprise 74% of unicorns: The United States (US) and China still continue to bag the top two ranks in the list by adding 254 and 74 unicorns, respectively.

·               India ranked third (with a total of 54 unicorns) with Edtech company Byju’s as the most valuable unicorn in India, with a total valuation of $21 billion followed by mobile ad-tech firm InMobi (US$12bn), travel-stay finder OYO Rooms (US$9.5bn).

·               Unicorns are privately held start-up companies having a valuation of more than $1 billion.

 

9.             VAYANA NETWORK & FEDERAL BANK BAGS THE ‘MOST EFFECTIVE BANK-FINTECH PARTNERSHIP’ AWARD

·               Vayana Network, one of India’s largest trade finance platforms, and Federal Bank, a leading Private Sector Bank have been awarded the ‘Most Effective Bank-Fintech Partnership: Agile and Adaptable’ at the IBSi-Global Fintech Innovation Awards 2021.

·               Federal Bank partnered with Vayana Network to provide an easy on-boarding experience to dealers through their unique ‘Full Stack’ technology infrastructure.

·               This facilitates end to end digital solutions like client supply chain account set up, monitoring, digital authentication of documents on the transaction platform and notification to customers at every step.

 

10.          EMMA RADUCANU NAMED AS BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR 2021

·               2021 US Open Women’s Singles Champion, Emma Raducanu a British professional tennis player has been voted as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2021.

·               Team of the Year 2021: England men’s football team

·               Young Sports Personality of the Year 2021: Sky Brown

·               Lifetime Achievement Award 2021: Simone Biles

·               Coach of the Year 2021: Gareth Southgate.

 

11.          INDIAN ARMY LAUNCHES IN-HOUSE MESSAGING APPLICATION ASIGMA

·               The Indian Army, launched a contemporary messaging application named ‘ASIGMA’ (Army Secure IndiGeneous Messaging Application).

·               It is a new generation web-based application developed entirely in-house by a team of officers of the Corps of Signals of the Army.

·               It works as an alternative to Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) messaging application which has been in service for the past 15 years.

 

12.          INDIA WINS BRONZE IN MEN’S HOCKEY ASIAN CHAMPIONS TROPHY 2021

·               Indian Men’s Hockey team under the Captaincy of Manpreet Singh won a bronze medal in the Men’s Asian Champions Trophy Hockey tournament 2021 in Dhaka, Bangladesh after defeating Pakistan.

·               Tournament Held at Mawlana Bhashani Hockey Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh

·               The Men’s Asian Champions Trophy Hockey Trophy 2021 was won by South Korea and silver for Japan.

 

13.          NATIONAL FARMERS’ DAY 2021 – DECEMBER 23

·               The Kisan Diwas or National Farmers’ Day is annually observed across India on 23rd December to commemorate the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the 5th Prime Minister(PM) of India (1979-1980). 

·               He is popularly known as the “champion of India’s peasants”.

 

14.          ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UTTARAKHAND HIGH COURT

·               In the exercise of the power conferred by Article 223 of the Constitution of India 1949, the President of India has appointed Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, the senior-most judge of Uttarakhand High Court (HC), has been appointed as the Acting Chief Justice(CJ) of the Uttarakhand HC