DAILY GK 30, 31 MARCH 2022

 DAILY GK  30, 31 MARCH 2022

1.       UNESCO INCLUDES MEGHALAYA’S NATURAL ROOT BRIDGES ON TENTATIVE LIST OF WORLD HERITAGE SITES

·         The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) includes Meghalaya’s “Living Root Bridges or JingkiengJri” on a tentative list of World heritage sites.

·         Villagers, (especially Khasi and Jaintia tribal communities) build and maintain these bridges from the past for more than 600 years.

·         Villagers of Meghalaya grow these living root bridges to cross the water bodies, they do it by training the Indian rubber fig tree (ficuselastica) on both sides of water bodies over a period of about 10 to 15 years where the roots form the bridge.

·         The Geoglyphs of Konkan region of Maharashra, Sri Veerabhadra Temple and Monolithic Bull (Nandi) at Lepakshi of AndhraP radesh have made it to the Tentative list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 2022.

·         UNESCO Director General –  Audrey Azoulay,Headquarters – Paris, France

 

2.       WINGS INDIA 2022 EVENT ON CIVIL AVIATION HELD IN HYDERABAD, TELANGANA 

·         The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) jointly organized Wings India 2022 on the theme ‘India@75: New Horizon for Aviation Industry’ at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, India.

·         The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport), has won two major awards for its customer-centric approach, smart innovations, and adoption of cutting-edge technology.

 

3.       INDIA LAUNCHES SUJLAM 2.0 CAMPAIGN FOR GREYWATER MANAGEMENT

·         On the Occasion World Water Day 2022, The Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat launches Sujalam 2.0 campaign for greywater management in a virtual summit hosted by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) in New Delhi.

·         The objective of the campaign is to manage greywater through people’s participation by mobilising communities, institutions like panchayats, schools, anganwadi to undertake greywater management.

·         Greywater refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater from toilets. Sources of greywater include sinks, showers, baths, washing machines or dishwashers.

·         The United Nations World Water Day is annually observed across the world by 22nd March with Theme of World Water Day 2022 is – ‘Groundwater: making the invisible visible’.

 

4.       GOI SETS AN TARGET OF CREATING 220 NEW AIRPORTS BY 2025

·         Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, announced that the Government of India (GoI) planned to develop as many as 220 new airports by 2025,

·         AAI plans to create three new greenfield airports in the country: Hollongi, Hirasar, and Dholera, as well as 42 brownfield airports.

·         At Mopa, Navi Mumbai, Jewar, and Bhogapuram, four private-sector airports will be created.

·         Seven new airports being built on brownfield in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Guwahati, and Ahmedabad.

·         Greenfield airports are those that are specifically built on an undeveloped location, whereas brownfield airports are those that have an existing structure or are being remodelled for a new airport.

 

5.       BBC HONOURED INDIAN WEIGHTLIFTER MIRABAICHANU WITH BBC ISWOTY 2021 AWARD

·         Indian Weightlifter, Padma Shri Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who became the first Indian weightlifter to win a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, has won the 3rd edition of the (British Broadcasting Corporation) BBC Indian Sportswoman Of The Year(ISWOTY) 2021. 

·         BBC Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 -Karnam Malleswari

·         BBC Emerging Indian Sportswoman of the Year 2021: Shafali Verma

 

6.       DUFF & PHELPS REPORT: CRICKETER VIRAT KOHLI RANKED THE MOST VALUED CELEBRITY 2021

·         According to the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2021 titled “Digital Acceleration 2.0.” released by Duff & Phelps (Now Kroll), Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli was ranked as the most valued celebrity for the 5th consecutive time in 2022

·         Top 3 Persons: 1 Virat Kohli ,2 Ranveer Singh 3. Akshay Kumar

·         Alia Bhatt has ranked 4th and has become the most valued female celebrity.

 

7.       PETASCALE SUPERCOMPUTER PARAM SHAKTI

·         Petascale computing refers to computing systems capable of calculating at least 10^15 floating-point operations per second (1 petaFLOPS). 

·         The supercomputer PARAM Shakti is based on a heterogeneous and hybrid configuration of Intel Xeon Skylake processors and NVIDIA Tesla V100.

·         Previously in March 2022, CDAC has designed and installed a ‘Made in India’ Petascale supercomputer named “PARAM Ganga” at IIT Roorkee under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

 

8.       WORLD PARA ATHLETICS GRAND PRIX 2022 IN DUBAI  

·         The 13th Fazza International Para Athletics Championships of World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2022 held at Dubai in which India secured 8th position with 14 medals.

·         India secured 5 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.

·         Position 1 by Colombia 25 medals (12 gold)

 

9.       WORLD PIANO DAY 2022 – MARCH 29 

·         World Piano Day is annually observed across the globe on the 88th day of the year (mostly falls on 29th or 28th March), which is the same as the number of keys on the piano, with an aim to celebrate the Piano, an acoustic, keyboard, stringed percussion instrument.

10.    INDIA TB REPORT 2022; DELHI TOPS IN TB PREVALENCE

·         According to the India TB Report 2022 – Coming Together to End TB Altogether, India has recorded a 19% increase in Tuberculosis(TB) cases in 2021 over 2020

·         As per ‘National TB Prevalence Survey in India 2019-2021’ Report, Delhi has topped the TB Prevalence in India (among the population aged above 15 years and among all age groups) with 534 cases per 1 lakh population and 747 per 1 Lakh population (highest in India) respectively.  

 

11. JAL SHAKTI ABHIYAN: CATCH THE RAIN CAMPAIGN 2022

·         Ram NathKovind, President of India, launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain (JSA: CTR) campaign – 2022

·         For the year 2022, The Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain Campaign 2022 will focus on springshed development, catchment area augmentation, and gender mainstreaming. 

·         On the occasion of World Water Day 2021(March 22), Prime Minister(PM) of India, Narendra Modi, launched the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ (JSA: CTR) campaign, which was taken up in all districts in rural and urban areas of India during the pre-monsoon and monsoon period (i.e., from March 2021 up to 30th November 2021).

·         The theme of JSA: CTR was “Catch the rain, Where it Falls When it Falls” 

·         3rd National Water Awards 2020:In January 2022, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh ShekhawatAnnounced the winners of the 3rd NWA 2020. 

·         Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been awarded first prize in the Best State category, followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu (TN).

 

12.    SPICEJET, BOEING, CSIR-IIP PARTNERS FOR ECO-FRIENDLY AVIATION FUEL

·         SpiceJet, Boeing and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) are working together to explore opportunities for the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in the Indian aviation industry

·         SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 65% over the life-cycle of fuel with the potential to reach 100% in the future.

·         In 2021, Boeing had committed to delivering commercial aeroplanes, capable and certified to fly on 100% SAF by 2030.

 

13.    HDFC ERGO LAUNCHES VAULT, AN INDUSTRY’S FIRST DIGITALLY-ENABLED REWARDS BASED PROGRAM

·         HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company launched its  VAULT program. It is India’s first industry based  digital customer engagement and rewards program.

·         This program is an experiment to test a new idea under the Regulatory Sandbox of IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India )

·         VAULT program: is a customer engagement-based membership program.Under the program,eligible customers will be incentivized by way of reward points on meeting the specified criteria or actions

·         Maximum customer enrolments under this program will be 10,000. This reward program will cover Optima Restore health insurance customers.

 

14. GOOGLE PAY & PINE LABS COLLABORATES TO LAUNCH TAP TO PAY FOR UPI

·         Google Pay, payment platform of Google, has partnered with Pine Labs to launch Tap to Pay for UPI (Unified Payments Interface) – a functionality that aims to bring the seamless convenience of Tap to Pay to UPI.

·         With this new feature, users can just tap their phones on the Point of Sales (POS) terminal and authenticate transactions on their phones using their UPI PIN. 

·         Reliance Retail was the first to test this new feature, and it is now available at other significant retailers such as Future Retail and Starbucks.

 

15. 9TH CENTRAL BANKING AWARDS 2022 

·         Mario Marcel Cullell (Mario Marcel), the Governor of  Banco Central de Chile(BCCh – Central Bank of Chile) has won the Governor of the year Award 2022 at the 9th edition of the Central Banking Awards 2022.

·         The annual Central Banking Awards 2022 is made up of 17 central bank categories and 14 partner and service provider categories.

 

16.    NATO EXTENDS JENS STOLTENBERG’S TERM AS SECRETARY-GENERAL UNTIL 2023

·         The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) extended the term of its  Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg by one year until 30 September, 2023.

·         After the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium the United States of America (USA) President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders decided to extend the tenure of Jens Stoltenberg.

·         Jens Stoltenberg, a former Prime Minister of Norway, took the office of Secretary General in October 2014.

·         NATO: It  is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty ,also called the Washington Treaty in 1949, by the US, Canada, and other Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

·         In 2020, North Macedonia joined NATO.

·         India is not a member of NATO.

·         Members- 30 states (as of 2022) ,Headquarters– Brussels, Belgium.

 

17.    VISHWAS PATEL RE-ELECTED AS THE CHAIRMAN OF PAYMENTS COUNCIL OF INDIA

·         Vishwas Patel has been re-elected as the Chairman of Payments Council of India (PCI) for the second time in 2022

·         PCI is a payments ecosystem industry body, and is a part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). PCI aims to promote cashless transaction society and visions to grow digital payment in India.

 

18. ASSAM CM HIMANTABISWASARMA RE-ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF BAI 

·         Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister(CM) of Assam was re-elected as the President of the Badminton Association of India(BAI) for a period of 4 years from 2022 to 2026 during the General Body Meeting held Guwahati, Assam.

·         Former junior national coach Sanjay Mishra was elected as the new general secretary

 

19.    INDIA WINS 3RD EDITION OF THE SAFF U-18 WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2022 IN JHARKHAND

·         Indian Women wins 3rd edition of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under – 18 (U-18) Championship 2022 by defeating Bangladesh women’s football U-18 team, which took place in JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. 

·         India lost to Bangladesh in the final match for (0-1).

·         Because India and Bangladesh topped the table with 9 points respectively, the Winner was decided by the superior goal difference in which India scored +11 goals and Bangladesh scored +3 goals.

·         SAFF U-18 Championship 2022 is a three-nation tournament consists of India, Bangladesh and Nepal.