DAILY GK 1, 2 MAY

 DAILY GK 1, 2 MAY 

1.       INDIA’S BIGGEST DRONE FESTIVAL BHARAT DRONE MAHOTSAV 2022

·         Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s biggest Drone Festival, Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022, at PragatiMaidan in New Delhi, Delhi.

·         ePlane Company, an aviation and aerospace component manufacturing company, displayed a static prototype of the ‘e200’ – India’s first flying taxi.

 

2.       GST REGISTRATIONS BY BUSINESSES & DEALERS

·         According to the official data from the government of India(GoI) on the aggregate Goods and Services Tax (GST) registrations in the 2017-2022 period, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh(UP) have topped in the GST registration by businesses and dealers followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. 

·         Maharashtra has 1.48 million normal GST payers while UP has 1.33 million GST payers. 

·         UP has the largest share of small businesses with over 357000 composition dealers

 

3.       JUSTICE PK MOHANTY IS LOKPAL CHAIRPERSON

·         Ram NathKovind, President of India, has given justice Pradip Kumar (PK) Mohanty the additional charge of Lokpal chairperson after Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose completed his term as Chairperson of Lokpal

·         The Lokpal is headed by a chairperson and can have 8 members. At present, there are 6 members in the Lokpal. 

·         The chairperson of Lokpal and members are appointed for a term of 5 years or until attaining the age of 70 years.

·         The members and Chief of Lokpal are appointed by the President of India following the recommendations of the selection committee headed by the Prime Minister and consists of the Speaker of the LokSabha; Leader of Opposition; Chief Justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court nominated by him and a jurist recommended by the chairperson and members of the selection panel.

 

4.       PANKAJ SHARMA APPOINTED AS PART-TIME MEMBER OF PFRDA

·         The government of India(GoI) has appointed Pankaj Sharma, the joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services (DFS) as a part-time member of the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA).

·         PFRDA consist of a Chairman, 3 whole-time members and 3 part-time members. 

·         At present only 2 part-time members posts are filled up, Anne George Matthew, Additional Secretary in Finance Ministry is the other part-time member. 

 

5.       PARAM ANANTA SUPERCOMPUTER COMMISSIONED AT IITGN,GUJARAT

·         PARAM ANANTA, a state-of-the art Supercomputer has been commissioned at Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN),Gujarat under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

·         It is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).

·         National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) was established in 2015 by the Government of India. India is developing supercomputers at low cost with its PARAM series.

·         The Mission is being jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

·         Under NSM, till date 15 supercomputers have been installed across the nation with aggregate compute capacity of 24 petaflops.

 

6.       2022 NORWAY CHESS BLITZ TOURNAMENT

·         The Filipino-American chess Grandmaster (GM) Wesley Barbossa won the 10th edition of the 2022 Norway Chess Blitz tournament held in Finansparken, Stavanger, Norway. 

·         The Indian GM ViswanathanAnand defeated Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen and secured fourth position.

 

7.       WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2022 – MAY 31

·         World No Tobacco Day(WNTD) is annually observed across the globe on 31st May to create awareness about the harmful effects of using tobacco and inform the public about the dangers of tobacco use and the business practices of tobacco companies. 

·         The observance of World No Tobacco Day is led by the World Health Organisation(WHO). 

·         The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2022 is “Tobacco: Threat to our environment”.

·         In 1987, the member states of WHO created the observance of World No Tobacco Day to highlight the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. 

 

8.       MAHARASHTRA BECAME TOP IN SUGAR PRODUCTION IN INDIA

·         Maharashtra became the India’s top sugar producer after a five-year gap, followed by Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the lead.

·         Till date, Maharashtra has crushed 1194.75 lt of cane and produced 124.75 lt of sugar.

·         The new move in Uttar Pradesh Policy to utilise the sugarcane for ethanol production to augment bio-fuels is also a main reason for the elevation of Maharashtra as top sugar producer.

 

9.       WORLD’S 1ST NANO UREA PLANT BY IFFCO AT KALOL, GUJARAT

·         The Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi inaugurated the world’s first nano urea liquid plant by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) at Kalol, Gujarat. 

·         With this inauguration, India has become the first country globally to start commercial production of Nano Urea.

·         In 2021, IFFCO introduced the world’s first IFFCO nano urea (liquid) and was included in Fertiliser Control Order (FCO, 1985).

·         IFFCOnano urea (liquid) was indigenously developed through the proprietary technology at IFFCO’s Nano Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) in Kalol.

·         India is the second largest consumer of urea across the world, it remains the third largest producer of urea.

10.    GLOBAL AIR POWERS RANKING (2022)

·         According to the Global Air Powers Ranking (2022), the current ranking of various armed air services across the globe, released by the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA), the Indian Air Force (IAF) has secured the 6th Global Rank. 

·         IAF has emerged as the 3rd strongest Air Force, only after the United States Air Force(USAF) and Russian Air Force. 

 

11.    CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC BECOMES 2ND COUNTRY TO ADOPT BITCOIN AS LEGAL TENDER

·         Central African Republic(CAR) becomes the 2nd country in the world, after El Salvador, to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

·         CAR also became the first African country to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency.

·         The CAF, governed by the Bank of Central African States(BEAC) is the official currency of 6 countries including the Central African Republic. 

 

12.    75TH CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

·         The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival was held at Cannes, France. Its official poster was designed as homage to American Film, The Truman Show (1998).

·         An Indian Filmaker from Delhi, ShaunakSen’s ‘All That Breathes’ won the prestigious – 2022 L’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) for the best documentary at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

·         A Swedish comedy movie ‘Triangle of Sadness’ directed by Ruben Östlund won the Palme d’Or award 2022. The movie also won Prix C.S.T. de l’Artiste-Technicien, 2022 award

·         An American Actor/Script Writer Tom Cruise, and Actor Forest Whitaker conferred with Honorary Palme d’Or Award 2022.

·         India has been named the first ‘Country of Honour’ at Marche du Film or Cannes Market which was also organized alongside Cannes Festival.

 

13.    SACHIN TENDULKAR TO CONTINUE AS UNICEF’S GOODWILL AMBASSADOR FOR A RECORD 20TH YEAR

·         Indian former Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is set to continue as Goodwill Ambassador of United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) working towards the welfare of underprivileged children, for a record 20th year.

·         In 2003, UNICEF selected him to lead the initiative to create awareness and promote polio prevention in India. 

·         In 2008, he was roped in to promote hygiene and sanitation among communities

·         In 2013 he was appointed as UNICEF Ambassador for South Asia to advocate good hygiene and sanitation across the region.

 

14.    WORLD’S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER

·         According to the 59th edition of Top500 list of world’s most powerful supercomputers unveiled by the Germany, ORNL’s Supercomputer Frontier from US, outperformed Japan’s Supercomputer Fugaku to become the world’s fastest supercomputer.

·         The supercomputer – Frontier, which was built for the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has broken the exascale speed barrier with a Linmark benchmark score of 1.1 exaflops, making it the world’s first supercomputer to do so. Whereas, 1 exaflop is equivalent to 1,000 petaflops 

·         Fugaku, the second-most powerful supercomputer in the world, now boasts 7,630,848 cores.

·         In its previous listing as of November 2021, India’s highest ranking in the supercomputer list came in at 102, with the Param Siddhi-AI. 

 

15.    INDIAN NAVY COMMISSIONED ALH MK III SQUADRON INAS 325

·         Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 325, operating the indigenously built Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) MK-III aircraft, was commissioned into the Indian Navy

·         The ‘Eagle Owl’ is the name of the Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 325.

·         Helicopter has been developed and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL), Bangalore,Karnataka.

·         ALH is also known as the Dhruv helicopter or HAL Dhruv.

·         The helicopter has surveillance radar, EO/FLIR, homer, high-intensity searchlight and a removable Medical Intensive Care Unit for the Air Ambulance role.

·         They are primarily meant for use in long-range SAR and Maritime Security.

 

16.    FIH WORLD RANKING 2022

·         International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) World Rankings 2022 has ranked the Indian Women’s Hockey team, captained by SavitaPunia, at the 6th position, for the first time

·         The women’s ranking is topped by the Netherlands followed by Argentina

·         Indian Men’s Hockey Team has slipped to the 4th rank in the FIH World Rankings 2022.

·         In Men’s Hockey Australia tops the list followed by Belgium

·         FIH Headquarters– Lausanne, Switzerland

 

17.    2022 ICF PARACANOE WORLD CUP

·         Indian Para Canoeist Prachi Yadav has won the bronze medal in the women’s VL2 200m event at the 2022 ICF Paracanoe World Cup, held in Poznan, Poland. 

·         She has become the first-ever Indian to win a medal in the International Canoe Federation(ICF) World Cup. 

·         PrachiYadav won the bronze with a timing of 1:04.71 seconds where Susan Seipel of Australia won the gold

 

18.    WORLD MILK DAY 2022 – JUNE 1

·         World Milk Day is annually observed across the globe on 1st June to recognize milk as global food and to celebrate the dairy industry.

·         The annual observance of World Milk Day is led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO). 

·         The theme of World Milk Day 2022 highlights the work being done to accelerate climate action and help reduce the impact of the dairy industry on the planet. 

·         FAO Director-General- Qu Dongyu,Headquarters– Rome, Italy