DAILY GK 19-20 APRIL
1. INDIA ACQUIRES WEAPONS WORTH USD 300 MILLION FROM US
·
India is set to clear the proposal to
acquire armaments worth over USD 300 million from the United States of
America(USA) to arm the Indian Navy’s MH 60 “Romeo” chopper, the
multi-role helicopters which will enhance its capabilities to counter enemy
warships and submarines.
·
Under this, the fleet of 24 choppers
will get additional Hellfire missiles and Mk 54 lightweight torpedoes.
·
The Hellfire missiles
are a potent anti-shipping weapon and can be used to take down the
targets like tanks, and command posts.
·
Mk 54 lightweight torpedoes are a
very effective anti-submarine weapon. They are also
equipped onboard the P8I maritime aircraft.
2.
INDIAN
NAVY CONDUCTS OFFSHORE SECURITY EXERCISE ‘PRASTHAN‘
·
Indian Navy conducted the offshore
security exercise Prasthan, a bi-annual co-ordinated exercise along with
other defence, state and civilian agencies on the GreatdrillChaaya
platform about 30 nautical miles(nm) South West of Mumbai harbour,
Maharashtra.
·
The exercise is held every six
months, to verify the policies and methods for handling
potential emergencies on oil production platforms.
3.
‘SANGATHAN
SE SAMRIDDHI’ CAMPAIGN TO BRING MARGINALISED RURAL WOMEN INTO SHGS
·
“Sangathan Se Samriddhi” campaign will
empower marginalised rural households by bringing all eligible rural women into
Self Help Groups (SHGs).
·
The government is targeting to bring 10
crore women under the purview of SHGs from the existing 9 crores. The number of
members has now crossed 9 crores from just over 2.3 crores in 2014.
4. 1ST
EDITION OF DOGRI VERSION OF CONSTITUTION OF INDIA RELEASED
·
Union Minister KirenRijiju, Ministry of
Law and Justice (MoL&J), released the 1st edition of the Dogri version of
the Constitution of India at the University of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir
(J&K).
·
Dogri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken
in the Jammu region of J&K and is one of the 22 official languages
recognized by the Indian Constitution.
5.
EXERCISE
ORION: MULTILATERAL MILITARY EXERCISE
·
Exercise Orion, a Multilateral Military
Exercise, was initiated at Mont-de-Marsan, an Air Force base of the French
Air and Space Force (FASF) in France.
·
Indian Air Force (IAF)
contingent will take part in the exercise
·
Along with IAF and FASF, Air Forces from
Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain and the
United States of America (USA) also participates in the exercise.
6.
INDIA DIGITAL PAYMENTS ANNUAL
REPORT 2022
·
According to the report by Worldline
India titled ‘India Digital Payments Annual Report 2022‘ Unified
Payments Interface (UPI) continued to be the most preferred medium for
digital payments in 2022 in India with a 70% increase in the number of
transactions to over 74.05 billion and a 54% increase in the value of
transactions to Rs 126 trillion.
·
A total of 8,792 crore digital
payments were undertaken in 2022 worth Rs 149.5 lakh crore.
·
Bengaluru (Karnataka) recorded 29
million transactions valued at Rs 6,500 crore, the highest
number of digital transactions across 12 cities in India in 2022.
7.
INDIA
GIVES USD 500,000 TO UN WOMEN FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
·
India has made a contribution of USD
500,000 (Rs 4.09 crore) to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and
the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, for women empowerment.
·
The cheque for the same was handed over
by Ruchira Kamboj, the Permanent Representative of India to the UN, supporting
UN Women’s core voluntary budget.
·
UN WomenHeadquarters– New York, United
States
8.
NATIONAL
PANCHAYAT AWARDS 2023
·
The President of India, DroupadiMurmu
conferred the National Panchayat Awards 2023 and inaugurated the ‘National
Conference on Incentivisation of Panchayats’ in New Delhi, Delhi.
·
The National Panchayat Awards under
different categories are conferred annually by the MoPR since 2011 to
acknowledge and incentivize the best-performing Panchayats (local
self-government bodies) across the country.
·
All the Panchayats will be ranked based
on their performance under 9 Localization of Sustainable Development Goals
(LSDGs) themes aggregating 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
·
GS NIRNAY App: Union Minister Giriraj
Singh launched a mobile application GS NIRNAY (National Initiative for Rural
India to Navigate, InnovAte and Resolve PanchaYat decisions), for
empowering rural communities during the National Conference.
9.
PRAVASI
BHARATIYA SAMMAN
·
An Indian-American Rajesh Subramaniam,
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FedEx Corporation, the
world’s largest express transportation company, has been awarded the PravasiBharatiyaSamman
Award 2023, by Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India’s Ambassador to the US, for his
contribution to Business.
·
The award was conferred by
DroupadiMurmu, President of India, on 10 January 2023, as a part of the
celebration of PravasiBharatiya Divas (PBD) 2023 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
·
27 Indians living abroad received the
PravasiBharatiyaSamman Award in 2023.
·
The PravasiBharatiyaSamman Award is the
highest honour conferred on a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) to recognise their
achievements and honour their contributions to various fields, both in India
and abroad.
10. ‘YUVA PORTAL’ LAUNCHED TO IDENTIFY
POTENTIAL YOUNG START-UPS
·
“YUVA Portal” and One Week- One
Programmelaunched at National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in New Delhi, Delhi, to
help in connecting and identifying potential young Start-Ups.
·
YUVA- Young, Upcoming and Versatile
Authors.
·
DrJitendra Singh highlighted the 37
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Labs spread across India
as examples of India’s excellence in technology, innovation, and start-ups.
·
The One Week – One Lab programme
will offer the opportunity for the CSIR labs to showcase the
work being done by them so that others can avail of it.
11.
WORLD’S
WEALTHIEST CITIES REPORT 2023
·
The investment migration firm Henley
& Partners released its annual ‘World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023‘
which is again topped by New York, United States of America (USA) with
340,000 millionaires, 724 centi-millionaires, and 58 billionaires in 2022.
·
New York followed by Tokyo (Japan),
California’s Bay Area (USA), London (United Kingdom) and Singapore.
·
The list also featured Mumbai
(Maharashtra) at 21st rank with 59,400 millionaires, 238 Centi-millionaires,
and 29 Billionaires.
12.
UNFPA’S
SOWP 2023: INDIA’S POPULATION PEGGED AT 142.8 CRORE
·
According to the State of World
Population (SOWP) 2023 titled “8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: the
case for Rights and Choices” published by theUnited Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), India overtakes China to become the most populous nation in the
world
·
The population of India has grown
by 1.56% in the past year and it is estimated to be
142.86 crore.
·
The population of China is estimated
to be 142.57 crore.
·
UNFPAHeadquarters– New York
13.
HURUN’S
GLOBAL UNICORN INDEX 2023
·
According to the Global Unicorn Index
2023 published by Hurun Research Institute, India is ranked 3rd on the index
with 68 unicorns (up 14 compared to 2022).
·
Online educator BYJU’S worth USD 22
billion topped the list of Indian Unicorns, followed by on-demand delivery
start-up Swiggy and fantasy sports platform travel-stay finder Dream11
(USD 8 billion each).
·
The United States of America(USA)
topped the index with 666 unicorns, up 179 compared to 2022, followed by
China in 2nd spot with 316 unicorns (up 15).
