DAILY GK: 12 , 13 FEB 2021
1. ‘TROPEX 21’ UNDERWAY AT THE INDIAN OCEAN
REGION
• Indian Navy’s Largest War Game – the
Biennial ‘Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX 21)’ is
currently taking place at the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
• Operational assets of the Indian Navy as
well as Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard were participating in the
Exercise.
2. ‘SWAVALAMBAN
SASHAKT’ TO PROMOTE STAND-UP INDIA SCHEME
• SIDBI and Confederation of Women
Entrepreneurs of India (COWE) have launched “Swavalamban Sashakt- Mega
campaign” to encourage and to create awareness about the Stand Up India (SUI)
scheme of Central Government.
• Launched in 2016, The scheme is a flagship
programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to facilitate bank loans
between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 100 Lakh (1
crore) to scheduled caste (SC) or scheduled tribe (ST) borrower and woman
borrower.
3. SC STAYS DISMANTLING
OF AIRCRAFT CARRIER INS VIRAAT
• Supreme Court bench headed by CJI S A
Bobde stayed dismantling of the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS
Viraat(world’s longest-serving warship), was purchased by Shree Ram Group for a
sum of Rs. 38.54 crore at an auction conducted by the Metal Scrap Trade
Corporation Limited in July 2020 and was proposed to preserve it as a maritime
museum.
• This aircraft carrier was inducted into
the Indian Navy in 1987 and decommissioned in 2017.
4. IRDAI ANNUAL REPORT
2019-20
• In accordance with the data by Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s (IRDAI) annual report 2019-20,
the claim settlement ratio of Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) declined in
FY20 to 96.6% from 97.7% in FY19.
• On the other hand, Private Insurers has
increased their settlement ratio to 97.18% from 96.6% in this period.
• LIC was ranked 17th among the 24 life
insurers.
• Among, private sector life insurer Max
Life had the highest claim settlement ratio for the industry at 99.2% .
5. SRI LANKA SETTLES $400 MILLION CURRENCY SWAP
FACILITY WITH INDIA
• The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL)
repaid USD 400 million currency swap to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• RBI and Sri Lanka entered into this facility in July 2020 under the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) currency swap framework.
• This facility was got for an initial
period of 3 months to cope with the severe economic impact of COVID-19
pandemic.
• Further, RBI provided a three-month
rollover at CBSL’s request, until February 1, 2021.
6. GOVT TO SELL 20%
STAKE IN NFL
• The Central Government is all set to sell
20% stake in National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) out of its shareholding of 74.71%
through an Offer For Sale (OFS) method of shares, which can fetch about Rs 400
crore.
• To initiate the sale process, the
Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has invited
tenders from merchant banks.
• It should be noted that NFL is the second
largest producer of Urea in the country with a share of about 15% of total Urea
production in the country.
7. WORLD UNANI DAY 2021
• World Unani Day is annually observed
across the globe on 11th February to create and spread awareness about health
care delivery through the Unani system of medicine.
• The day marks the birth anniversary of
Hakim Ajmal Khan, a great Unani scholar and social reformer.
• The first Unani day was celebrated in 2017
at Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine (CRIUM), Hyderabad.
• The conference is held under the theme
“Unani Medicine: Opportunities and Challenges in times of COVID-19”.
8. ‘FORMATION AND
PROMOTION OF 10, 000 NEW FPOS’
• The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers
Welfare stated that the Government of India (GoI) has launched a New Central
Sector Scheme named ‘Formation and Promotion of 10, 000 new Farmer Producer
Organizations (FPOs)’.
• Under the Scheme, GoI will form and
promote 10, 000 new FPOs in India with a budget of INR 6865 Crores.
• More than 86% of Farmers in India are
Small, Marginal and Landless farmers, this scheme aims to integrate them under
FPOs.
• It will help in Doubling of Farming
Exports by 2022 and also increasing the income of farmers.
9. RBI ANNOUNCES RS
20,000CR OMO
• In order to boost liquidity in the
economy, On February 10, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) purchase Rs
20,000 crore ($2.74 billion) of government securities under Open Market
Operations (OMO).
• This purchase will also boost government’s
borrowing programme worth Rs 12.06 lakh crore which will initiate in April
2021.
• This decision has been taken due to the
increasing yields on government securities.
10. AAROGYA SETU APP
INTEGRATED WITH COWIN PORTAL
• India has integrated its COVID-19 Tracing
App ‘Aarogya Setu’ & COVID-19 Vaccine Registration platform ‘Co-WIN portal
(COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network)’.
• The integration will enable Users to
download Vaccination certificates after they have received at least one dose of
COVID-19 Vaccination.
11. BOOK “KAMALA’S WAY:
AN AMERICAN LIFE”
• Journalist and author Dan Morain has
authored his new book titled “Kamala’s way: An American Life”, a biography of
Kamala Harris, the first woman vice president of the United States of America.
• The book is published by Simon &
Schuster.
12.4 FRENCH COMPANIES
SIGNS LOIS WITH TN GOVT
• During the IFCCI Indo-French Investment
Conclave 2021, french companies namely, A.Raymond Fasterners, Cryolor, Precia
Molen and Timac Agro signed 4 Letter of Intents (LoIs) with the Tamil Nadu
government to invest Rs 200 crore in the state.
• Special Focus sectors for which LoIs–
Aerospace & Defence, Mobility, Electronics & Hardware and Ease of Doing
Business.
13. INDIA’S 1ST IMPACT-BASED
FLOOD FORECASTING SYSTEM
• The UT of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has
partnered with the United Kingdom Space Agency’s (UKSA) programme for a joint
project on ‘Impact Based Flood Forecasting using Earth Observation (EO) based
Information’ for getting India’s 1st Impact-based Flood Forecasting.
• The project comes under the National Space
Innovation Programme (NSIP).
• J&K Government will not have to bear
any expenses on the project.
