DAILY GK: 29 APRIL 2021
1. BILATERAL EXERCISE ‘VARUNA-2021’
·
The 19th Edition of the Indian and French Navy Bilateral
Exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ took place in the Arabian Sea.
·
The Indian side was led
by Rear Admiral Ajay Kochhar, while the French side was
led by Rear Admiral Marc Aussedat, Commander Task
Force 473.
2. ‘SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE INITIATIVE’
·
During a trilateral Ministerial Meeting, the Trade Ministers
of India, Japan & Australia virtually launched the ‘Supply Chain
Resilience Initiative (SCRI)’.
·
Objective –
SCRI aims to build a resilient supply chain with focus on free, transparent
trade & investment environment in the Indo-Pacific region.
·
It will reduce
the dependency of the 3 countries on China and counter its
dominance on Trade.
3. A&N ISLANDS TO GET ORGANIC CERTIFICATION
·
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW)
has certified around 14, 491 Hectares of land in Car Nicobar and nancowry group
of Islands in UT of A&N as ‘Organic Area’ under the ‘Large Area
Certification (LAC)’ scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee
System) certification programme.
·
It became the 1st
large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic
certification.LAC is a certification programme under the Department of
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare’s (DAC&FW) flagship scheme ‘Paramparagat
Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)’.
4. GOOGLE’S RS 135 CRORE FUND TO TACKLE THE COVID-19
·
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, announced
that Google will provide Rs 135 crore as an aid to
India to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in India.
·
Google’s fund will help India to procure medical supplies
including oxygen and testing equipment.
·
Mastercard, the US-based multinational financial service
company, has announced a 10 Million USD fund to support India’s combat against
COVID-19 crisis.
5. CHANDLER GOOD GOVERNMENT INDEX 2021
·
India with an index score of 0.516 has been ranked 49th in ‘Chandler
Good Government Index (CGGI) 2021’ – 1st Edition
produced by Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG).
·
The Index was topped by Finland, Switzerland &
Singapore.
·
The Index is made up of
34 Indicators which are organized into 7 pillars.
6. US PUTS INDIA IN CURRENCY MANIPULATOR WATCHLIST
·
The US Department of Treasury has put India in its monitoring
list of countries for Currency Manipulation.
·
It has been included in the watchlist for two major reasons
·
High dollar purchases
done by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (close to 5% of GDP), these purchases
breached the 2% threshold.
·
India’s trade surplus
with the US has increased by around USD 5 Billion to USD 23 Billion in the FY
2020-21 (from USD 18 Billion in FY 2019-20).
7. GOVT INFUSED RS 200 CRORE INTO
IFCI
·
In order to improve the financial health of the Industrial
Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), in April 2021, the
Government has infused Rs 200 crore capital in IFCI
through issue of equity shares.
·
After the capital infusion, the government’s holding in IFCI
was increased from 61.02 per cent to 63.8 per cent.
8. ADB PROVIDED $1.5 BILLION TO
INDIA
·
The latest Annual Report of Asian Development
Bank(ADB) released on 27th April 2021 showed that
ADB had provided $1.5 billion(~Rs 1.11 lakh crore) to India in
supporting the response to tackle covid-19.
About the funding:
·
The $1.5 billion
financing to India is a part of the ADB’s $16.1 billion pandemic response in
2020 through a $20 billion assistance package announced
by ADB in April 2020 to help its 26 member countries in managing the pandemic.
·
In 2020,ADB has
committed to provide $31.6 billion to help Asia and the
Pacific .
9. ADB PROJECTED 11% GDP GROWTH
FOR INDIA IN FY22
·
Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2021 was released by Asian
Development Bank (ADB) on April 26, 2021, in which it
forecasted the Indian economy to grow at 11 per cent in
FY22 and it also predicted a GDP expansion in FY22 at 7 per cent.
·
It also pointed out the risk in economic recovery due to an
increase in COVID-19 cases.
10. IND-RA ON COST OF VACCINATING
INDIA POPULATION
·
The India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) recently said the
estimated cost to vaccinate all the Indians of age 18 years will be Rs
67,193 crores.
·
This is 0.36% of the GDP of the
country.
·
The Union Government
will incur Rs 20,870 crores of the cost (12% of GDP)and the
state government shall incur Rs 46,323 crores(0.24% of GDP).
11. ‘WILD INNOVATOR AWARD’
·
WILD ELEMENTS Foundation has awarded Dr Krithi K Karanth,
Chief Conservation Scientist at Bengaluru-based Centre for Wildlife Studies
(CWS), the ‘WILD Innovator Award’ for 2021, she became the first Indian and
Asian woman to receive such an award.
12. CUBA’S NEW CHIEF OF COMMUNIST
PARTY
·
Miguel DÃaz-Canel, The President of Cuba has been
named as the first secretary of the Central
committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
·
He succeeded Raúl Castro as the
first non Castro First Secretary of the communist party since the cuban
revolution in 1959.
13. ADITYA L1 INDIA’S FIRST SOLAR SPACE MISSION
·
The Aditya-L1 Support Cell (AL1SC), the
Community service centre, was established at the Aryabhatta Research Institute
of Observational Sciences (ARIES) transit campus in
Haldwani, Uttarakhand,as a part of the efforts of Indian Researchers
to create a skilled community of solar scientists to make use of the data from
the Aditya L1, the first Solar Mission of India.
14. WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK 2021
·
The United Nations(UN)’s World
Day for Safety and Health at Work is annually observed across the
globe on 28th April to highlight the prevention of accidents and diseases at
work and to raise awareness about occupational safety and health.
