DAILY GK: 8 APRIL 2021
1.
3-MEMBER PANEL REPORT ON AGRICULTURAL REFORM LAWS
• The
3-member committee appointed by the Supreme Court for Studying 3 Agricultural
reform laws passed by Parliament has submitted its report to the Supreme Court.
• Members
of the Committee – P K Joshi, Former
Director of South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI);
Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkari Sanghatana & Ashok Gulati,
Agri-Economist and former Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and
Prices (CACP).
3-Farm laws
• The
Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act
• The
Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act
• The
Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm
Services Act
2.BLOCKCHAIN-POWERED
TRACEABILITY INTERFACE
• Spices
Board India under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry & UNDP (United
Nations Development Programme) India’s Accelerator Lab signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) for developing a blockchain-based traceability interface
for Indian Spices to enhance transparency in supply chain and trade.
• UNDP
and Spices Board India are working towards integrating the Blockchain
Traceability Interface with the e-Spice Bazaar portal developed by Spices Board
India for connecting spices farmers with markets.
3.MEETING
OF EDUCATION MINISTERS OF E9 COUNTRIES
• Minister
of State (MoS) for Education, Sanjay Dhotre attended the consulting meeting of
Education Ministers of E9 Countries.
• Theme
– ‘E9 Initiative: Scaling up digital learning to accelerate progress towards
SDG4 (Sustainable Development Goal-4)’.
• E9
Countries: It was launched in 1993 at the EFA Summit in New Delhi, India.
• It
was set up to achieve the goals of UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) initiative.
• The
9 Countries are – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico,
Nigeria & Pakistan.
4.CLIMATE
& DEVELOPMENT MINISTERIAL MEET IN RUN UP TO COP26
• Prakash
Javadekar, Union Minister, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change(MoEF&CC) participated in the virtual climate and development
ministerial meet hosted by the United Kingdom (UK) in a run-up to the 26th
United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties(COP26) 2021.
• The
event was hosted by COP26 presidentAlok Sharma and UK foreign secretary Dominic
Raab, with a focus on how to set international agenda in the run-up to COP26.
• The
COP26 UN climate change conference is set to take place in Scottish Event
Campus, Glasgow, the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy.
5.BASE
RATE OF NBFC-MFIS BORROWINGS
• RBI
has informed 7.81% as the applicable average base rate to be charged for the
loans that are borrowed from Non-Banking Financial Company – Micro Finance
Institutions (NBFC-MFIs) for the first quarter of Financial Year 2022 (Q1FY22).
• The
base rate for the Q1FY22 was lower than that of Q4FY21 by 15 basis points (0.
15%).
• In
Q1FY21 the base rate was about 8.76%.
6.IMF
HAS PROJECTED INDIA’S GDP GROWTH
• International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in its biannual World Economic Outlook report has hiked its
growth projection of India for FY22 by 1% to 12.5% from 11.5% of its January
2021 estimation, due to the normalization of economic activity.
• For
FY21, it estimated an 8%(-8%) contraction of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP)
and for FY23 the growth forecast was revised to 6.9% from 6.8%.
• The
report projected the global economy to grow at 6% in 2021 and 4.4% in 2022 as
against a contraction of 3.3% (-3.3%)in 2020.
7.
FORBES’ 35TH ANNUAL WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES LIST
• Jeff
Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com Inc topped the Forbes’ 35th Annual world’s
Billionaires list with a net worth of 177 billion USD followed by Elon Musk CEO
of SpaceX and Tesla with a net worth of 151 billion USD and French Billionaire
Bernard Arnault chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE with a net
worth of 150 Billion USD with 2nd and 3rd rank.
• Ranked
10, MukeshAmbani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd became Asia’s richest
person, replacing Jack Ma.
• With
140 billionaires, India has the 3rd highest number of billionaires on the list.
8.48TH
CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT
• The
President of India Appointed Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, Judge of the
Supreme Court, as the 48th Chief Justice of India.
• The
notification regarding the appointment was issued by the Department of Justice,
Ministry of Law and Justice.
• He
will take over as the Chief Justice of India on 24th April 2021 for a 16-month
tenure till 26th August 2022.
• The
Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President of India under clause (2)
of Article 124 of the Constitution.
9.
NEW CMD OF SIDBI
• S
Ramann, the Chief Executive officer(CEO) of National e-Governance Services Ltd
(NeSL), has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD)of Small
Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
• He
will hold the post of CMD of SIDBI for a period of 3 years from the date of his
assuming charge or until further orders.
10.
BYJU’S THE EDU-TECH COMPANY ACQUIRED AESL
• Byju’s,
India’s biggest online education startup has announced its acquisition of
Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), a provider of test preparation
services for $1 billion (about Rs 7,300 crore).
• This
deal is the biggest acquisition by Byju’s until now.
• Byju’s
aims to increase its presence in the test prep space as its competitors/rival
Unacademy made close to six acquisitions in the test prep space and Amazon
India made an entry with Amazon Academy in 2020.
11.
INDIA ADOPTED ADVANCED DISEASE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
• Union
Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan virtually launched
the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), an integrated Digital
Platform for Disease Surveillance in India.
• It
is an advanced version of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP),
which is being used currently.
• With
the launch, India became the 1st Country in the World to adopt an Advanced
Digital Disease Surveillance System.
• IHIP
is capable of tracking 33 diseases (previously it was 18).
12.
SUPACE – AI DRIVEN RESEARCH PORTAL OF S.C.I.
• CJI
SA Bobde launched “Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency
(SUPACE)” an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven tool, which is 1st of its kind
in the World that collects relevant facts and laws related to the case, thereby
easing the research process for Judges.
• Efficient
use of AI for collecting information related to the case, to reduce the
workload of Judges.
13.
‘SUPER TORPEDO’ THAT CAN CAUSE ‘RADIOACTIVE TSUNAMIS’
• Russia
is Testing a new ‘Super Torpedo’ namely Poseidon 2M39 Torpedo in the Arctic
region.
• The
Super Torpedo is capable of producing Radioactive Tsunamis.
• The
Unmanned Stealth Torpedo is powered by a nuclear reactor and has a range of 10,
000 km.
• The
Torpedo can reach a speed of 100 Knots (around 115 miles per hour) with a 100
MW Nuclear Reactor.
• Russia
is also testing a Hyper-sonic missile called ‘Tsirkon’, which is capable of
flying at speeds of up to Mach 6-7.
14.
BOOK “EXAM WARRIORS” (REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION)
• The new revised and updated version of book
titled “ Exam Warriors” written by Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi was
released with many new mantras & range of engaging activities for students
as well as parents and also reaffirms the need to remain stress free before an
exam.
15.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE 2021
• The
United Nations(UN)’s International Day of Sport for Development and
Peace(IDSDP) is annually observed across the globe on 6th April to recognise
the role of sports in communities and in individuals towards building resilience.
• The
theme of 2021 IDSDP is focused on – recovery from the pandemic
16.
WORLD HEALTH DAY 2021 – APRIL 7
• The
day is celebrated under the sponsorship of the WHO and other related
organizations.
• The
theme of World Health Day 2021 is “Building a Fairer, Healthier World”.
17.
WORLD BACKUP DAY 2021
• World
Backup Day is annually observed on 31st March to remind us to protect our
digital documents.
• The
Day was originally started as the World Backup Month instituted by Maxtor, a
hard drive company which was later acquired by Seagate Technology.
18.
RBI TWIN THE DEPOSIT LIMIT OF PAYMENTS BANKS
• “With
a view to furthering financial inclusion and to expand the ability of payments
banks to cater to the growing needs of their customers, the current limit on
maximum end of day balance of 1 lakh per individual customer is being increased
to Rs.2 lakh,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reported.
• Also
RBI has decided to enhance the aggregate limit of ways and means advance (WMA)
limitfor all States and Union Territories to Rs.47,010 crore, which is an
increase of 46 per cent from the current limit of 32,225 crore.
19. AJAI SETH BECAME NEW ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
SECRETARY
• The
government appointed Ajai Seth as new Economic Affairs Secretary.
• He
will replace Tarun Bajaj who will be new Revenue Secretary.
• Senior
bureaucrat Tarun Bajaj was appointed revenue secretary as part of a top-level
bureaucratic reshuffle by the Centre.
• Bajaj,
a 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Haryana cadre,
is currently secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).
