DAILY GK 15-17 AUG 2024
1. NIRF RANKINGS 2024
·
Union Minister Dharmendra
Pradhan, Ministry of Education(MoE) has released the 9th
edition of India Rankings (2024) based on the
parameters identified and defined in the National Institutional Ranking
Framework (NIRF).
·
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras,bagged
the top spot as the best educational
institution in the country overall
and Engineering’ categories category
for the 6th consecutive time.
·
It is followed by Indian
Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, Karnataka at the 2nd spot
and IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra at the 3rd spot
respectively overall category.
·
IIT
Madras also retained its second rank in the ‘Research Institutions’ and ‘Innovations’ categories.
·
Indian
Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru: Secured the top
position in the ‘Universities’ and
‘Research Institutions’ categories
·
IM
Ahmedabad: Secured the top position in the ‘Management’ category
·
AIIMS,
New Delhi: Secured the top position the ‘Medical’ category for seven consecutive years
·
Jamia
Hamdard: Secured the top position in the ‘Pharmacy’ category
·
IIT
Roorkee Secured the top position in ‘Architecture and Planning’.
·
DU's Hindu College claimed the top position among colleges for
the first time, surpassing Miranda House, which had been the top college for
seven consecutive years.
·
Anna University and Indira Gandhi National Open University
(IGNOU) topped the new State Public Universities and Open Universities
categories, respectively.
·
Symbiosis Skill and Professional University (SSPU), Pune
topped the Skill Universities category.
·
The NIRF is a ranking system introduced by the Ministry of
Education, Government of India, in 2015.
·
It aims to provide a fair and transparent assessment of higher
education institutions across India based on various parameters.
2. OVERVIEW OF THE PARIS 2024 SUMMER OLYMPICS
·
The 2024
Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII(33rd)
Olympiad, is taking place in Paris, France from 26th July
to 11th August 2024.
·
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics,
branded as “Paris 2024”, was held on the Seine
River in Paris, France, on 26th July 2024.
·
Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot
Singh won the bronze in the Mixed 10-metre Air Pistol
team event by defeating Republic of Korea’s Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho.
·
The Paris
Olympics 2024 marks the 33rd edition of the Summer Olympic Games and the third
time Paris will host, previously hosted in 1900 and 1924.
·
This year's theme,
"Let’s Move and Celebrate," emphasizes the joy of movement,
commemorating a century since the last Paris Olympics.
·
The Phryges: Official mascots
symbolizing the spirit and history of the Games.
·
Indian Athletes:
A total of 117 athletes represented
India.
·
Indian athletes competed
in 69 medal events across 16 sports
·
Manu Bhaker: First Indian
woman to win an Olympic shooting medal and the first Indian to win two medals in a single Olympic edition.
·
Neeraj Chopra:
Became India's most successful
individual Olympian with his silver medal.
·
Aman Sehrawat:
India's youngest Olympic medallist
with his wrestling bronze.
·
Opening Ceremony:
Badminton star PV Sindhu and table tennis player Sharath Kamal led the Indian
contingent.
·
Closing Ceremony:
Shooter Manu Bhaker and hockey player PR Sreejesh represented India.
·
Torchbearer: Abhinav Bindra,
the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.
·
Chef-De-Mission:
Gagan Narang for the Paris Olympics 2024.
·
India's Total Olympic Medals so far:
41
·
Norman Pritchard:
First medals for India in Paris 1900.
·
KD Jadhav: First individual
medal for independent India in Helsinki 1952.
·
Karnam Malleswari:
First woman to win an Olympic medal at Sydney 2000.
·
Abhinav Bindra:
First individual gold medal at Beijing 2008.
·
Neeraj Chopra:
First gold in athletics at Tokyo 2020.
3.
INDIA TO HOST ISSF WORLD
CUP FINAL
·
India will host
the ISSF World Cup Final (WCF) at the Karni Singh Ranges in
October 2024, bringing together the world's top shooters.
·
The WCF is the
season-ending event where elite shooters
in pistol, rifle, and shotgun disciplines compete to determine the year's
best in their respective events.
·
Medal winners from the 12
individual shooting events at the Paris Olympics automatically qualify for the WCF, as do titleholders from last year's event in Doha, Qatar.
·
Additionally, the top-six
shooters from the ISSF World Cup rankings will qualify, with a maximum of two
shooters per country eligible for each event.
·
In 2023, Bhopal hosted its first ISSF World Cup.
4. MDL TO BUILD
6 SUBMARINES IN COLLABORATION WITH GERMANY
·
The
Indian Navy (IN) has authorized Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) to
construct six advanced submarines in partnership
with Germany‘s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS)
under the ‘Project 75 India (P75I)’ initiative.
·
The project, valued at
approximately Rs 60,000 crore, is pivotal in strengthening India’s naval capabilities in the
Indian Ocean
·
MDL is a Public Sector
Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
·
It was incorporated as a Private Limited Company in 1934 and it was takenover by
the Government of India in 1960.
·
Headquarters– Mumbai
5. DRDO SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRES INDIGENOUS MP-ATGM
·
The Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO), the Research and Development (R&D) wing of
the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and the Indian Army
successfully conducted the test-firing of the indigenously developed
Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MP-ATGM).
·
The test was conducted at
Pokhran Field Firing Range (PFFR) in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
·
The DRDO has also
successfully conducted the maiden
flight test of the Long Range Glide Bomb (LRGB) named ‘GAURAV’, from an Indian Air Force (IAF) platform Su-30 MK-I off the coast of Odisha.
·
GAURAV has been designed
and developed indigenously by the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) in Hyderabad,
Telangana.
·
DRDO was formed in 1958.
·
Chairman– Dr Samir V Kamat
·
Headquarters– New Delhi
6. EXERCISE UDARA SHAKTI 2024
·
The Indian Air Force (IAF)
contingent participated in the Exercise Udara Shakti
2024 (EX US24), bilateral air exercise with the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) at RMAF Base
Station in Kuantan, Malaysia .
·
The exercise was based on two different concepts such as:
Field Training Exercise (FTX) and Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE).
·
Chief of Air Staff (CoAS)- Vivek Ram Chaudhari
·
Malaysia Prime Minister (PM) – Anwar Ibrahim
·
Capital- Kuala Lumpur
·
Currency- Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
7. EXERCISE MITRA
SHAKTI
·
Exercise Mitra Shakti 2024,
the 10th edition of the joint military exercise
between the Army of India and Sri Lanka commenced
at Army Training School, Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka.
·
The annual Mitra Shakti exercise was started in 2012 and is held alternately in
India and Sri Lanka.
·
The exercise consists of four
phases
8. INDIA TO LAUNCH NEPAL’S
MUNAL SATELLITE
·
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and
New Space India Limited (NSIL), commercial arm of
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) to grant assistance for the
launch of Nepal-built Munal satellite.
·
Munal is an indigenous
satellite developed in Nepal under the
aegis of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).
·
The aim of the satellite is to build a vegetation density database of the Earth’s
surface.
·
It is expected to be launched soon on NSIL’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
·
Antarikchya Pratishan
Nepal (APN) is a Nepali space startup which has assisted Nepali students
in the design and fabrication of this satellite.
·
NSIL is a wholly owned Government of India company, under the
administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).
·
Headquarters – Bengaluru, Karnataka
9. ISRO SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED SSLV-D3-EOS-08 MISSION
·
Indian Space Research and
Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its 3rd and
final developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch
Vehicle (SSLV-D3) from the Satish Dhawan Space
Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh (AP).
·
It carried two satellites
namely- Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-08) developed by U R
Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and the
passenger satellite, SR-0 DEMOSAT, 1st satellite from
Chennai (Tamil Nadu (TN))-based startup, Space Rickshaw and successfully
placed them into a 450 kilometer (km) circular orbit around the earth.
10. WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS 2024
BY SKYTRAX
·
Skytrax’s World
Airline Awards 2024 has honoured Indian
airline Vistara (Tata SIA Airlines Limited) as
the Best Airline in India / South Asia 2024.
·
It receives the honour for the fourth
consecutive time since 2021.
·
Vistara
is ranked 16th in the World’s Best Airline ranking
and 8th in Asia’s Best Airlines ranking.
·
Qatar Airways has been voted
the World’s Best Airline for the 8th time.
·
Singapore Airlines is ranked 2nd
followed by the Emirates at 3rd position.
·
Skytrax is a London, the United Kingdom–based consultancy
that runs airline and airport review website.
11.
ARSHAD NADEEM TO RECEIVE
HILAL-E-IMTIAZ
·
The Javelin
Throw gold medallist in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024,
Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, is set to be honoured with
Hilal-e-Imtiaz by the country's government.
·
Hilal-e-Imtiaz is
the second-highest civilian award given by the
Government of Pakistan and Nadeem will get this award
following his brilliant performance in the final of the competition
·
Pakistan's Arshad
Nadeem won the gold medal in the Javelin Throw at
the Paris 2024 Olympics, setting a new Olympic record with a throw
of 92.97 meters.
·
Grenada's Anderson Peters secured
the bronze medal with a throw of 88.54 meters.
·
India's Neeraj Chopra,
finished with a silver medal after achieving a best throw of 89.45
meters.
12. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 2024 – AUGUST
9
·
The United Nations (UN) International
Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (IDWIP) is annually
observed across the globe on 9 August to promote and
protect the rights, cultures, and identities of the world’s Indigenous
population.
·
The
2024 theme of IDWIP is, “Protecting the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact.”
·
The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) has announced the winners of the 15th Equator Prize, recognising 11
Indigenous Peoples and local communities from 8
countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
·
UNDP Administrator–
Achim Steiner
·
Headquarters– New York
·
Established – 1965
13. WORLD BIO-FUEL DAY 2024 –
AUGUST 10
·
World Biofuel Day is
annually observed across the globe on 10 August to
raise awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels (Green Fuels),
·
The Day also honours Rudolf
Christian Karl Diesel, a French-German engineer, who invented
the diesel engine, also known as the Compression Ignition (CI) engine in the 19th century.
14. INTERNATIONAL YOUTH
DAY 2024 – AUGUST 12
·
The United Nations (UN)’s International
Youth Day is annually observed across the globe on 12
August to honor young people and their contributions to society.
·
The theme of
International Youth Day 2024 is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth
Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development”.
·
The idea for International
Youth Day
was proposed in 1991 by youth, who gathered for the 1st session of the UN
System’s World Youth Forum in Vienna, Austria.
15. WORLD ELEPHANT DAY 2024
– AUGUST 12
·
World Elephant Day is
an annual international campaign observed across the globe on 12
August to raise awareness about the preservation and protection
of Elephants(Elephantidae), the ‘Gentle
Giants‘ worldwide.
·
The
theme for World Elephant Day 2024 is “Personifying
Prehistoric Beauty, Theological Relevance, and Environmental Importance”.
16. WORLD ORGAN DONATION
DAY 2024 – AUGUST 13
·
World Organ Donation Day is
annually observed across the globe on 13 August to
raise awareness about the importance of organ donation, encourage people to
become organ donors, and promote organ donation to save lives.
·
The theme/slogan for
World Organ Donation Day 2024 is, “Be the
Reason for Someone’s Smile Today!”
·
The world’s 1st successful living donor kidney transplant was performed
in 1954 by American
surgeon Dr. Joseph E. Murray in the United States of America
(USA).
·
The transplant took place
between identical twins, Ronald and Richard
Lee Herrick, with Ronald donating a kidney to Richard, who had chronic
kidney failure.
·
Joseph E. Murray was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1990 with American physician E. Donnall Thomas “for their
discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human
disease.”
17. BOOK
‘BHARAT KE 75 MAHAN KRANTIKARI’
·
Harivansh Narayan Singh, the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha
(Bihar) has released the book titled ‘Bharat ke 75 mahan krantikari’ (75 Great
Revolutionaries of India) in New Delhi,
·
The book was written
by Bhim Singh, Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha (Bihar).
18. K NATWAR SINGH PASSED
AWAY
·
Padma Bhushan Awardee Kunwar Natwar
Singh, a Diplomat and Former
External Affairs Minister, passed away at the age of 93
·
In 1984, the
Government of India (GoI) honoured him with Padma Bhushan (Civil
Service).
·
He served as the External Affairs Minister(EAM) from 2004 to 2005 under the leadership of
then PM Manmohan Singh.
·
HIS books includes, ‘The Legacy of Nehru: A Memorial
Tribute’ and ‘My China Diary
1956-88’ and his autobiography titled ‘One Life is Not Enough’ (2014).
19. RAM NARAIN AGARWAL, ‘FATHER OF AGNI MISSILE’, PASSED
AWAY
·
Renowned Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) missile Scientist, Dr
Ram Narain Agarwal, widely known as the “Father of Agni Missiles,” passed
away at the age of 84 in Hyderabad, Telangana.
·
He was honoured with
the Padma Shri in 1990 and Padma Bhushan in 2000 for
his contribution to Science and Engineering.
·
In 1995 he was appointed as the first Programme Director of
Agni missiles which commenced in 1983 and was also known as ‘Agni Man’.
