Daily GK Updates - 21st March, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  Kerala all set to get tribal instructors for increasing literacy rate: In a first, Kerala government will rope in qualified tribal instructors to impart literacy in their respective settlements in a bid to improve literacy rates among tribal populations. The instructors will teach people who are above 15 years of age, Director of Kerala literacy mission PS Sreekala said. Around 370 instructors for 100 villages have been appointed for the initiative. 
Need to know:  Kerala has the second highest literacy rate(93.91 Percent) among the states of India just after Tripura (94.65%) Himachal Pradesh underwent a "Schooling Revolution" in the 1961–2001. Kerala has led the nation in literacy rates since the 19th century and seen sustained initiatives for over 150 years, whereas Himachal Pradesh's literacy rates in 1961 were below the national average in every age group. Have a look to the India’s literacy rate. compared to the world.

 

Country	Literacy rate
	Adult	youth
China	96.40%	99.70%
Sri Lanka	92.60%	98.80%
Myanmar	93.10%	96.30%
World Average	86.30%	91.30%
India	72.10%	90.20%

2.Agreement for Skill Development Programme for 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendra: The ministries of agriculture and skill development signed an agreement to conduct training programmes for agriculture and allied sectors at 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The aim is to intensify the pace of skill development in 690 Krishi Vikas Kendras country-wide by training agricultural workforce.

Need to know:  Agriculture Minister - Radha Mohan Singh

3.   106th Indian Science Congress (ISC) to be held in Bhopal: General President-elect Manoj Kumar Chakrabarti announced that the 106th edition of the Indian Science Congress will be held in January 2019 at Barkatullah University Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The theme for 2019 ISC will be “Future India: Science & Technology”.
Need to know: 105th Indian Science Congress was held at Imphal.

4. Shri Atul M. Gotsurve appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea:  Shri Atul M. Gotsurve (IFS: 2004), currently Director in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. Moon Jae-in is the president of South Korea.

5.   The Union Home Ministry has given its approval to rename Robertsganj railway station in UP as Sonbhadra: This is the second railway station in the state to be renamed within a year, with the first one being the Mughalsarai railway station that was renamed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay station in August 2017. Station falls under the North-Central zone of the Indian Railways’ Allahabad division.

6.  “Delhi’s Date with Democracy” - Delhi launched app to find singing talent:   The Delhi government launched a mobile app called “Delhi’s Date with Democracy”. It’s aim is to allow applicants from all parts of the city to showcase their talent. “There is no age limit and interested candidates can start sending their entries in both categories- singing and dancing, from tomorrow onwards,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

7.  The world’s longest sandstone cave called ‘Krem Puri’, which is 24,583 metres long has been discovered in Meghalaya:  This underground cave is more than 6,000 metres longer than the world record-holder, the ‘Cueva Del Saman’ in Edo Zulia, Venezuela — a quartzite sandstone cave measuring 18,200 metres. The cave system has fossils of dinosaurs, that lived 66-76 million years ago.

8.   President Ram Nath Kovind gave away prestigious Padma awards to 89 winners at Rashtrapati Bhawan:  Ilaiyaraja got Padma Vibhushan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is among the nine Padma Bhushan recipients. Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan are the second and third highest civilian awards of the country respectively.

9. The Government of India has approved the setting up of a ‘Plastic Park’ in Deoghar District in Jharkhand:  A range of polymer products including woven sacks, moulded furniture, water tanks, bottles, pipes mosquito nets, etc would be manufactured in this plastic park. A plastic recycling unit will also be set up at Deoghar to tackle the menace of plastic waste.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  G20 ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires: The 1st G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors began on 19th March in Buenos Aires, with the presence of 57 delegations from countries and institutions. The topics under discussion are likely to be infrastructure and the future of work in the digital arena. This is the first of five such meetings to be held before Argentina hosts the G20 Summit.
Need to know: Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking nation.

2.   World Sparrow Day - 20th March: World Sparrow Day was observed on 20th March to create awareness about the protection of sparrows. The theme for this year’s day was ” I Love Sparrows”. The first World Sparrow Day was observed in 2010 across the globe. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France).

3.  Austria’s capital Vienna once again defended its position as the city offering the best quality of life in the world in an annual survey from consulting firm Mercer:  Vienna is followed by Switzerland’s Zurich and then New Zealand’s Auckland and Germany’s Munich in joint third. The criteria to rank the cities were political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.

OTHER UPDATES:

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: 
1. Low-cost material developed to reduce air pollution: Scientists have developed a new low-cost and sustainable material that may displace activated carbon as the preferred choice for reducing water and air pollution. The material is synthesized inexpensively from solid wastes and a naturally abundant polymer. Activated carbon is the common adsorbent used to reduce both atmospheric and water pollution but is expensive to produce and regenerate.

AWARDS/ HONOURS:  
1. India’s National Cultural Audio Visual Archives (NCAA) has been certified as the world’s 1st trusted digital repository by the UK-based organisation: NCAA is the project of Ministry of Culture and is implemented by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. The objective of the NCAA is to identify and preserve the cultural heritage of India available in audiovisual form by digitization. 

2. Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands  wins Abel Prize: Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands won the prestigious Abel Prize for developing a programme connecting representation theory to number theory. The prize was established by the Norwegian government in 2002 to honour outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics. Along with the Fields Medal, it is one of the world’s most prestigious maths prizes.