Daily GK Updates - 15th March, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.President of India presents Gallantry Awards : The President Shri Ram Nath Kovind conferred three Kirti Chakras and fifteen Shaurya Chakras to Armed Forces at the Defence Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.Two Kirti Chakras (Ysepoyvrahma Pal Singh & Rajendra Kumar Nain) and one Shaurya Chakra (Dhanawadera vindrababan) were given posthumously. The President also conferred fifteen Param VishishtSeva Medals, one Uttam Yudh Seva Medals and twenty-five AtiVishisht Seva Medals to senior officers of the Armed Forces for distinguished service of an exceptional order.

2. President of India inaugurates festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Gandhinagar : The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) in Gandhinagar. The aim of this festival of innovation and entrepreneurship is to provide a platform for new innovators for building linkages with potential stakeholders. FINE is an initiative to recognise, respect, showcase, reward innovations and foster supportive ecosystem for innovators. Mr Kovind presented the 10th Biennial National Grassroots Innovation Awards on the occasion. Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi (Uttar Pradesh) has been awarded lifetime achievement award for his innovations in new varieties of agriculture crops.

3. Areca nut gets ‘Sirsi supari’ geographical indication tag : Arecanut (supari or betel nut) is the latest entrant in the list of agricultural produce with a GI (geographical indication) tag.The Registrar of Geographical Indications (Government of India) accorded a GI tag, ‘Sirsi Supari’, to areca nut grown in Sirsi, Siddpaur of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka.The World Intellectual Property Organisation defines GI as a search sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities due to that origin.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Consumer Rights Day being observed today: The World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated globally on 15th March to promote basic rights of all consumers.

The theme for this year is ‘Trusted Smart Products’. The first World Consumer Rights Day was observed in 1983 and become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action. In India. we also observe the National Consumer Day on the 24th of December every year.

2.  15th March: The world sleep day : The world sleep day 2019 observed on 15th March to celebrate healthy sleep and draw attention towards its related issues including medicine, education and social aspects. The theme for this year is 'Healthy Sleep, Healthy Aging'. The day is observed annually on the Friday before the March Equinox on the Earth.

3. Google shuts down instant messaging app 'Allo' : Google Allo instant messaging mobile app finally shutting down. The ‘Allo app’ uses phone numbers as identifiers, and allows users to exchange messages, files, voice notes and images. Google Allo (launched in 2016) was an instant messaging mobile app by Google for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems, with a web client available on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.

4. WHO launches new global influenza strategy :  The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 to protect all people from the threat of influenza. The objective of the strategy is to prevent seasonal influenza, control the spread of influenza from animals to humans, and prepare for the next influenza pandemic.’ Vaccination is especially important for people at higher risk of serious influenza complications and for health care workers.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1.WEF recognised Naresh Lokesh as Young Global Leader for 2019 :  According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Andhra Pradesh IT minister ‘Nara Lokesh’ has been recognised as the Young Global Leader, The list has 127 of the world's most promising social activists, business leaders, public servants, artists and technologists under the age of 40. The individuals are expected to take part in the five year-programme that will help them to identify new ways to learn new ideas.

2. MoHUA partners with Microsoft for Swachh Bharat e-Learning Portal :  Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has partnered with Microsoft India to use the platform Project Sangam of Microsoft on its Swachh Bharat e-Learning Portal. Now MoHUA has trained more than 110,000 municipal functionarieson best sanitation practices across 4,000 plus cities in India. With this partnership, the MoHUA has increased the features on the Swachh Bharat e-Learning Portal.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. RBI categorises IDBI Bank as private sector lender :  As per RBI notification, IDBI Bank has been categorized as ‘a private sector lender’ following the acquisition of majority stake by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Earlier (In January 2019) , LIC completed the process of picking up a controlling 51% stake in the nearly crippled IDBI Bank. IDBI Bank has been categorized as a ‘private sector bank’ with effect from 21st January 2019. IDBI Bank has been under the prompt corrective action framework of RBI that bans it from corporate lending and branch expansions, salary hikes and other regular activities.

DEFENCE:

1. U.S. Special Forces hold an exercise with NSG in Hyderabad :  The United States Special Forces Group stationed in Japan involved in a joint exercise with India's National Security Guard (NSG) in Hyderabad. The US forces are from the 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group stationed out of Okinawa in Japan. The overall aim of the program was to enhance professionalism and the ability to operate together during times of crisis.

SPORTS:

1.  Dipa Karmakar qualifies for vault finals in Artistic Gymnastics World Cup : India's Dipa Karmakar (25-year) has made it to the Vault Finals after finishing third in the qualifying round of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup at Baku in Azerbaijan.The, who had finished fourth in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, performed a higher difficulty Hand front 540 vault for the first time in the competition. Dipa had claimed a bronze at the vault event of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany in November 2018.