Daily GK Updates - 31st May, 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Ravi Shankar Prasad launches program “Responsible AI for Youth”: National Program for the youth titled “Responsible AI for Youth” has been launched by the Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Communications and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad to empower the youth of India with appropriate new age tech mind-set, hence making them digitally ready for the future. The program has been rolled out by National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & IT in collaboration with Intel India, along with the support from Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Human Resource Development.

2. Carat India appoints Anita Kotwani as its Chief Executive Officer:  Anita Kotwani has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Carat India, a media agency owned by Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN). Prior to this, she was serving as the senior vice president, new business, and client lead, for The Walt Disney business at Mindshare India. Taking over as CEO of the media agency, she will work towards Carat India’s strategic progress and business growth nationally. She will also help the media agency to deliver enhanced integrated solutions to clients by focusing on developing and leading significant tools as well as capabilities within the agency.

3. Arun Singhal Appointed CEO of Food Regulator FSSAI: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of senior bureaucrat Arun Singhal as Chief Executive Officer of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). He is currently serving as the special secretary to the department of health and family welfare. He will succeed GSG Ayyangar. The FSSAI comes under the purview of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. It is responsible for setting up standards for the food industry and regulates the manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale, and import of foods.

Note: FSSAI Headquarter: New Delhi

4. PR Jaishankar Appointed as the MD of state-owned IIFCL: The appointments committee of the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of PR Jaishankar as the Managing Director of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL). He will be assuming the office for tenure of 3 years. Prior to this, Jaishankar served as the executive director of the National Housing Bank (NHB). Some other appointmnets include: Vasantharao Satya Venkata has been appointed as Deputy Managing Director (DMD) for Small Industries Development Bank of India. Harsha Bangari has been appointed as DMD of Exim Bank. Sunil Kumar Bansal has been appointed as DMD of IFCI Ltd.

Note: IIFCL is a wholly owned Government of India company that was set up in 2006 to provide long term finance to viable infrastructure projects.

IIFCL HQ: New Delhi

5. Prime Minister Modi announces “My Life My Yoga” Video Blogging contest in Man Ki Baat: Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, has called upon each and every individual at national and international level to participate in the “My Life, My Yoga”(also called “Jeevan Yoga”) Video Blogging Contest, while addressing his monthly Mann Ki Baat program on 31 May 2020. This contest is a joint effort by the Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). Through the My Life-My Yoga video blogging competition, government seek to raise awareness about Yoga and to inspire people to prepare for and become active participants in the observation of IDY 2020. Due to the contagious nature of COVID-19, no mass gathering is allowed for IDY 2020, hence, this year the Ministry is encouraging the people to practice Yoga at their homes, with participation from the entire family. To enter into the contest the participants (from any country) are required to upload a 3 minutes duration video of 3 Yogic practices (kriya, asana, pranayama, bandha or mudra), including a short video message on how the said Yogic practices influenced their life. The video may be uploaded on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the contest hashtag #MyLifeMyYogaINDIA and appropriate category hashtag. Winners will be given cash prizes.

6. NCS ties up with TCS iON for free online skill training: National Career Service (NCS) has ties up with TCS iON to provide free-of-cost online skill training to registered job seekers. The training will be available in Hindi and English on the NCS portal. This course assists the learners in enhancing personality development with modules on corporate etiquette, improving interpersonal skills. National Career Service (NCS) is a labour and employment ministry project.

7. MoPPGP launches DARPG e-booklet: Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh has launched the e-booklet on DARPG achievements on the completion of 1 year of Modi Government 2nd term through videoconferencing. DARPG has provided immense impetus to e-Governance in India by implementation of e-Office and conduct of 22nd and 23rd National e-Governance Conferences. It has made significant reforms in handling Public Grievances by pursuing CPGRAMS reforms.

8. ‘One Sun One World One Grid’: India initiates talks on West to SE Asia solar grid: India has come up with a ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ (OSOWOG) initiative to set up a framework for facilitating global cooperation in this regard aiming at building a global ecosystem of interconnected renewable energy resources that can be seamlessly shared. It may also leverage the International Solar Alliance that has 67 countries as members. “The Sun Never Sets" is its vision. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE), through this initiative, plans to build global consensus about sharing solar resources among more than 140 countries of West Asia and South East Asia.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. WHO along with 37 countries launch tool ‘C-TAP’ for common ownership of vaccines for Covid-19: The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an international project named ‘COVID-19 Technology Access Pool’ (C-TAP) on May 30, 2020. Till now 37 countries have joined this initiative of WHO, which calls for common ownership of vaccines, medicines and other diagnostic tools for COVID-19 treatment since patent right laws can act as a barrier to the sharing of crucial supplies. C-TAP aims to accelerate the development of vaccines and medicines through the sharing of research and information and to increase manufacturing capacity for any products that are developed. WHO has also issued a ‘Solidarity Call to Action’ urging other stakeholders of the UN health agency to join the cause.

2. Google launch a new app ‘Sodar’ that will help you maintain social distance: Google is trying to do its bit in helping people maintain their social distance. The tech giant has launched a new app that will help people maintain distance in real life using augmented reality. The app called ‘Sodar’, will create a visual boundary using the user’s smartphone camera and constantly show who’s breaching that distance.

Note: Google CEO: Sundar Pichai; Founded: 4 September 1998; Headquarters:  California, United States; Founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin

3. World No Tobacco Day: 31st May:  World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World No Tobacco Day every year on 31st May to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic including the preventable death and disease it causes. The World Health Organization is celebrating the World No Tobacco Day every year since 1987 on 31st May. This year, the celebration of day will aware the public on the risks of using tobacco, the business practices used by the tobacco companies to attract youth, the efforts made by WHO to fight the tobacco epidemic, and how people around the world can claim their right to health and healthy living in order to protect future generations. Theme 2020: 'Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use'.

Note: Director General of WHO: Tedros Adhanom; Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. Yes Bank acquires 24.19% stake in Dish TV via pledged shares: Private sector lender YES Bank has acquired 24.19 percent stake in Dish TV India Ltd, making it the second-largest shareholder in the direct-to-home (DTH) company. Yes Bank Ltd has acquired the stakes by invoking pledges against 44.53 equity shares kept as collateral with the private lender for a loan. This is the fifth instance in the past one year that Yes Bank has acquired majority stake in a non-banking businesses simply due to invocation of pledge against shares of a company that had availed loans from the bank and later failed to repay the dues.

2. NABARD sanctions Rs 1,050 crore credit support to West Bengal: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned credit of Rs 1,050 crore in the current fiscal so far to West Bengal for benefit of farmers and poor people in rural areas. The credit support under special liquidity facility (SLF) will be extended to state cooperative banks, regional rural banks and micro-finance institutions (MFIs). The NABARD has already disbursed an amount of Rs 720 crore to state coperative and regional rural banks.

Note: NABARD Founded: 12 July 1982; Headquarters: Mumbai; Chairman: G.R. Chintala

OBITUARIES

1. Music director-singer Wajid Khan passes away: Bollywood music composer and Singer Wajid Khan (42 years) passes away He was renowned for his partnership with his brother Sajid and the duo was known as “Sajid-Wajid” who made their Bollywood debut in 1998 with movie Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya and went on to work in various films such as Garv, Tere Naam, Tumko Na Bhool Payenge, Partner and various others. Wajid Khan also mentored the participants of singing reality shows “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012” and “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar”.