Daily GK Update - 18th March, 2021

 NATIONAL UPDATES:

 1. Govt announces new scheme for tourist vehicle operators: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has announced a new scheme for tourist vehicle operators, under which any tourist vehicle operator may apply for an “All India tourist authorization and permit” through online mode. The new set of rules will be known as “All India Tourist Vehicles Authorization and Permit Rules, 2021”. This will come into effect from April 01, 2021.

About the rules: The new rules for permits are aimed at promoting tourism across the states in our country, while simultaneously, helping to grow the revenue of state Governments. The permits will be issued, after relevant documents are submitted and fees deposited, within 30 days of submission of such applications. The authorization/permit will be granted, for a period of three months or its multiples thereof, not exceeding three years at a time.

Note: Minister of Road Transport and Highways: Nitin Gadkari.

 2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Advisor P K Sinha resigns: Former Cabinet Secretary and Principal Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) P.K. Sinha has relinquished his high-profile position on personal grounds. He was appointed in the PMO first as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) briefly and then as Principal Advisor, a specially created position for him, in September 2019 after the 2019 parliamentary polls. Besides him, two senior officials are serving as Advisors in the PMO: Bhaskar Khulbe and Amarjit Sinha, both 1983 batch retired IAS officials. Mr. Sinha is a retired 1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and served in various capacities during the UPA and the NDA regimes. His is the second high profile exit from the PMO after PM’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra had resigned after the last Lok Sabha polls. Earlier, he was Secretary, Ministry of Power in the government of India and served as Cabinet Secretary for four years from 2015.

 3. Odisha Farmer’s Solar Car Gets Thumbs-Up Online: An Odisha farmer gained attention of people on social media by generating electric four-wheeler that runs on a solar powered battery. Sushil Aggarwal from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district had built a four-wheeler powered by an 850 Watts motor and 100 Ah/54 Volts of battery. After fully charged the vehicle can travel up to 300 km. He told that he had built this car inside a workshop at his home during the COVID-19 lockdown. He told that the solar-powered battery took around 8 and a half hours to be fully charged. He further stated that “It is a slow charging battery. Such batteries have a long life, it will last 10 years.”

What are solar cars: They are powered by electricity through the use of solar energy. Sun’s energy is directly converted into electrical energy by the Photovoltaic (PV) cells.

Benefits are: (1) Fossil fuel will be used in less; (2) Solar energy is free; (3) It does not cause pollution; (4) It will never run out, etc.

Some limitations are: (1) You will get solar power during the day and less on cloudy days; (2) It has been seen that solar equipments are expensive; (3) To store solar energy, expensive batteries are needed for cars to be able to run in night, etc.

 4. Hurun India Wealth Report 2020 announced: The Hurun India Wealth Report, 2020 was released on March 16, 2020. The report identifies a novel household category in India called the ‘New Middle Class’ which accounts for an average savings of Rs 20-lakh per annum. The report highlights that these households have a major allocation towards physical assets like primary residential property and automobiles. As per the report, the total number of such cumulative households in India stands at 633,000.

About the report: The report further states that there are around 4,12,000 dollar-millionaire households or affluent households across India which are having a net worth of Rs 7 crore. As per the report, the Hurun Rich Listers comprise a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore. This category of the report comprises 3000 number of cumulative households in India. The ‘Indian middle class’ has earnings of over Rs 2.5-lakh per annum while they have a net worth of less than Rs 7 crore. The ‘Indian Middle Class’ category accounts for 56400,000 families in India.

 5. Ordnance Factories’ Day: 18th March: In India, the Ordnance Factories’ Day is observed on 18th of March every year. The day commemorates the foundation of the first Ordnance Factory in colonial India at Cossipore near Kolkata where production started on March 18, 1802. The Indian Ordnance Factories operate under the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The day is celebrated by displaying the rifles, guns, artillery, ammunition etc in exhibitions all over India. Currently, the Ordnance Factories organisation comprises 41 factories grouped into five operational divisions of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

 INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 1. WHO declares El Salvador malaria-free: El Salvador is the first country in Central America to be certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization. WHO grants a certification of malaria elimination when a country proves “beyond a reasonable doubt” that there has been no indigenous transmission of the disease nationwide for the previous three consecutive years. El Salvador hasn’t had a malaria outbreak since 1996 and has reported no indigenous cases since 2017. In 1990, the country had 9,000 cases per year, a figure that declined to 26 by 2010. WHO credited El Salvador’s sustained domestic funding for malaria prevention, detection, and treatment for the success.

Note: El Salvador President: Nayib Bukele; El Salvador Capital: San Salvador; Currency: El Salvador colon.

 2. India-Finland Virtual Summit 2021: The India-Finland Virtual Summit was held on March 16, 2021, with the participation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland Ms Sanna Marin. The virtual summit was organised to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral issues as well as other regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

About the Summit:

(1) The two leaders reviewed the ongoing bilateral engagements and committed to further expand and diversify the relationship across sectors such as trade and investment, innovation, education, emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G, and quantum computing.

(2) The two leaders also discussed the Covid-19 situation including their respective vaccination drives and emphasized the importance of global efforts for urgent and affordable access to vaccines across all nations.

(3) The leaders exchanged views on regional and global issues, including the India-EU partnership, cooperation in the Arctic region, WTO and UN reforms. Both sides noted the potential for India and Finland to cooperate in undertaking developmental activities in Africa.

Note: Finland: Capital: Helsinki; Currency: Euro.

 3. Global Recycling Day 2021: 18th March: Global Recycling Day is observed every year on March 18 to create awareness among the masses about the rapid pace at which our natural resources are being used. The day also promotes the concept and practice of recycling. Every year, events are organised by environmentalist and activists to promote the cause. In 2021, the theme of Global Recycling Day is “Recycling Heroes”. Its main aim is to recognise the people, places and activities that showcase the importance of recycling in preserving natural resources. Recycling has helped in reducing carbon emissions by over 700 million tonnes every year. Notably, over 1.6 million people are employed around the world in the recycling industry. In this decade, the yearly contribution of recycling will increase up to $400 billion.

 OTHER UPDATES:

 SPORTS

 1. Virat Kohli becomes first player to score 3000 runs in men’s T20I: Indian captain Virat Kohli has breached the 3000-run mark in Twenty20 Internationals with his last shot in the second T20I against England. Kohli’s knock of 73 runs, which came off 49 balls, also helped India to level the five-match T20I series. He also became the third captain in international cricket to score 12000 runs as a captain. He joined legendary captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith in the elite list.

 2. UAE’s Mohammad Naveed, Shaiman Anwar banned for 8 years from all cricket: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has imposed eight years ban on former UAE players Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar Butt from all cricket, for trying to fix matches during the T20 World Cup qualifiers in 2019. The ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal had found them guilty of breaching the Anti-Corruption Code in January 2021. The bans are backdated to 16 October 2019, when they were provisionally suspended for attempting to corrupt matches of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 in the UAE. Naveed was the captain and leading wicket-taker. Anwar was the opening bat. Both had long international careers and were well versed in the threat from match-fixers. Both have been charged with two breaches each, the first of which is Article 2.2.1, which stands for ‘contriving, or being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the upcoming ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.’

Note: Chairman of ICC: Greg Barclay; CEO of ICC: Manu Sawhney; Headquarters of ICC: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 BANKING AND FINANCE

 1. RBI: Image-based Cheque Truncation System in all branches by Sep 30: The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to implement the image-based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) in all branches by September 30 this year. The move is aimed at faster settlement of cheques resulting in better customer service. The Apex bank said that to leverage the availability of CTS and provide a uniform customer experience irrespective of the location of her/his bank branch, it has been decided to extend CTS across all bank branches in the country. To facilitate this, banks will have to ensure that all their branches participate in image-based CTS under respective grids by September 30.

About Image Cheque clearing system: There’s now a new way of clearing cheques more easily and quickly across the UK. The Image Clearing System allows banks and building societies to exchange images of cheques instead of moving paper around the country. This new approach means you can withdraw money much sooner.

What is Cheque Truncation System: A cheque truncation system is an arrangement that facilitates the electronic processing of a cheque with the use of Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR) data and the scanned image of the instrument without involving any physical exchange or movement of the financial instrument.

 BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 1. Samsung sets up Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University: Samsung India has announced that it has inaugurated a Samsung Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University (DTU) to focus on collaborative research and training. It has set up the innovation lab under the Samsung Innovation Campus initiative as part of its new #PoweringDigitalIndia vision. With this addition, Samsung now has eight technical labs spread across the country as part of its Samsung Innovation Campus initiative, which was earlier called Samsung Digital Academy.

About the project:

(1) As part of the lab, engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Noida (SRI-N) will work with students and faculty at DTU on collaborative research projects on smartphone domains.

(2) The students and faculty at DTU will work on domains such as Application Framework, Multimedia, Health and Security, at the lab.

(3) Projects will focus on technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Computer Vision. So far, over 200 students have worked with SRI-N engineers on research projects and have received training.

(4) Collaborative research projects will be open to B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD students at DTU, who will receive certificates for their contribution at the end of each project. Samsung Innovation Campus is the company’s global citizenship program that aims to bridge proficiency gaps by skilling students on cutting-edge technology.

Note: Samsung Founder: Lee Byung-chul; Samsung Founded: 1 March 1938, Seoul, South Korea; Samsung Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea.

 AWARDS AND HONOURS

 1. Gowsalya Shankar honoured with International Woman of Courage 2021: The U.S. Consulate honoured Tamil Nadu-based anti-caste activist and human rights defender Gowsalya Shankar with a nomination for the International Woman of Courage (IWOC) Award. The IWOC Award Certificate of Nomination was handed over to her by U.S. Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin at an event ‘Courageous Women Inspire a Better World’ held in the city. Ms Gowsalya was U.S. Mission India’s nominee for the 2021 U.S. Secretary of State’s IWOC Award, which honours women who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in acting to improve the lives of others.  Ms Gowsalya launched the Shankar Social Justice Trust in March 2017 to fight atrocities against caste-based violence. The trust provides psychological, legal and moral support to victims and builds awareness against social discrimination and injustice.

 OBITUARIES

 1. Audio cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens passes away: The Dutch inventor of audio cassette tapes, Lou Ottens passed away. Dutch engineer credited with inventing the cassette tape and playing a major role in the development of the first CD. In 1963, Ottens presented the first cassette tape at the Berlin Radio Show electronics fair.  After the fair deal signed between Sony and Philips to patent his creation that gained worldwide popularity. Ottens also worked on the CD development project. The device that he made was equipped with a directional antenna which he termed as “Germanenfilter” because it was resistant to the jammers used by the Nazi regime. In 1960, Ottens with his team developed the first portable tape recorder and two years later, he invented CDs.