Daily GK Update - 19th March, 2021

 NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. J&K Govt approves setting up of JVC “Ratle Hydroelectric Power Corporation”: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has approved the incorporation of a joint venture company (JVC) under the name “Ratle Hydro-electric Power Corporation”. To implement the 850 MW Ratle Hydro-Electric Project (HEP) on river Chenab in the Kishtwar district of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The JV company has been incorporated between the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and J&K State Power Development Corporation Ltd (JKSPDC).

About the project: The equity contributions of NHPC will be 51 per cent and for JKSPDC will be 49 per cent. The proposed JVC will have an authorised capital of Rs 1,600 crore with initial paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore. The 850 MW Ratle HEP will be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 5,281.94 crore.

Note: Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir: Manoj Sinha.

2. GoI Forms Experts Committee For Startup India Seed Fund Scheme: The government has constituted an experts advisory committee for the overall execution and monitoring of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme. The committee would be chaired by H K Mittal from the Department of Science and Technology. The other representatives of the committee would include members from DPIIT, the department of biotechnology, science and technology, electronics and IT, Niti Aayog, and expert members from the startup ecosystem. The committee will evaluate and select incubators for allotment of funds under the scheme, monitor progress and take all necessary measures for efficient utilisation of funds towards the fulfilment of objectives of the scheme.

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS): The scheme has been approved for the period of the next four years starting from 2021-22, beginning from April 1, 2021. The government has earmarked Rs 945 crore corpus for the scheme, which will be divided over the next four years for providing seed funding to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India.

3. M. A. Ganapathy appointed Director General of National Security Guard: Senior IPS officer, M. A. Ganapathy was on March 16, 2021 appointed Director General of National Security Guard. Ganapathy, a 1986 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Uttarakhand cadre, is currently Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). He has been appointed the Director-General, National Security Guard (NSG), from the date of joining the post and up to February 29, 2024 i.e. date of his superannuation.

Note: National Security Guard Headquarters: New Delhi; The motto of the National Security Guard: Sarvatra Sarvottam Suraksha.

 4. Maharashtra Governor releases e-book titled Dawn under the Dome: The Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari released a digital e-book titled Dawn under the Dome. The digital book depicts the history of the Mumbai General Post Office building. It has been authored by Post Master General of Mumbai Swati Pandey in collaboration with Orchida Mukherjee. The book says that three types of Indian stones were used in the construction of the building: the grey basalt with buff trachyte and the Yellowstone from Mumbai’s Kurla and Malad respectively and the white stone from Dharandhra.

 INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 1. Dr Harsh Vardhan appointed as chairman of ‘Stop TB Partnership Board’: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan has been appointed as the Chairman of the international body Stop TB Partnership Board. He was appointed in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the movement to eradicate Tuberculosis from India by 2025. He will serve a three-year term, commencing from July this year.

About stop TB partnership:

(1) The Stop TB Partnership is a unique international body with the power to align actors all over the world in the fight against TB.

(2) The participation of a wide range of constituencies gives this global body the credibility and the broad range of medical, social and financial expertise needed to defeat TB.

(3) The Partnership’s vision is a TB-free world.

(4) The appointment of Dr Harsh Vardhan as the Chair of this prestigious global body is a proud recognition of India’s political commitment to the eradication of TB.

(5) Established in the year 2000, the ‘Stop TB Partnership’ is mandated to eliminate Tuberculosis as a public health problem.

Note: World Tuberculosis Day, observed on 24 March.

 2. Ajay Mathur takes over as Director General of International Solar Alliance: Dr Ajay Mathur has assumed office as the Director-General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) with effect from March 15, 2021. He has been appointed for a period of four years which can be renewed for an additional term. Dr Ajay Mathur has replaced Upendra Tripathy, who completed his term on March 15, after serving as the Director-General since 2017.

About Ajay Mathur: Mathur brings a wealth of leadership and expertise across all key areas of the energy transition, from policy, research, and technology commercialisation to financing, international cooperation and institutional development. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on climate change. He had also served as the Director-General of TERI and also a key Indian climate-change negotiator. He was also the spokesperson for India during the 2015 climate negotiations in Paris.

Note: ISA Headquarters Location: Gurgram, Haryana; ISA Established: 2015.

 3. WEF honours ReNew Power named as Global Lighthouse Network: ReNew Power has been named to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Lighthouse Network, which recognises companies using new technologies to achieve environmentally sustainable, community supportive, profitable growth. ReNew Power is an Indian renewable energy company. It has an asset base of over 8 GW, with around 5 GW operational. ReNew Power is one of the two Indian companies to be recognised by the Global Lighthouse Network this year.

The WEF Global Lighthouse Network is a group of 69 factories that serve as a platform to develop, replicate, and scale innovations, creating opportunities for cross-company learning and collaboration while setting new benchmarks for the global manufacturing community.

Note: World Economic Forum Headquarters: Cologny, Switzerland; World Economic Forum Founder: Klaus Schwab; World Economic Forum Founded: January 1971.

 OTHER UPDATES:

 SPORTS

1. Dhanalakshmi beats Dutee Chand to win Federation Cup gold: Sprinter S Dhanalakshmi beat national record holder Dutee Chand to win women’s 100m sprint final in the Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships in Patiala. The 22-year-old Dhanalakshmi of Tamil Nadu clocked 11.39 seconds to become the fastest woman of the championships. Odisha-based Dutee clocked 11.58 seconds to be placed in second place. Another Tamil Nadu runner Archana Suseendran was third in 11.76 seconds. Hima Das was disqualified after a false start. In men’s 100m final category, Gurindervir Singh of Punjab won gold in 10.32 seconds, while Elakkiyadasan Kannada of Tamil Nadu (10.43) and Maharashtra’s Satish Krishnakumar (10.56) were second and third respectively.

 BANKING AND FINANCE

 1. RBI Imposes Rs 2 Crore Fine on State Bank of India: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a monetary penalty of 2 crores on the State Bank of India (SBI) for contravention of certain provisions of Section 10 of the Banking Regulation (BR) Act, 1949. The central bank’s specific directions issued to the bank on payment of remuneration to employees in the form of commission. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested with RBI under the provisions of the BR Act. The penalty is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers. RBI said the statutory inspection of the bank with reference to its financial position as of March 31, 2017, and March 31, 2018, and the Risk Assessment Reports (RARs) pertaining thereto, and examination of the correspondence with the bank regarding payment of remuneration to its employees in the form of commission, revealed, inter alia, contravention of the provisions of the Act and aforesaid specific directions issued by RBI.

Note: RBI 25th Governor: Shaktikant Das; Headquarters: Mumbai; Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata.

SBI Chairperson: Dinesh Kumar Khara; SBI Headquarters: Mumbai; SBI Founded: 1 July 1955.

 BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 1. Nokia to Develop New 5G Radio Solutions: The Finnish telecom equipment maker, Nokia has announced on March 16 that it has partnered with Microsoft, Amazon web services and Google so as to develop a new cloud-based 5G radio solution. This solution will be developed with its radio access network (RNA) technology. This partnership was gone with the objective of developing new business cases.

About Radio Access Network (RAN): RAN is part of a mobile telecommunication system. This system implements radio access technology. RAN resides between a device like a computer, mobile phone or any remotely controlled machine. It also provides a connection with the core network. Based on the standard mobile phones and other wireless connected devices are called user equipment, terminal equipment or mobile station etc. The functionality of RAN is typically provided by the silicon chip which resides in both the core network and the user equipment.

Features of RAN: The single handset or phone can be connected to multiple radio access networks simultaneously. The Handsets which are capable of this feature are called dual-mode handsets. For example, a handset can commonly support both GSM and UMTS or “3G” radio access technologies. Such devices also transfer the ongoing call across different radio access networks without any disruption to users.

Note: Nokia CEO: Pekka Lundmark; Nokia Founded: 12 May 1865; Nokia Headquarters: Espoo, Finland.

 AWARDS AND HONOURS

 1. Sahitya Akademi Award 2020 announced: Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 20 languages. Seven books of poetry, four of the novel, Five short stories, two plays, and one each of memoirs and epic poetry in 20 Indian languages. The awards for Malayalam, Nepali, Odia and Rajasthani will be announced later. Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India. It is a dream for all Indian writers to look forward to one of the prestigious literary awards. The political-writer M Veerappa Moily, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam will be bestowed with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2020. The Akademi is known for holding the largest library of multi-lingual books in India. The Sahitya Akademi is autonomous. It comes under the Ministry of Culture. Sahitya Akademi Award 2020 winners will be bestowed with the award in the form of a casket, containing the engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cash amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- at the Sahitya Akademi Award Presentation function.

The complete list of winners in different language and genre categories is given in the table below.

S.No	Language	Title and Genre	Name of the Author
1	Assamese	Bengsata (Short stories)	Apurba Kumar Saikia
2	Bengali	Eka Eka Ekashi (Memoirs)	Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay
3	Bodo	Gwthenay Lamayao Gwdan Agan (Short stories)	Dharanidhar Owari
4	Dogri	Baba Jitmal (Play)	Gian Singh
5	English	When God Is a Traveller (Poetry)	Arundhathi Subramaniam
6	Gujarati	Banaras Diary (Poetry)	Harish Meenakshru
7	Hindi	Tokeri Mein Digant ‘ Their Gatha” (Poetry)	Anamika
8	Kannada	Sri Bahubali Ahimsadigvijayam (EPIC POETRY)	M. Veerappa Moily
9	Kashmiri	Tilasm-e-Khanabadosh (Short stories)	Hiday Koul Bharti
10	Konkani	Yugaparivarathanancho Yatri  (Poetry)	RS Bhaskar
11	Maithili	Gachh Roosal Achhi (Short Stories)	Kamalkant Jha
12	Manipuri	Malangbana Kari Hai (Poetry)	Irungbam Deven
13	Marathi	Udya (Novel)	Nanda Khare
14	Punjabi	Aam Khass (Short stories)	Gurdev Singh Rupana
15	Sanskrit	Vaishali (Novel)	Mahesh Chandra Sharma Gautam
16	Santali	Gur Dak Kasa Dak(Poetry)	Rupchand Hansdah
17	Sindhi	Jehad (Plays)	Jetho Lalwani
18	Tamil	Sellaatha Panam (Novel)	Imaiyam
19	Telugu	Agniswaasa(2015-17) Poetry	Nikhileswar
20	Urdu	Amawas Mein Khwab (Novel)	Hussain-ul-Haque

 OBITUARIES

 1. Former Bangladesh PM Moudud Ahmed passes away: Barrister Moudud Ahmed, who held various political offices for short stints in the Government of Bangladesh, has passed away. He had served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh (1988–1989), Vice President of Bangladesh (1989–1990), Deputy Prime Minister (1976–1978 and 1987–1988), and Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (2001–2006). He was also a standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

2. Former Union Minister Dilip Gandhi passes away: Former Union Minister and BJP leader, Dilip Gandhi passed away, due to coronavirus. He had served as the Union Minister of State, Ministry of Shipping from 29 January 2003 to 15 March 2004. He won the Lok Sabha elections three times since 1999 from Ahmednagar South constituency in Maharashtra. First in 1999 in 13th Lok Sabha, followed by 15th Lok Sabha in 2009 and then 16th Lok Sabha in 2014.