Daily GK Update - 6th April, 2021

 NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Rajasthan becomes the 1st state to provide free health insurance to all: Rajasthan becomes the first state in the country where the state government is providing free health insurance facility to all the citizens of the state. This plan was announced by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in the state budget of 2021-22.  The State began the registration for its cashless ‘mediclaim’ scheme Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme. Under this scheme:

(1) Each family will get annual health insurance up to 5 lakhs.

(2) Registrations have started for the Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme from 1 April, while the scheme will start benefiting the residents after its implementation on May 1.

(3) In this health insurance cover, 1576 packages and procedures for the treatment of various diseases have been included.

(4) The cost of treatment related to OPD, examination, medicines and related package of 15 days after discharge will also be included in the free treatment before the patient is admitted to the hospital.

Note: Chief Minister of Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot; Governor: Kalraj Mishra.

2. Dr. Harsh Vardhan approves National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021: Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has approved National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021. The policy aims to lower the high cost of treatment for rare diseases, with an increased focus on indigenous research & local production of medicines. The Policy also focuses on early screening and prevention through primary and secondary health care infrastructure such as Health and Wellness Centres and District Early Intervention Centres.

A provision for financial support up to Rs.20 lakh under the Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi is proposed for treatment of those rare diseases that require a one-time treatment (diseases listed under Group 1 in the policy). Benefits to be extended to about 40% of the population eligible under PM Jan Arogya Yojana.

3. Govt sets up three committees on occupational safety: Central Government has constituted three expert committees to review the existing rules and regulations on safety, health and working conditions standards, pertaining to factories, docks and construction work. One committee will look into the safety parameters of industries, docks and ports while the other two committees have been asked to study and suggest rules for the building and other construction works and the fire safety. The committees include experts from industry as well as subject matter, from both public and private sector across the country. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has said a separate committee on fire safety standards has been formed to have a comprehensive and holistic approach for fire safety provisions, in view of recent spurt in fire accidents at workplaces. He said this process will pave the way for establishing uniform and updated standards of safety and health of workers throughout the country.

4. Rs 11,830 crore released to States under the scheme “Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure”: Finance Ministry has released an amount of 11 thousand 830 crore rupees to States under the scheme – Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure. The scheme was announced on 12th October last year as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package. The capital expenditure projects have been approved in diverse sectors of economy like, Health, Rural Development, Water Supply, Irrigation, Power, Transport, Education and Urban Development. It is aimed at boosting capital expenditure by the State Governments who were facing difficult financial environment due to a shortfall in tax revenue arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

5. A book titled ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’ by Nitin Gokhale: A new book titled ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’ authored by Nitin Gokhale was released. The book is published by Bloomsbury. It is an attempt to capture Parrikar’s persona — the man, the politician and the patriot. Gokhale is a renowned author, media trainer and founder of a specialised defence related website BharatShakti.in. and StratNewsGlobal.com.

Through this book, the author presents the journey of the contribution of Parrikar to nation-building and his service to the Goan society, from being an IIT student to a social worker and to India’s defence minister. The book is a tribute to Parrikar, India’s former defence minister and four-time chief minister of Goa, the first IIT-ian to become a chief minister.

 INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Jeff Bezos tops Forbes’ Annual Billionaire list fourth year in a row, Mukesh Ambani ranks 10th: The Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos has topped the Forbes’ annual world’s billionaires list for the fourth consecutive year. India’s richest billionaire Mukesh Ambani ranked at 10th position with total net worth of USD 84.5 billion.

Top five billionaires in the list:

 

Rank	Name	Company	Net Worth in USD ($)
1	Jeff Bezos	Amazon	177 billion
2	Elon Musk	Tesla, SpaceX	151 billion
3	Bernard Arnault	LVMH	150 billion
4	Bill Gates	Microsoft	124 billion
5	Mark Zuckerberg	Facebook	97 billion
10	Mukesh Ambani	Reliance Industries	84.5 billion

 

The 35th edition Forbes World’s Billionaires list was released on April 06, 2021, comprising a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires. The list is prepared based on the wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from March 5, 2021.

2. International Day of Sport for Development and Peace: 6th April: The United Nations celebrates the 6th of April every year as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. Sport has historically played an important role in all societies, be it in the form of competitive sport, physical activity or play. Sports also presents a natural partnership for the United Nations (UN) system. Sport can help promote fairness, team building, equality, inclusion and perseverance. Sport and physical activity can also help us get through times of crisis, like COVID-19, by reducing anxieties and improving physical and mental health. The professional sport also provides employment and income to many people around the world and an integral sector to the economic success of many communities and regions.

 OTHER UPDATES:

 SPORTS

1. Hurkacz beats Sinner to win Miami Open: Hubert Hurkacz of Poland won the biggest title of his career by beating 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the Miami Open final. Hurkacz became his country’s first Masters 1000 champion. The world number 37 is the lowest-ranked player to win a Masters event since Tomas Berdych in Paris in 2005.

 BANKING AND FINANCE

1. RBI lowers base rate by 15 basis points at 7.81 %: Various loans offered by Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) and Micro Finance institutes (MFI) are expected to be cheaper.  Reserve bank of India communicated today that the applicable base rate to be charged as 7.81 per cent. It is lower by 15 basis points (0.15 %) as compared to the current quarter. Last year it was 8.76 during the same period. On the last working day of every quarter, RBI advises interest rates to be charged by NBFC-MFIs to their borrowers in the ensuing quarter. It is based on the average of the base rates of the five largest commercial banks.

2. Interest Rates on Small Savings Schemes for Q1 of FY 2021-22 (April-June): The rate of interest on Small Savings Schemes for the first quarter (April-June) of 2021-22 will remain unchanged as the last quarter (January-March) of 2020-2021. Earlier on March 31, 2021, the Government had announced a cut in interest rates on various small savings schemes sharply by 40-110 basis points. However, the orders issued were withdrawn by the government on April 01, 2021. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter that the government has maintained the rates on such schemes that is effective from April 1 and remain in effect till June 30, 2021.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

1. PhonePe becomes 1st player to cross billion-transaction mark on UPI: Bengaluru-based digital payments and financial services company, PhonePe has become the first company to cross one billion transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure. The company achieved the feat in March 2021, when the total transactions clocked around 1.3 billion on its platform, across the payment instruments offering of wallet, cards as well as UPI. PhonePe, which first achieved market leadership on UPI in December, last year, has seen its transaction count grow steadily, on the back of rising merchant payments. Overall UPI transactions processed by PhonePe grew from 902.03 million in December 2020 to 975.53 million in February 2021.

Note: CEO of Phonepe: Sameer Nigam; Headquarters location of Phonepe: Bengaluru, Karnataka.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Alfred Aho wins the 2020 ACM Turing Award: Lawrence Gussman Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Alfred V. Aho has won the 2020 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) A.M. Turing Award, known informally as the “Nobel Prize of computing.” Aho shares the award with his long-time collaborator Jeffrey David Ullman. Aho and Ullman began working together at Bell Labs in 1967 and their early efforts included developing efficient algorithms for analyzing and translating programming languages. Even when Ullman began a career in academia in 1969 while Aho remained at Bell Labs, they continued their collaboration for several decades and shaped the foundations of programming language theory and implementation, as well as algorithm design and analysis.

About the Turing Award: The Turing Award carries a $1 million prize, with financial support provided by Google, Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing.

OBITUARIES

1. Samajwadi Party founder member Bhagwati Singh passes away: Founder member of the Samajwadi Party and former UP minister Bhagwati Singh passed away. He was 89-year-old. The last rites of Singh will not be done as he had pledged to donate his body to the King George Medical University.