Daily GK Updates - 16th April, 2021

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Mental-Health Digital Platform MANAS Launched: The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India virtually launched the “MANAS” App to promote wellbeing across age groups. About MANAS:

(1) MANAS stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System.

(2) MANAS is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and an app developed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens.

(3) The App integrates the health and wellness efforts of various government ministries, scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed/researched by various national bodies and research institutions.

(4) It was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

(5) It was jointly executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune and C-DAC Bengaluru.

(6) The app must be integrated with the public health schemes like the National Health Mission, PoshanAbhiyan, e-Sanjeevani and others so that it is used widely.

(7) Catering to the overall wellbeing of people of all age groups, the initial version of MANAS focuses on promoting positive mental health in the age group of 15-35 years.

Note: The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India is Prof. K Vijay Raghavan.

 

2. ‘AahaarKranti’ mission launched by Health Ministry: Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched AahaarKranti, a mission dedicated to spreading awareness about nutrition. It is designed to address the peculiar problem of hunger and diseases in abundance, being faced by India and the world. Studies show that India produces as much as two times the amount of calories it consumes. However, many in the country are still malnourished. The root cause of this strange phenomenon is a lack of nutritional awareness. Keeping this in mind, AahaarKranti has been launched with the motto of UttamAahaar- UttamVichaar or Good Diet-Good Cognition.The movement proposes to address the problem by working to rouse the people to the values and richness of India’s traditional diet, to the healing powers of local fruits and vegetables and to the miracles of a balanced diet. VijnanaBharati, Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats Forum, VigyanPrasar, and PravasiBharatiya Academic and Scientific Sampark have come together to launch this mission.

 

3. PohelaBoishakh (SubhoNoboborsho) 2021: It marks the new Year for Bengal Community. Across the world, Bengali’s celebrate this day. Usually, the Bengali New Year falls around 14 April or 15 April. This year it is celebrated on 15 April in India.

About celebration and festival: The day is marked by cleaning and decorating the houses with beautiful rangolis or alpona outside homes. Some people visit temples and pray for prosperity in the coming year. The day also signals the beginning of the financial year for the Bengali business class. On this day, shopkeepers invite customers and even distribute sweets and calendars. The traces of celebration of the festival roots back to Mughal rule and also the proclamation of tax collection reforms of Akbar.

 

4. PM Modi released 4 books related to BabasahebAmbedkar: PM Narendra Modi has paid tribute to India’s first law minister and the architect of the Indian Constitution BabasahebBhimraoAmbedkar on his birth anniversary and released four books based on his life. PM Modi has addressed the 95th Annual Meet and National Seminar of Vice-Chancellors of the Association of Indian Universities via video conferencing and launched four books related to Dr BR Ambedkar, written by KishorMakwana.

The four books to be released by the prime minister are: (1) DrAmbedkarJivanDarshan; (2) DrAmbedkarVyaktiDarshan; (3) DrAmbedkarRashtraDarshan, and (4) DrAmbedkarAayamDarshan.

 

INTERNATIONALUPDATES:

 

1. “To Honour” BR Ambedkar, Indian-American Congressman Introduces Resolution: On 14th April India celebrated the 130th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar. In the US House of Representatives, an Indian-American Congressman has introduced a resolution for a second consecutive year to honourBhimraoAmbedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution on his 130th birth anniversary. About the resolution:

(1) Indian-American Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said “Today, I’m reintroducing my resolution to honour B R Ambedkar, in the hopes that young leaders around the world will read his work and be inspired by his vision for equalitu.”

(2) The resolution acknowledges the profound impact of America’s discriminatory practices, specifically the systematic discrimination of African-Americans and women in the United States, as influential in his pursuit to guarantee equal rights for every human being in the Indian Constitution.

(3) The resolution affirms the prohibition of untouchability and caste discrimination in all forms, as enshrined in the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(4) The resolution states that DrAmbedkar’s contributions to economics, political science, civil rights, religious harmony, and jurisprudence have had a profound impact around the world, promoting democratic values, unfettered equality, and justice for peoples of all castes, races, genders, religions, and backgrounds.

(5) It has also stated that DR Ambedkar led one of the largest civil rights movements in history, working to establish basic rights for hundreds of millions of Dalits, and succeeded in including Article 17 in the Constitution of India which abolishes untouchability and its practice in any form.

Note: (1) DR. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born on 14 April, 1891 was a leader of Dalits (Scheduled Castes, formerly called untouchables and law minister of the Government of India.

(2) Dr. B. R Ambedkar’s Awards / Honours: Bodhisattva (1956), Bharat Ratna (1990), First Colombian Ahead of Their Time (2004), The Greatest Indian (2012)

 

2. China Opens 5G Signal Station at World’s Highest Radar Location near Tibet Border: China has opened a 5G signal base at the Ganbala radar station in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet which is the world’s highest manually operated radar station at an elevation of 5,374 meters. The mountain is located in Nagarze County in Tibet which is in the vicinity of borders with India and Bhutan. The stable and high-speed 5G signal enables the soldiers in the deep mountains to keep up with the information society, leaving the monotonous and boring life on the border.

 

3. World Voice Day: 16th April: The World Voice Day (WVD) is celebrated globally on April 16 every year to demonstrate the enormous importance of the voice in the daily lives of all people. The Day is a global annual event dedicated to recognizing the boundless limits of the human voice. The mission is to share the excitement of the voice phenomenon with people, scientists, and other funding bodies. The theme of 2021 is ONE WORLD|MANY VOICES.

History: World Voice Day found its beginnings in 1999 as Brazilian National Voice Day. It became a rallying cause for speech-language pathologists, singing teachers and medical physicians who were a part of the Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice. The day soon began to spread to Argentina and Portugal making it International Voice Day. By 2002, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery officially recognized the celebration which earned it the title of World Voice Day.

 

4. Save the Elephant Day: 16th April: Save the Elephant Day is celebrated on April 16 every year to raise awareness about the dangers elephants face and various difficulties they have to overcome to live. The Day is established by Thailand-based Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, to spread awareness among the general people about the significance and consequences of their actions, or inactions on the future of elephants. According to WWF data, at present the population of Pachyderms in India is around 20,000 to 25,000.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. Pakistan Skipper Babar Azam replaces Indian Captain ViratKohli as World No-1 batsman in ICC Men’s ODI Rankings: In the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rankings for ODI batsmen, Pakistan Captain Babar Azam has climbed to the No.1 spot. Azam replaced his Indian counterpart ViratKohli, who was occupying the top position for nearly three and a half years. He is the fourth player from Pakistan to top the ODI batting rankings after Zaheer Abbas, JavedMiandad, and Mohammad Yousuf. Rohit Sharma with 825 points is the only other Indian player who has featured in the latest top 10 batting chart. Among bowlers, Indian pacer JaspritBumrah has held on to his fourth position behind top-ranked Trent Boult of New Zealand, Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman and another Kiwi pacer Matt Henry. R Ashwin is the lone Indian to find a place in the top 10 all-rounders’ list at the No. 9 spot.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. RBI to set up Regulations Review Authority for one year: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be set up a new Regulations Review Authority (RRA 2.0) from May 1, 2021, to review the regulations, circulars, reporting systems and compliance procedures of the central bank for streamlining them and making them more effective. The RRA will be set up for a period of one year unless the timeline is extended by the RBI.

About the Regulations Review Authority: M Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, RBI will be the head of the Regulations Review Authority. RRA will be tasked with making regulatory and supervisory instructions more effective by removing redundancies and duplications if any.

It must be noted that prior to this, a similar RRA was set up by RBI on April 1, 1999, for a period of one year to review the regulations, circulars, reporting systems, based on the feedback from the public, banks, and financial institutions.

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

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 

1. Amazon launches $250-million Venture Fund for Digitizing SMEs in India: The e-commerce giant Amazon has launched a $250 million (Rs 1,873 crore) venture fund called “Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund”, to invest in Indian startups and entrepreneurs, with a focus on digitizing SMEs. The launch of the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund aims to attract the best ideas and empower entrepreneurs in the country to partner in this vision. As a part of its first investment through the ‘Smbhav’ fund, Amazon invested in Gurugram-based M1xchange which connects SMEs with banks and financiers.

The Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund will focus on three key priorities: (1)Digitisation of small and medium businesses (SME) in India; (2) Drive innovation in Agri-tech innovations to empower farmer productivity and reach; (3) Drive innovation in Health-tech to provide universal and quality health care

Note: Amazon.com Inc founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos; Amazon.com Inc Founded: 5 July 1994; Amazon.com Inc Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. Lilavati Awards 2020 announced: The Union Education Minister, Ramesh PokhriyalNishank recently presented the AICTE Lilavati Awards, 2020 in New Delhi. The awards were presented based on the theme “Women Empowerment”. The winners were selected by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) in six sub-themes. List of winners:

(1) SWEAT (Sona Women Entrepreneurship and Training) from Sona College of Technology, Tamil Nadu won the award under the ‘Women Entrepreneurship’ sub theme.

(2) Another college from Tamil Nadu, Paritrana from St. Joseph’s College of Engineering won the award for the ‘Self Defense’ sub theme.

(3) Under the ‘Literacy’ sub theme, BharatiyaVidyapeeth of the Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development Pune won the award.

(4) The Lilavati Award under the “Women’s Health” sub theme was won by the WIT Women Health Coalition from Walchand Institute of Technology, Maharashtra.

(5) Radiant Seetha from Thiagarajar Polytechnic College won the contest in the ‘Legal Awareness’ sub theme.

(6) Under the ‘Sanitation & Hygiene’ sub-theme, Smt. KishoritaiBhoyar College of Pharmacy, Nagpur, Maharashtra won the award.

Note: AICTE Chairman: Professor Anil DattatrayaSahasrabudhe; AICTE  Headquarters: New Delhi; AICTE  Established: 1945.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Former election commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy passes away: Former election commissioner, GVG Krishnamurty passed away due to age-related ailments. An Indian Legal Service officer, Krishnamurty became the election commissioner in October 1993 to September 1996