Daily GK Update- 6th Aug, 2021

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Manipur’s Chandel Tops List of Aspirational Districts in June: NITI Aayog: Chandel district in Manipur has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by government think tank NITI Aayog for the month of June. Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Firozpur (Punjab) have been ranked at the second and third positions, respectively, NitiAayog said. Dhubri (Assam) and Kiphire (Nagaland) are at the fourth and fifth places, respectively. The delta rankings took into account incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas in June 2021.

 

2. Government launches digital tools to improve logistics efficiency, sustainability: The government has launched the Secured Logistics Document Exchange (SLDE) along with a Calculator for Green House Gas Emission to improve ease of doing business, logistics efficiency, reduce logistics cost, and promote multi-modality and sustainability. The SLDE platform is a solution to replace the present manual process of generation, exchange and compliance of logistics documents with a digitized, secure and seamless document exchange system. The GHG Calculator is an efficient, user-friendly tool and provides for calculating and comparing GHG emissions across different modes.

 

3. NABARD sanctions Rs 446 crore for drinking water projects in Punjab: National Bank For Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Punjab regional office has sanctioned Rs 445.89 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for five large surface based drinking water projects in Ferozpur, Fazilka, Hoshirapur and Rupnagar districts of Punjab. These projects envisage to provide 70 litre per capita per day potable drinking water at the consumer-end through functional household tap connections covering a rural population of 10.39 lakh in 700 villages.

 

4. IIT Madras launches India’s first consortium for Virtual Reality: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched the country’s first Consortium for Virtual Reality called ‘Consortium for VR/AR/MR Engineering Mission in India’ (CAVE). As a group of academia, industries, start-ups, and Government bodies, this consortium is being coordinated by IIT Madras. The main objective of this consortium is to enable members to create new advanced technologies and applications in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality (XR) and haptics together. Their research collaboration would be undertaken with industrial sponsors and participants from industry, academia, and Government.

 

5. TRIFED celebrates its 34th Foundation Day: Tribal Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (TRIFED) has celebrated its 34th foundation day on 6th August. TRIFED was founded to drive tribal development through marketing support for tribal products, both, handicrafts and Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP). TRIFED will celebrate this day in a special manner, with due publicity, to raise awareness among one and all regarding the issues related to trade in tribal areas, and the need to ensure a fair deal for the tribes in the commerce of their products. The proposed event shall also recognize the achievements and contributions that the tribes and people working for them have made in this regard.

About the TRIFED: TRIFED was established on the 6th of August 1987 as a National level Cooperative body with the major objective of socio-economic development of tribals. TRIFED will be celebrating its 34th Foundation Day on August 6, an event to recognise TRIFEDs achievements and the contribution of Tribes as well as people working with it.

 

INTERNATIONALUPDATES:

 

1. EbrahimRaisi sworn in as new President of Iran: EbrahimRaisi was officially sworn in as the new president of Iran on August 05, 2021. He won the 2021 Iranian presidential election in June, with 62 per cent of the vote. The 60-year-old Raisi succeeds Hassan Rouhani to begin his four-year term. He is also been the Chief Justice of Iran since March 2019. Raisi’s inauguration comes at a pivotal time, with Iran currently in indirect negotiations with the United States over how to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement. Raisi will also face the task of reviving his country’s economy, which has been battered in recent years by the previous US administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions. Tensions in the region are also high following a string of maritime provocations blamed by the West on Tehran.

Note: Iran Capital: Tehran; Iran Currency: Iranian toman.

 

2. 7 Indian Companies Feature in Fortune Global 500 list for 2021: Seven Indian companies have found a place in 2021 Fortune’s Global 500 list. The Fortune Global 500 is an annual ranking of the top 500 enterprises globally, as measured by business revenues. MukeshAmbani-led Reliance Industries Ltd is the highest-ranked Indian company on the list in terms of revenue, with revenues of nearly $63 billion. It is placed at 155th spot globally. Globally, Walmart has topped the list in terms of revenue for the eighth consecutive year and the 16th time since 1995. China has dominated this years list for the highest number of companies featuring in the list at 143, including those from Taiwan. This is followed by the U.S. with 122, and Japan with a total of 53, respectively.

 

Indian Companies in the list:		The top 10 Global Companies in the list:
Reliance Industries (155)		Walmart (US)
State Bank of India (205)		State Grid (China)
Indian Oil (212)		Amazon.com (US)
Oil & Natural Gas (243)		China National Petroleum (China)
Rajesh Exports (348)		Sinopec (China)
Tata Motors (357)		Apple (US)
Bharat Petroleum (394)		CVS Health (US)
		UnitedHealth Group (US)
		Toyota Motor (Japan)
		Volkswagen (Germany)

 

3. Hiroshima Day: 6th August: Annually 6th of August marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima during World War II. The horrific incident took place on August 6, 1945, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb named “Little Boy”, on the town of Hiroshima in Japan. This bomb attack was done with the motive to end the Second World War in 1945. This day is remembered to promote peace and spread awareness about the danger of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. 2021 marks the 76th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.

History of Hiroshima Day: During the 2nd World War which was active in 1939- 1945, the world’s first deployed atomic bomb with more than 9000 pounds uranium-235 was loaded and US B-29 bomber aircraft, the Enola Gay attacked the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. The explosion was so huge that it immediately killed 70,000 people wiping 90% of the city and later on around 10,000 people died due to the effect of radiation exposure.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

SPORTS

 

1. Ravi Kumar Dahiya wins silver medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020: Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya bagged the silver medal after losing in the final of men’s 57kg freestyle category to Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) ZavurUguev. This is India’s fifth medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the second silver of the campaign. Ravi Kumar is the fifth Indian wrestler after KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, YogeshwarDutt, and Sakshi Malik to finish on the Olympic podium.

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. RBI’s New Rules on Interchange Fee, 24/7 Bulk Clearing Facility Functional: The Reserve Bank of India’s new directions on raising interchange fee and making available the facility of bulk clearing round the clock have become effective from August 1 onwards. The RBI in June raised the interchange fee for financial transactions from Rs 15 to Rs 17, while for non-financial transactions the increase was done from Rs 5 to Rs 6. These new rates have become applicable from August 1, 2021, as per the RBI’s direction. An interchange fee is a fee charged by banks to the merchant who processes a credit card or debit card payment.

 

2. GyanDhan receives NBFC licence from RBI: GyanDhan, India’s first education financing platform said it has received an NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India and it aims to disburse Rs 650 crore worth of education loans in FY22. Out of this, Rs 50 crore will be for domestic short-term courses offered by various ed-tech players and coaching institutes. The Delhi-based, digital-first company has already partnered companies including Great learning and various IAS institutions to offer interest-free education loans to prospective students wanting to pursue short-term courses.

 

3. HDFC partners with IFC partner to promote affordable green housing finance: HDFC Ltd has got a loan of $250 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank Group, to be used by India’s largest housing finance company for green housing. Green housing is regarded as a luxury market in the country, but has climate benefits. IFC said its partnership with HDFC would help change perceptions about the market. At least 25 per cent of the funding is for green affordable housing. Green affordable housing can help India on its path to deliver on its commitments under the Paris Agreement, to reduce a third of its carbon emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 

1. India possesses 501.83 million tonnes of gold reserves: Union govt: India has an estimated 501.83 million tonnes of gold reserves or resources of gold ore, as per the National Mineral Inventory data. Out of these, 17.22 million tonnes have been placed under the reserves category and the remaining 484.61 million tonnes under remaining resources category, Union Minister of Mines, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi said. The largest resources of gold ore are located in Bihar (44%) followed by Rajasthan (25%), Karnataka (21%), West Bengal (3%), Andhra Pradesh (3%), and Jharkhand (2%). The remaining 2% resources of ore are located in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

 

2. GST collections for July record Rs 1.16 lakh crore: The Goods and Services Tax collection for the month of July rose to Rs 1,16,393 crore, after slipping below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time in eight months in June, data released by the finance ministry showed. Of the total collection in July, Rs 22,197 crore came from Central GST, while Rs 28,541 crore came from the State GST component. Integrated GST collections amounted for Rs 57,864 crore (including Rs 27,900 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess was Rs 7,790 crore.

 

3. Forex reserves down by USD 1.581 billion to USD 611.149 billion: The country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 1.581 billion to stand at USD 611.149 billion for the week ended July 23, RBI data showed. The reserves had reached a lifetime high of USD 612.730 billion after rising by USD 835 million in the previous week ended July 16, 2021. Gold reserves were down by USD 449 million to USD 36.884 billion in the reporting week.

 

OBITUARIES

 

1. Film critic Rashid Irani passes away: Eminent film critic Rashid Irani, a much-loved figure in the cinema circles of the city, was found dead at his residence here. He was 74. Irani, who had contributed several articles in national dailies like Times of India, Hindustan Times and the website Scroll.in, was “one of the pillars of the Mumbai Press Club Film Society.

 

2. Veteran Odisha Politician ArunDey passes away: Trade union leader, activist and five-time MLA of Odisha, ArunDey, passed away at the age of 75 at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. He was elected to the Assembly in 1980 and 1990 from Balasore. In 1995 he contested as an independent candidate and won it. In 2004 he was again elected on behalf of the Odisha GanaParishad. Dey had contested the assembly election from Balasore in 2014 on Congress ticket. However, he lost to the Biju Janata Dal’s JibanPradip Das. The veteran leader joined the BJD headed by Chief Minister Patnaik ahead of the 2019 elections.