Daily GK Update- 5th Feb, 2022

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. US regains top spot as India’s trade partner in 2021: The United States was India’s top trading partner in the calendar year 2021 with a trade of $112.3 billion. The US is followed by China on second. The value of trade between India and China was $110.4 billion. In 2020, China was India’s top trading partner and the US was in the second rank. In 2019 USA was India’s top trading partner and China was on second.

India’s list of top ten trading partners also includes:

(1) USA; (2) China; (3) UAE; (4) Saudi Arab; (5) Switzerland; (6) Hong Kong; (7) Singapore; (8) Iraq; (9) Indonesia and (10) South Korea

 

2. IUCN designates Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram 2022: The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram, Haryana, has been declared as India’s first “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECM) site. This was informed by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) gives OECM tag to those areas that are not protected but support rich biodiversity. The tag designates the area as a biodiversity hotspot on the international map.

OECM: OECM is a status for a place that has achieved effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside protected areas like forests. The park, which once was an abandoned mining pit, was transformed into a lush green forest patch in 10 years. Now, it has about 400 native species of plants.

 

3. IISc. commissions one of India’s most powerful supercomputers ‘Param Pravega’: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, has installed and commissioned Param Pravega, one of the most powerful supercomputers in India. It is also the largest supercomputer in an Indian academic institution. Param Pravega has a total supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops (1 petaflop equals a quadrillion or 1015 operations per second).

Who designed and developed Param Pravega?

The supercomputer has been designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). It has been developed under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a joint initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and implemented by C-DAC and IISc.

 

4. SBI tie-up with Ministry of Culture for Development of Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre for Design: The State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Culture Fund (NCF) of the Ministry of Culture, for Development of Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre for Design (ABCD) at L1 Barrack, Red Fort, in Delhi. The main objective of Project ABCD is to highlight, promote and celebrate the products that have the Geographical Indication sign to give a boost to Economic Value Addition to GI products from India. The ABCD project will be implemented by IGNCA, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture through the ministry’s NCF fund. SBI will sponsor the project under CSR with a contribution of Rs. 10 crores for the implementation of the ABCD Project.

 

5. Senior scientist GA Srinivasa Murthy appointed director of DRDL: Senior scientist GA Srinivasa Murthy has been appointed director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Hyderabad. He joined DRDL in the year 1987 and made significant contributions in the area of structural dynamics, ground resonance testing, electrical integration and checkout for various projects of the missile complex.

 

6. ‘India, That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution’ authored by J Sai Deepak: A Trilogy book series titled, ‘India, That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution’ is authored by J Sai Deepak and published by Bloomsbury India. The 1st part was released on 15th August 2021, is set to launch the 2nd part in June 2022. Whereas, the 3rd and last parts will be released in June 2023. It is the first part of a comprehensive trilogy, which examines the impact of European ‘colonial consciousness’ (or ‘coloniality’), on Bharat (India). It highlights how colonialism changes the socio-religious culture, history, education, language and racial patterns in India.

The essence of the book: India, That Is Bharat, the first book of a comprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European ‘colonial consciousness’ (or ‘coloniality’), in particular its religious and racial roots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the origins of the Indian Constitution.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Exim Bank extends a $500 million credit line to Sri Lanka: Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on behalf of the government of India, extended a line of credit of $500 million to the government of the socialist republic of Sri Lanka for financing the purchase of petroleum products. The fund will be used by the Island nation for the purchase of petroleum products. With the signing of this new LOC agreement, the total LOC extended by Exim Bank to Sri Lanka till date has reached 10, taking the total value of LOCs extended to USD 2.18 billion.

With the signing of this LoC agreement, Exim Bank has now in place 276 lines of credit, covering 61 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with credit commitments of around $27.84 billion, available for financing exports from India. Besides promoting India’s exports, Exim Bank’s LoCs enable the demonstration of Indian expertise and project execution capabilities in emerging markets.

Note: Export-Import Bank of India Founded: 1982; Export-Import Bank of India Headquarters: Mumbai.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

1. Ravi Mittal named as new Chairman of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India: The former secretary, Department of Sports, Ravi Mittal has been appointed as the Chairman of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), as per the notification issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. He is a 1986 batch IAS officer from Bihar cadre. He will serve as the Chairman of IBBI for a term of five years or till he attains 65 years of age, whichever is early.

About the IBBI: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India is the regulator for overseeing insolvency proceedings and entities like Insolvency Professional Agencies, Insolvency Professionals and Information Utilities in India.

Note: Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Headquarters: New Delhi; Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Founded: 1 October 2016.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

 

1. NSO First Revised GDP estimates FY21: Indian economy contracts by 6.6%: The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the First Revised Estimates of National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation for the financial year 2020-21. The National Statistical Office recently released the first revised GDP estimates for the fiscal year 2021. According to the estimates, the GDP contracted by 6.6%. Earlier, the GDP had contracted by 7.3%. The contraction is mainly due to the COVID pandemic and the lockdown imposed.

The NSO has also revised downward the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth number for 2019-20 to 3.7 per cent as against the earlier estimate of 4 per cent. Under the 1st revision released in January 2021, real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for 2019-20 stood at Rs 145.69 lakh crore with 4 per cent growth.

 

2. Vedanta tied up with Union Bank of India to take over syndicated facility: Vedanta Ltd has tied up a facility of Rs 8,000 crores (replacement facility) with Union Bank of India at 7.75% to take over the majority of the syndicated facility after discussions with lenders. During 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vedanta Ltd had tied up a syndicated facility of ₹10K crores with the State Bank of India as the lead bank at a running cost of 10.5 per cent.

This replacement facility was availed on December 28, 2021, to take over the existing Syndicated facility to reduce the overall interest cost of the company and to prepay high-cost debt raised at over 10% two years ago.

Note: Union Bank of India Headquarters: Mumbai; Union Bank of India CEO: Rajkiran Rai G.; Union Bank of India Founded: 11 November 1919, Mumbai.

 

3. Sony buys ‘Destiny’ game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion: Sony Group Corp. is purchasing Bungie Inc., the U.S. video game developer behind the popular Destiny and Halo franchises, for $3.6 billion to bolster its stable of game-making studios. The deal announced by Sony Interactive Entertainment is the third significant video-game acquisition this month, following Microsoft Corp.’s purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. for $69 billion two weeks ago and Take-Two Interactive Corp. snagging mobile game leader Zynga Inc. on Jan. 10. Buying Bungie will give Sony one of the most popular first-person shooter games to compete with the massive Call of Duty series, which Sony’s main rival now owns through Activision.

 

AWARDS AND HONOURS

 

1. Neeraj Chopra nominated for Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award: Tokyo Olympics gold medallist, Neeraj Chopra has been nominated for the prestigious 2022 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award. The other 5 nominees are Daniil Medvedev (Australian Open runner-up), Emma Raducanu (British tennis star), Pedri (Barcelona and Spain footballer), Yulimar Rojas (Venezuelan athlete) and Ariarne Titmus (Australian swimmer). The winners will be revealed in April following a vote by the Laureus World Sports Academy, made up of 71 sporting greats.

 

2. Telugu short film ‘Street Student’ wins NHRC’s Short Film Award Competition: A Telugu short film ‘Street Student’ by Akula Sandeep depicting the story of a street urchin with a strong message on right to education has bagged the first prize in a competition organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). ‘Street Student’ by Akula Sandeep has been selected for the first prize worth Rs 2 lakh in the seventh Short Film Award Competition. It is in Telugu with subtitles in English. The film shows the story of a street urchin to send across a strong message on right to education and how society needs to support it.

The second prize worth Rs 1.5 lakh goes to, ‘Karfew’ by Romi Meitei. The film, through the story of a child in Manipur, pitches in hope for a better world, wherein people’s right to life, liberty, dignity and equality can be protected against odds including stereotyped fear psychosis. It is in the Meiteilon language with subtitles in English.