NATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
Govt nod for setting up WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine: The Union Cabinet,
chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the establishment of a World
Health Organization Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) at
Jamnagar, Gujarat. An agreement was signed by the Government of India with the
world body in this regard. The move would help develop norms, standards, and
guidelines in relevant technical areas, tools and methodologies for collecting
data undertaking analytics and assessing impact.
Key points:
a)
The
WHO GCTM, to be established under the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga,
Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy), will be the first and
only global outposted centre (office) for traditional medicines.
b)
The
move will help to position AYUSH systems across the globe, provide leadership
on global health matters pertaining to traditional medicine, ensure quality,
safety and efficacy, accessibility and rational use of traditional medicine
while developing specific capacity building and training programmes in the
areas of relevance to the objectives and conduct training programmes in campus,
residential, or web-based, and through partnerships with the WHO Academy and
other strategic partners.
Note: WHO Established: 7 April 1948; WHO
Director General: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; WHO Headquarters: Geneva,
Switzerland.
2.
Sikkim State Government will launch Aama Yojna & Bahini Scheme: Chief Minister of
Sikkim, Prem Singh Tamang has announced that the State Government will soon
implement ‘Aama Yojana, a scheme for helping non-working mothers & ‘Bahini
Scheme’ benefitting girl students of the state. The complete details of the
Aama Yojna and Bahini Yojana are given below.
About the Aama Yojna scheme: Aama Yojna scheme
aims to inculcate the habit of saving among non-working mothers in the state
and hence the Government will provide them Rs. 20,000 each in their bank
accounts annually. The scheme covers only those whose names are enrolled in the
electoral roll of the state and a sum of Rs. 100 crores have been allocated for
it in the budget.
About the Bahini Scheme: Bahini Scheme is
to reduce the dropout rate of girl students due to the lack of
accessibility/availability of Sanitary Napkins & also to ensure menstrual
health and hygiene. Under this scheme, over 18,000 girl students who study in
class 9 and above are provided with free sanitary napkins in the state.
Note: Sikkim Capital: Gangtok; Sikkim
Governor: Ganga Prasad; Sikkim Chief Minister: Prem Singh Tamang.
3.
Union Fisheries Minister Parshottam Rupala inaugurates ‘Sagar Parikrama’
initiative from Gujarat: As a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava’, the Union
Ministry for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has organised ‘Sagar
Parikrama’ initiative, to understand the challenges, experiences and
aspirations of fishermen community. The programme will be held in phased manner
in states that have a coastline. To begin with, Gujarat will mark the first
state under this initiative. The Union Minister for Fisheries, Shri Parshottam
Rupala inaugurated the ‘Sagar Parikrama’ on March 05, 2022 from Gujarat.
4.
C-DAC installed “PARAM Ganga” Supercomputer at IIT Roorkee: The Centre for Development
of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has designed and installed a supercomputer named
“PARAM Ganga”, at IIT Roorkee, under Phase II of National Supercomputing
Mission (NSM). PARAM Ganga has a supercomputing capacity of 1.66 Petaflops.
National Supercomputing Mission
(NSM):
a)
NSM
is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information
Technology (MeiTY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
b)
The
mission is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
(C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
c)
The
NSM Mission aims to build and deploy 24 facilities with cumulative compute
power of more than 64 Petaflops.
d)
Till
date 11 systems have been deployed by C-DAC at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR,
NABI-Mohali and C-DAC under NSM Phase-1 and Phase-2 with a cumulative computing
power of more than 20 Petaflops.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
Iran successfully test fire second military satellite Noor-2: Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) successfully launched a military satellite,
Noor-2, into orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the earth.
This is the second military satellite launched by the Islamic Republic. The
first military satellite, Noor, was launched in April 2020 at an orbit of 425km
(265 miles) above the earth’s surface. Noor means light in the Persian
language.
Putting the second satellite in space would
be a major advance for Iran’s military, raising concerns about the country’s
nuclear and missile programs. The three-stage Qased, or “Messenger”, the
carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud spaceport.
Note: Iran Capital: Tehran; Iran President:
Ebrahim Raisi; Iran Currency: Iranian rial.
2.
Russia is now world’s most sanctioned country 2022: Russia has become
the most sanctioned country in the world, due to its invasion on Ukraine,
according to a New York-based sanctions watchlist site Castellum.AI. Russia
faced 2,778 new sanctions since February 22, 2022, led by the US and European
nations, bringing the total sanctions to 5,530. The country already had 2,754
sanctions in place before February 22.
Countries across the world are putting
sanctions on Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has now surpassed
countries like Iran and North Korea in terms of a number of sanctions. Before
this, Iran was the most sanctioned country, facing 3,616 sanctions against it
over the last decade, while Syria and North Korea have 2,608 and 2,077
sanctions, respectively.
Note: Russia Capital: Moscow; Russia
President: Vladimir Putin; Russia Currency: Russian Ruble.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1. S
Sreesanth quits from all forms of first-class cricket: India pacer S
Sreesanth has announced his retirement from all forms of domestic cricket.
Sreesanth played 27 Tests and 53 ODIs for India, taking 87 and 75 wickets
respectively. He has also taken seven wickets in 10 T20 Internationals. In
September 2020, Sreesanth’s ban for alleged spot-fixing came to an end,
concluding a seven-year punishment that was originally meant to be for life and
was aggressively contested by the flamboyant bowler. Sreesanth’s life ban for
alleged spot-fixing in the 2013 edition of the IPL was reduced to seven years
by BCCI Ombudsman DK Jain last year. The BCCI banned Sreesanth in August 2013
along with his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.
2.
Olympic champion Duplantis sets pole vault world record of 6.19m in Belgrade: Sweden’s Olympic
pole vault champion Armand Gustav “Mondo” Duplantis cleared 6.19m to smash his
own world record by one centimetre at the World Indoor Tour Silver meeting in
Belgrade. Duplantis set the record of 6.18 in February 2020 indoors in Glasgow.
This is the fourth world record of the
22-year-old’s career. His first record came in February 2020 when he surpassed
London 2012 gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie’s world record by clearing 6.17m
in Torun, Poland before improving that the following week in Glasgow. In
September of that year, he cleared 6.15m at the Rome Diamond League meeting to
eclipse Sergey Bubka’s outdoor pole vault world best of 6.14m set in Sestriere
in July 1994.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
RBI launches UPI123pay for feature phones and DigiSaathi 2022: Reserve Bank of
India has launched two initiatives related to digital payments. One is
UPI123pay- which provides a UPI payment facility on feature phones and the
second is “DigiSaathi” which is a 24×7 Helpline for Digital Payments. The details
of the two initiative is given below:
1. UPI123pay- UPI payment facility
on feature phones: The UPI123pay will provide the users of
feature phones the option to use Unified Interface Payments (UPI) for making
payments. For this, UPI123 pay presently offers four mediums/options to the
users of feature phones to make UPI payments. The name UPI123pay denotes that
the UPI payment can be done in three (123) easy steps i.e. 1. Call 2. Choose
and 3. Pay Presently the option available for feature phone users for digital
payments is of USSD which is a bit cumbersome and not popular. The launch of
UPI123pay will improve the payments ecosystem for more than 40 crore users of
feature phones in India.
These four options are given below in
detail:
a)
App-based
Functionality- An app would be installed on the feature phone through which
several UPI functions, available on smartphones, will also be available on
feature phones.
b)
Missed
Call: Under this facility users of feature phones can make payments at the
merchant outlet by giving a missed call on the number displayed at the merchant
outlet. The customer will receive an incoming call to authenticate the
transaction by entering UPI PIN. The users can also access their bank account
and perform routine transactions such as receiving, transferring funds, regular
purchases, bill payments, etc., by giving a missed call.
c)
Inter-active
Voice Response (IVR): UPI payment through pre-defined IVR numbers would require
users to initiate a secured call from their feature phones to a predetermined
number and complete UPI on-boarding formalities to be able to start making
financial transactions without internet connection.
d)
Proximity
Sound-based Payments: This uses sound waves to enable contactless, offline, and
proximity data communication on any device.
2. “DigiSaathi”- 24×7 Helpline for
Digital Payments:
This service will provide users with automated responses on information related
to digital payment products and services. Presently it is available in English
and Hindi language. Users can access DigiSaathi via any of the following modes:
a)
toll-free
number (1800-891-3333),
b)
a
short code (14431),
c)
Website
– http://www.digisaathi.info, and chatbots.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1.
RIL opens India’s biggest business and cultural hub in Mumbai: Reliance Industries
Ltd (RIL) has announced the opening of the Jio World Centre, which will be
India’s largest and most prestigious multi-faceted destination. The Centre,
which covers 18.5 acres in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex and was envisioned by
Nita Ambani, Director Reliance Industries and Founder-Chairperson of Reliance
Foundation, and it is set to become a historical business, commerce, and
culture destination, which will provide the people of India with a world-class
landmark.
Key Points:
a)
The
Jio World Centre will open in phases over the course of this and next year,
beginning with the dedication of Dhirubhai Ambani Square and the musical
Fountain of Joy to Mumbai and the Jio World Convention Centre.
b)
The
Jio World Centre is a first-of-its-kind destination in India, with a cultural
centre, a musical fountain, premium shops, a curated selection of cafés and
fine dining restaurants, serviced apartments and offices, and a
state-of-the-art convention facility.
c)
The
Dhirubhai Ambani Square, set to become a new landmark in Mumbai, is a
free-entry, open public place that promises to become a must-see destination
for locals and tourists from around the world.
d)
The
world-class Fountain of Joy and the Dhirubhai Ambani Square are dedicated to
the people and city of Mumbai. It will be an iconic new public space, a
celebration of the city’s spirit, where people can share joys and soak up the
colours and sounds of Mumbai.
2.
Microsoft will set up India’s largest Data Center region in Hyderabad: Tech giant,
Microsoft has announced to set up its fourth data centre in India in Hyderabad,
Telangana. Hyderabad Data centre will be one of the largest data centres in
India and will be operational by 2025. Microsoft already has a data centre in
three Indian regions across Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai. The new data centre will
add to the growing demand for Microsoft’s cloud services from both the private
enterprises as well as the government sector.
About the data centre:
a)
To
set up the data centre, Microsoft has signed a definitive agreement with the
Telangana state government with a total investment of Rs 15,000 crore.
b)
In
terms of Microsoft’s own expansion plans’s the company stated that they are
expanding their Hyderabad campus and the total campus is now spread over a 2.5
mn Sq.ft area with 18,000 full-time employees.
c)
The
Hyderabad centre of Microsoft is the largest centre for the tech giant after
Redmond. In India, Microsoft has 14,000 partners and it serves around 340,000
companies in the country.
Note: Microsoft CEO and Chairman: Satya
Nadella; Microsoft Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States.
OBITUARIES
1. Former Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar passes away: Veteran politician, former Supreme Court judge, and President of Pakistan, Rafiq Tarar passed away at the age of 92 years. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was born on 2 November 1929 in Peer Kot, Pakistan. He served as a Supreme Court judge from 1991 to 1994. He also served as the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court from 1989 to 1991. Later, he became Pakistan’s President for the period of 1997 to 2001.
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