NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. UN-FAO: Mumbai and Hyderabad
recognised as ‘2021 Tree City of the World’: The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Arbor Day Foundation have jointly recognised
Mumbai and Hyderabad as the ‘2021 Tree City of the World. The two Indian cities
have won the recognition for their “commitment to growing and maintaining urban
trees and greenery in building healthy, resilient and happy cities”. It must be
noted that Hyderabad has been recognised for a second consecutive year. In
2021, Hyderabad was the only city in India to be recognised as a ‘ 2020 Tree
City of the World’. Apart from Hyderabad and Mumbai 136 other cities from 21
countries have been recognised in the third edition of the Tree City of the
World list.
About the programme: The United
Nations’ ‘Tree City of the World’ programme provides direction, assistance, and
worldwide recognition for communities’ dedication to its urban forest, and
provides a framework for a healthy, sustainable urban forestry.
Note: Food and Agriculture Organisation
Headquarters: Rome, Italy; Food and Agriculture Organisation Founded: 16
October 1945.
2. ADB to approve $2 million loan to
support urban development in Nagaland: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the
Government of India signed an agreement to provide a $2 million project
readiness financing (PRF) loan to Nagaland for the design of climate-resilient
urban infrastructure, strengthening institutional capacity, and improving
municipal resource mobilisation. Key Points:
a)
According
to a statement released by ADB, Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary,
Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, who signed for the
Government of India, and Takeo Konishi, Country Director of ADB’s India
Resident Mission, who signed for ADB, were the signatories to the project
readiness financing (PRF) for the proposed Nagaland Urban Infrastructure
Development Project.
b)
By
establishing an urban sector plan, conducting feasibility studies, and
comprehensive engineering designs of chosen subprojects, the ADB financing will
ensure high project readiness.
c)
The
PRF loan will be used to help construct climate resilient water supply, sanitation,
solid waste management, and urban highways in Nagaland’s 16 district
headquarter towns, as well as better access for the poor and vulnerable.
3. Commerce Ministry: Number of
patent filings rises to 66,440 in FY22: As per the data by the Ministry of Commerce
and Industry, the number of domestic patent filings at the Indian patent office
exceeded that of international filings for the first time in the last 11 years.
During the January-March quarter of 2022, a total of 19796 patent applications
were filed, which included 10,706 patents filed by Indian applicants and 9,090
by non-Indian applicants.
Key points:
a)
The
number of patent filings increased from 42,763 in 2014-15 to 66,440 in 2021-22,
more than a 50% increase in a span of 7 years.
b)
India
granted 30,074 patents in 2021-22 as compared to 5,978 in 2014-15, an increase
of nearly five times.
c)
Reduction
in the time of patent examination from 72 months in Dec 2016 to 5-23 months at
present for different technological areas.
4.
Assamese New Year 2022, Rongali Bohag Bihu Festival: Bohag Bihu or
Rongali Bihu, one of the biggest festivals of Assam, falls in the second week
of April every year, marking the beginning of the harvest period. This year
Bohag Bihu is being observed from April 14 to April 16. Rongali means joy in
Assamese and the festival indeed is the time to rejoice and make merry with
family and community.
The first day of the Hindu solar calendar
is celebrated in the states of Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Kerala, Manipur, and
West Bengal among others with different names and traditions. Bihu is
celebrated thrice a year; apart from Rongali or Bohag Bihu – Kati Bihu or
Kongaali Bihu and Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu are celebrated to mark different
stages of the harvesting period.
History of the Assamese New Year: The history of
Bihu is said to go back to ancient times, around 3500 BC, when people made fire
sacrifices for a better harvest. It is said that an agrarian tribe who lived in
the north-eastern part of the world thousands of years back celebrated the
festival.
Note: Assam Capital: Dispur; Assam Chief
Minister: Himanta Biswa Sarma; Assam Governor: Jagadish Mukhi.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Harsh Vardhan Shringla named
India’s G20 chief coordinator: Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla
will take over next month as G20 chief coordinator, the government officially
announced. The appointment is significant as India will assume the G20
presidency on December 1, 2022, from Indonesia, and will convene the G20
Leaders Summit for the first time in India in 2023. Shringla will retire on
30th April 2022, handing over charge to foreign secretary-designate V M Kwatra,
who is currently India’s ambassador to Nepal. The G20 sherpa will remain to be
Piyush Goyal, the Indian Commerce Minister.
About the summit: G20 Bali Summit
2022 is the 17th meeting of the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit which
is scheduled to take place in Bali, Indonesia from November 15-16, 2022 under
the Presidency of Indonesia with the overall theme of “Recover Together Recover
Stronger”.
2.
Airports Council International: Top 10 busiest airports in the world for 2021: The Airports
Council International (ACI) released the list of the top 10 busiest airports
worldwide for 2021. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has
topped the list with 75.7 million passengers. Dallas/Fort Worth International
Airport (DFW) 62.5 million passengers) is second, followed by Denver
International Airport (DEN, 58.8 million passengers) at the third spot.
Among the top 10 airports for passenger
traffic, 8 are in the United States with the two remaining in China. The
airports are ranked based on the preliminary compilation of 2021 global data
from airports around the world including passenger traffic, cargo volumes, and
aircraft movements.
Top 10 busiest airports in the world for
2021:
|
Ranks |
Airport |
Passengers* |
|
1 |
Atlanta |
75,704,760 |
|
2 |
Dallas Fort Worth |
62,465,756 |
|
3 |
Denver |
58,828,552 |
|
4 |
Chicago O’Hare |
54,020,339 |
|
5 |
Los Angeles |
48,007,284 |
|
6 |
Charlotte |
43,302,230 |
|
7 |
Orlando International |
40,351,068 |
|
8 |
Guangzhou |
40,259,401 |
|
9 |
Chengdu |
40,117,496 |
|
10 |
Las Vegas |
39,754,366 |
3.
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 the
various difficulties they have to overcome to live. Save The Elephant Day aims
to change this alarming trend by educating people about elephants and the
plights they face, encouraging everyone to do their bit and helping save them
from extinction.
The Day is established by the
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.
4.
World Voice Day:
16th April: World Voice Day (WVD) is
celebrated globally on April 16 every year. The day is observed 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. This year, the theme of the
World Voice Day campaign is ‘Lift your voice’.
History: The celebration
of World Voice Day was initiated by a group of vocal care professionals in
Brazil. In 1999, the Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice under the
chairmanship of Dr Nedio Steffen first celebrated the day as Brazilian Voice
Day on 16 April. The day was also observed in Portugal and Argentina. Then in
2002, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery started to
celebrate the day and the day earned an official recognition of World Health
Day.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1. Netherlands Won FIH Junior
Women’s Hockey World Cup 2022: The Netherlands has lifted their fourth
title of FIH Junior Women’s Hockey World Cup 2022 after beating Germany at
Potchefstroom, South Africa. The Netherlands is the most successful team.
England claimed the bronze medal in the third-place match after defeating India
by 3-0 in the shoot-out.
The FIH has banned Russia from the 2022
Women’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup due to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 2023 Women’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup will be the tenth edition and will
be held in Santiago, Chile.
Note: Netherlands Capital: Amsterdam;
Netherlands Currency: Euro; Netherlands Prime minister: Mark Rutte.
2. R Praggnanandhaa wins prestigious
Reykjavik Open chess tournament: 16-year-old chess sensation R Pragganandhaa
has won the prestigious Reykjavik Open chess tournament in Reykjavik, Iceland.
In the final played between two Indian players, it was R Praggnanandhaa who won
the contest beating compatriot GM D Gukesh in the final round. The Indian
youngster scored 7½/9 and finished a half-point ahead. R Praggnanandhaa also
posted four other wins, including the one over American Abhimanyu Mishra, who,
last year, became the then youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years and four
months.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1. Kotak Mahindra Bank Launches
Digital Platform, FYN: Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMBL) has launched Kotak FYN, a
new enterprise platform designed specifically for Business Banking and Corporate
clients. Customers of the bank can utilise the portal to conduct all trade and
service transactions.
Key Points of Kotak FYN:
a)
According
to a press release, the Kotak FYN portal will contain many other services by
the fourth quarter of 2022, including account services, payments, and
collections.
b)
The
portal will also have a dashboard that consumers can personalise, real-time
tracking of transaction limits, access to prior transactions, and upcoming
transaction events, among other things.
c)
It
also promises to deliver a tailored experience in small steps with system
stability.
Kodak FYN to Offer Following
Services:
a)
Kotak
FYN seeks to provide clients with a consistent experience across all product
platforms through a unified perspective.
b)
The
platform ensures paperless transactions and the ability to follow transactions
from beginning to end.
c)
It
delivers status updates, decreasing requests and retrieval of uploaded
documents, as well as a safe and secure channel with authentication.
d)
Kodak
FYM is a digital corporate portal that serves as a one-stop shop.
e)
The
backbone of rising digital trade will be FYN’s end-to-end digital architecture,
better efficiency, speed, and enhanced security protocols.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1. India’s Retail Inflation Rose to
6.95% in March: India’s
retail inflation surged to a 17-month high of 6.95% in March from 6.07% in the
previous month due to a sharp increase in food prices, the National Statistical
Office (NSO) data showed. Retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price
Index (CPI) has remained above the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) tolerance band for the third consecutive month. The retail inflation
stood at 6.01 per cent in January 2022. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based on
inflation stood at 5.52% in March 2021. The price rise was sharper in rural
India than in urban. CPI for rural India surged to 7.66% in March from 6.38% in
the previous month. CPI-based inflation for urban India rose to 6.12% in March
2022 from 5.75% in the previous month.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1. Champion of Change Award 2021 in Madhya
Pradesh announced: Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel and Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have reached the program of Champions of Change
Madhya Pradesh 2021 organized by ‘Interactive Forum on Indian Economy’(IFIE) at
Kushabhau Thackeray auditorium in Bhopal. The organization recognizes them for
the great work done by individuals and organizations towards promoting the
values of courage, community service and inclusive social development.
Celebrities including the Chief Minister
will be honoured in the program. Here are the names of the awardees:
a)
Madhya
Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan;
b)
Former
Governor of UP and Mizoram Dr Aziz Qureshi;
c)
Music
performer Padma Vibhushan Teejan Bai;
d)
Mayor
of Indore Malini Laxmansingh Gaur;
e)
Rajya
Sabha MP Syed Zafar Islam;
f)
Indian
actress Divyanka Tripathi;
g)
Indian
film actor and lyricist Piyush Mishra;
h)
BJP
leader Vikram Verma, Banwari Lal Chouksey, Dr Bhagirath Prasad, Kalapini
Komakali, Sudhir Bhai Goyal, Girish Agarwal, Dilip Suryavanshi, Abhijeet
Sukhdane, Aarya Chavda, Rohit Singh Tomar, Megha Parmar, Vikas Bhaduaria,
Priyanka Dwivedi.
i)
CEO
of FidyPay Manan Dixit, Mayur Sethi, Renu Sharma, Dr Prakash Jain and Rajneet
Jain.
About the Award: Champions of
Change is an Indian award, for promoting Gandhian values, (Swachata), community
service and social development (in Aspirational district in India), selected by
constitutional jury members headed by K.G. Balakrishnan, Former Chief Justice
of India and Former Chairman NHRC along with Former Judge of Supreme Court of
India.
2. PM Narendra Modi to be honoured
with 1st Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be
honoured with the inaugural Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award which is instituted
in the memory of the veteran singer of Lata Mangeskar. PM Modi will receive the
award for selfless service to the nation and society. The award ceremony will
be held on April 24 which marks the 80th death anniversary of Master Deenanath
Mangeshkar (singing legend’s father).
Among the other awardees will be singer Rahul Despande, who will receive the Master Deenanath Award besides three other special awardees including veteran actress Asha Parekh, actor Jackie Shroff and the Mumbai Dabbawalas, represented by Nutan Tiffin Suppliers.
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