Daily GK Updates - 21st March, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  Kerala all set to get tribal instructors for increasing literacy rate: In a first, Kerala government will rope in qualified tribal instructors to impart literacy in their respective settlements in a bid to improve literacy rates among tribal populations. The instructors will teach people who are above 15 years of age, Director of Kerala literacy mission PS Sreekala said. Around 370 instructors for 100 villages have been appointed for the initiative. 
Need to know:  Kerala has the second highest literacy rate(93.91 Percent) among the states of India just after Tripura (94.65%) Himachal Pradesh underwent a "Schooling Revolution" in the 1961–2001. Kerala has led the nation in literacy rates since the 19th century and seen sustained initiatives for over 150 years, whereas Himachal Pradesh's literacy rates in 1961 were below the national average in every age group. Have a look to the India’s literacy rate. compared to the world.

 

Country	Literacy rate
	Adult	youth
China	96.40%	99.70%
Sri Lanka	92.60%	98.80%
Myanmar	93.10%	96.30%
World Average	86.30%	91.30%
India	72.10%	90.20%

2.Agreement for Skill Development Programme for 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendra: The ministries of agriculture and skill development signed an agreement to conduct training programmes for agriculture and allied sectors at 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The aim is to intensify the pace of skill development in 690 Krishi Vikas Kendras country-wide by training agricultural workforce.

Need to know:  Agriculture Minister - Radha Mohan Singh

3.   106th Indian Science Congress (ISC) to be held in Bhopal: General President-elect Manoj Kumar Chakrabarti announced that the 106th edition of the Indian Science Congress will be held in January 2019 at Barkatullah University Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The theme for 2019 ISC will be “Future India: Science & Technology”.
Need to know: 105th Indian Science Congress was held at Imphal.

4. Shri Atul M. Gotsurve appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea:  Shri Atul M. Gotsurve (IFS: 2004), currently Director in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. Moon Jae-in is the president of South Korea.

5.   The Union Home Ministry has given its approval to rename Robertsganj railway station in UP as Sonbhadra: This is the second railway station in the state to be renamed within a year, with the first one being the Mughalsarai railway station that was renamed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay station in August 2017. Station falls under the North-Central zone of the Indian Railways’ Allahabad division.

6.  “Delhi’s Date with Democracy” - Delhi launched app to find singing talent:   The Delhi government launched a mobile app called “Delhi’s Date with Democracy”. It’s aim is to allow applicants from all parts of the city to showcase their talent. “There is no age limit and interested candidates can start sending their entries in both categories- singing and dancing, from tomorrow onwards,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

7.  The world’s longest sandstone cave called ‘Krem Puri’, which is 24,583 metres long has been discovered in Meghalaya:  This underground cave is more than 6,000 metres longer than the world record-holder, the ‘Cueva Del Saman’ in Edo Zulia, Venezuela — a quartzite sandstone cave measuring 18,200 metres. The cave system has fossils of dinosaurs, that lived 66-76 million years ago.

8.   President Ram Nath Kovind gave away prestigious Padma awards to 89 winners at Rashtrapati Bhawan:  Ilaiyaraja got Padma Vibhushan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is among the nine Padma Bhushan recipients. Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan are the second and third highest civilian awards of the country respectively.

9. The Government of India has approved the setting up of a ‘Plastic Park’ in Deoghar District in Jharkhand:  A range of polymer products including woven sacks, moulded furniture, water tanks, bottles, pipes mosquito nets, etc would be manufactured in this plastic park. A plastic recycling unit will also be set up at Deoghar to tackle the menace of plastic waste.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  G20 ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires: The 1st G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors began on 19th March in Buenos Aires, with the presence of 57 delegations from countries and institutions. The topics under discussion are likely to be infrastructure and the future of work in the digital arena. This is the first of five such meetings to be held before Argentina hosts the G20 Summit.
Need to know: Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking nation.

2.   World Sparrow Day - 20th March: World Sparrow Day was observed on 20th March to create awareness about the protection of sparrows. The theme for this year’s day was ” I Love Sparrows”. The first World Sparrow Day was observed in 2010 across the globe. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France).

3.  Austria’s capital Vienna once again defended its position as the city offering the best quality of life in the world in an annual survey from consulting firm Mercer:  Vienna is followed by Switzerland’s Zurich and then New Zealand’s Auckland and Germany’s Munich in joint third. The criteria to rank the cities were political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.

OTHER UPDATES:

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: 
1. Low-cost material developed to reduce air pollution: Scientists have developed a new low-cost and sustainable material that may displace activated carbon as the preferred choice for reducing water and air pollution. The material is synthesized inexpensively from solid wastes and a naturally abundant polymer. Activated carbon is the common adsorbent used to reduce both atmospheric and water pollution but is expensive to produce and regenerate.

AWARDS/ HONOURS:  
1. India’s National Cultural Audio Visual Archives (NCAA) has been certified as the world’s 1st trusted digital repository by the UK-based organisation: NCAA is the project of Ministry of Culture and is implemented by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. The objective of the NCAA is to identify and preserve the cultural heritage of India available in audiovisual form by digitization. 

2. Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands  wins Abel Prize: Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands won the prestigious Abel Prize for developing a programme connecting representation theory to number theory. The prize was established by the Norwegian government in 2002 to honour outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics. Along with the Fields Medal, it is one of the world’s most prestigious maths prizes.

Daily GK Updates - 21st January, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. “Cyber Surakshit Bharat” launched by MEITY: In order to strengthen cybersecurity ecosystem in India, Ministry of Electronics & IT has announced Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative in association with NeGD & industry partners. It will be operated on the three principles of Awareness, Education and Enablement. It is the first public-private partnership of its kind & will leverage the expertise of the IT industry in cyber security.

2. Commencement of ‘Livability Index’: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has announced commencement of the country’s first-ever ‘Livability Index’ to rank 116 cities. Cities will be assessed on 15 core parameters like governance, social infrastructure, education, employment etc. ‘Livability Index’ will also take into account physical infrastructures like housing, open spaces, land use, energy and water availability among others.

3. In an initiative to empower Persons with Disabilities, 100 websites of various State Govts/UTs under Accessible India Campaign were launched:  Accessible Websites are those websites into which Persons with Disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web. ERNET India (MEITY) is executing the project which is funded by DEPwD under Accessibility India Campaign.

4. CRPF special DG Sudeep Lakhtakia has been appointed as the new chief of National Security Guard(NSG): Lakhtakia will take over from S P Singh, the current chief of the elite counter-terror force. NSG is special forces unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs which was raised in 1984 for combating terrorist activities with a view to protect states against internal disturbances.

5. Innovation in Governance Award 2018: Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh was felicitated with Dr. Kalam Innovation in Governance Award 2018. The award was conferred on him by Rajya Sabha Secretary General Desh Deepak Verma for exemplary work in improving governance. The foundation was set up in the memory of former President A J Abdul Kalam. It works in various areas for development of the society.

6. India is the world’s largest consumer of petcoke: The environment ministry has placed restrictions on the use of imported petroleum coke in Delhi & its surrounding region to curb rising air pollution: Only consented & registered industrial units of NCR States shall be permitted to directly import pet coke. India is the world’s largest consumer of petcoke & imports over half its annual petcoke consumption of about 27mn tonnes mainly from US.

7. President Kovind felicitated exceptional women achievers who are the first to set a milestone in their respective fields at Rashtrapati Bhawan: Over 100 women were selected after an extensive research process by Women & Child Development Ministry. The women who have been felicitated are those who have been the first in any field like first woman judge, first woman porter, first Olympian etc.

8. Tamilnadu to host first ever Defence Expo: According to defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Tamil Nadu will host its first-ever bi-annual defence exhibition in April. The exhibition will take place from April 11 to 14 and nearly 80 countries are expected to take part in it. Arrangements will be made for the Navy, Army and Air Force to display their equipment in the exhibition.

9. Arun Jaitley, Union Finance & Corporate Affairs minister, launched the National CSR Data Portal & Corporate Data Portal in Delhi: The initiative is a significant step towards driving accountability & transparency for corporate India. By making the portals accessible to general public, it will ensure high level of compliance and also in institutionalizing and consolidating the CSR activities.

10. Newly appointed chairman of ISB: Harish Manwani, non-executive chairman of HUL, has been appointed as the chairman of executive board of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad:  Manwani will take over from Adi Godrej, chairman of Godrej group, starting April this year. Manwani has been on the board of ISB since April 2006. ISB is a premier management institution in India having campuses in Hyderabad & Mohali.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. UN special envoy visits Rohingya camp: UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee visited Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh’s coastal town of Cox’s Bazar. Lee was also supposed to visit her native Myanmar, but govt there unexpectedly banned her from visiting the country. Rohingyas are a Muslim minority ethnic group in Myanmar. They have been regarded as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. Allahabad Bank became First to issue shares: Allahabad Bank has became the 1st public sector lender to offer an employee stock option scheme, under which it will offer 5 crore ordinary shares to its staff. Proceeds from share sale will be used to raise core capital of the bank which has long ago been placed under prompt corrective action by RBI. Bank may issue shares in 1 tranche & will complete the transactions in this financial year.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. ONGC To Buy Government Stake In HPCL: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has agreed to buy the government’s majority stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp for Rs. 36,900 crore. The deal is part of the govt’s objective to combine various public sector enterprises to give them the capacity to bear higher risks & create more value for shareholders. The proceeds from the HPCL stake sale will help the government pay for welfare programmes.

BANKING/ FINANCE:

1. Axis Bank with Srijan NGO initiated Buddha Fellowship Programme: Axis Bank is partnering with NGO Srijan through an initiative called Buddha Fellowship Programme to help nurture talent for development sector. Buddha Fellows are a cohort of IIM grads working in rural areas with farmer producer companies, govt departments to scale up projects in livelihood, health & education sectors. The bank is mentoring 15 grads from IIM at Kolkata, Ahmedabad & Shillong.