Here
is the Daily GK Update of 07th January 2022 covering the following news
headlines: ‘Sea Dragon’ exercise, Mamata: Beyond 2021, Shafali Verma, Ramnath
Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards, UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee
· India’s
Permanent Representative to the UN, T S Tirumurti has been appointed as the
Chair of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee for 2022. India
has assumed the chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council’s
Counter-Terrorism Committee (UNSC-CTC) for one year, beginning from January 01,
2022.
· Being
the Chair of Counter-Terrorism Committee 2022, India will work to further
enhance the role of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in strengthening the
multilateral response to counter-terrorism, and ensure that global response to
the threat of terrorism remains unambiguous, undivided and effective. India is
currently a non-permanent member of the 15-nation UNSC. Its two-year term will
end on December 31, 2022.
· China’s
senior diplomat Zhang Ming has taken charge as the new Secretary-General of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which India is a member. He has
taken charge from Vladimir Norov, former Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan for a
three-year term. He was until recently China’s ambassador to the European
Union.
· The
SCO comprises eight member states: India, Kazakhstan, China, the Kyrgyz
Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It also comprises four
countries with “observer” status and six more as “dialogue partners”.
· The
Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda joined the International Solar Alliance
(ISA) as the 102nd member by signing the International Solar Alliance Framework
Agreement, the India-led global green energy initiative.
· The
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne signed the framework
agreement in the presence of Indian High Commissioner Dr K. J. Srinivasa to
catalyze global energy transition through a solar-led approach.
· ISA
was jointly launched by India and France in 2015 during the 21st session of the
United Nations Climate Change COP-21 in Paris, France to promote solar energy.
Important
takeaways for all competitive exams:
· Antigua
and Barbuda Capital: Saint John’s;
· Antigua
and Barbuda Currency: East Caribbean Dollar;
· Antigua
and Barbuda Prime Minister: Gaston Browne.
· Gujarat
Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel has been launched “Student Start-ups and
Innovation Policy 2.0 (SSIP-2.0)” for the next five years. The policy contains
provisions for the establishment of active innovation and incubation centres in
all universities in the state.
· The
policy aims to cover 50 lakh students across 1,000 higher education institutes
and 10,000 schools of innovation and entrepreneurship. The policy also aims to
give assistance to 10,000 proof of concepts and prototypes developed by the
students and to 1,000 proof of concepts developed by school children.
Important
takeaways for all competitive exams:
· Gujarat
Capital: Gandhinagar;
· Gujarat
Governor: Acharya Devvrat;
· Gujarat
Chief minister: Bhupendrabhai Patel.
· State-owned
Bank of Baroda has signed cricketer Shafali Verma as its brand endorser.
· The
Bank continuously supports the youth of the country through its various banking
and non-banking initiatives and this announcement reflects the bank’s ethos of
adding value to its customer experience by choosing youth-icons like Shafali to
inspire them.”
· In
2019, at the age of 15, Shafali became the youngest cricketer to play in a
Women’s Twenty20 International match for India. Previously in 2021, Shafali
Verma became the 1st Women Cricketer to Hit 3 Sixes in Test Match.
· The
Centre has re-appointed Vijay Paul Sharma as the chairman of the Commission for
Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) after he relinquished the post in May
last year following completion of the five-year tenure.
· The
role of the CACP chairman will be crucial in the proposed committee on the
minimum support price (MSP) and other reforms. Sharma, a professor at the
Centre for Management in Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad, was appointed CACP Chairman for the first time in June 2016.
· The
Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, established in 1965, is an apex
advisory body under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. It’s an
expert body that recommends the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) by taking into
consideration various factors.
· United
Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in India, has partnered with The Akshaya
Patra Foundation (TAPF), a not-for-profit organization, to enhance the effectiveness
of the Pradhan Mantri – Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) scheme (earlier known
as National Programme for Mid-Day Meal in Schools).
· The
partnership aims to enhance food safety and hygiene projects, capacity building
of cooks-cum-helpers and nutritional quality of school meals.
· Under
this collaboration, WFP and TAPF will share knowledge through workshops and
policy and strategy dialogues with the government to enhance the quality of the
school meal programme.
· Since
its inception in 1961, school meals have been part of WFP’s mission. WFP has
six decades of experience supporting school feeding and working with more than
100 countries to set up sustainable national school feeding programmes.
Important
takeaways for all competitive exams:
· World
Food Programme Founded: 1961;
· World
Food Programme Headquarters: Rome, Italy;
· World
Food Programme Executive Director: David Beasley.
· India
and its partners in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad along with
Canada and South Korea are participating in the multinational exercise Sea
Dragon 2022 at Guam in the Western Pacific.
· The
six nations that are participating in the exercise are the United States,
Australia, Canada, India, Japan and South Korea.
· The
exercise, primarily focused on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training, will
involve more than 270 hours of in-flight training and activities ranging from
tracking simulated targets to tracking a US Navy submarine. Each event will be graded
and the country scoring the highest points will receive the Dragon Belt award.
· Mukesh
Ambani’s Reliance Retail has invested $200 million or around Rs 1,488 crore in
Bengaluru-based quick commerce player Dunzo for a 25.8 per cent stake on a
fully diluted basis. The move will help Reliance get a foothold in the
country’s growing quick delivery market.
· Dunzo
raised a total of $240 million in this latest round led by the Reliance
Industries Ltd arm. The other existing investors were Lightbox, Ligthrock, 3L
Capital and Alteria Capital, who participated in the round.
· The
funding will be used to strengthen Dunzo’s vision to excel in the quick
commerce business, enabling instant delivery of essentials from a network of
micro warehouses while also expanding its B2B business vertical to enable
logistics for local merchants in Indian cities.
Important
takeaways for all competitive exams:
· Dunzo
Founder(s): Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha;
· Dunzo
Founded: July 2014;
· Dunzo
Headquarters location: Bengaluru.
· Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) of two
Payment System Operators (PSOs): Muthoot Vehicle and Asset Finance Limited and
Eko India Financial Services Private Limited, citing non-compliance with
regulatory requirements under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
· Both
Muthoot Vehicle and Asset Finance Limited and Eko India Financial Services
Private Limited had the certificate of authorisation issued by the RBI for
issuance and operation of prepaid payment instruments.
· The
RBI further mentioned in its press release that the COA cancellation came into
force on December 31, 2021. But RBI clarified in its notice that the customers
or merchants who have a valid claim on these companies as PSOs can approach
them for settlement of their claims within three years from the date of
cancellation.
· The
Indian Express Group has announced the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism
Awards (RNG Awards) for journalists across the country, for their work done in
2019.
· RNG
awards are one the most prestigious awards in India in the field of journalism,
held annually since 2006. The photo stories of our winners appeared in our print
and digital editions between December 24, 2021, and January 4, 2022.
· South
Indian Bank (SIB) won the UiPath Automation Excellence Awards 2021 for Best
Automation under ‘Crisis for Business Continuity’.
· The
2021 edition of the award recognises the contribution of the individuals and
organizations across India and South Asia (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal) for
bringing change through transformative automation projects.
· India’s
one of the top numerologists, JC Chaudhry has achieved the first-ever Guinness
World Record in Numerology and the first world record of 2022 by educating
about ancient science to around 6000 participants, enthusiasts of numerology
joined from the United States, the United Kingdom, Middle East, and India.
· The
Guinness World Record London office has opened a new category, “Numerology” for
this achievement. The initiative was organised by CNPL (Chaudhry Nummero Pvt
Ltd) and the Indian Institute of Numerology to create awareness regarding
numerology, which is prevalent across ancient cultures like Greece, Egypt,
China, Chaldea and India.
· The
flagship UJALA programme of the Ministry of Power has successfully completed
seven years of distributing and selling LED lights on January 05, 2022. Unnat
Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme was launched by Prime Minister
of India Shri Narendra Modi on January 05, 2015.
· UJALA
initiative is the world’s largest zero-subsidy domestic lighting programme with
more than 36.78 crore LEDs distributed across the country.
· As
on 5th January 2022, 47,778 million (48 billion) kilowatt-hour (kWh) per annum
energy has been saved. The demand of 9,565 Megawatt (MW) has been avoided,
along with 386 crore tonnes of reduction in CO2 emissions.
· HarperCollins
Publishers India is set to publish a new book titled “Mamata: Beyond 2021”,
authored by political journalist Jayanta Ghosal and translated by Arunava
Sinha.
· The
announcement about the release of the book was made on 5th January 2022, the
birthday of Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister (CM) of West Bengal and the
leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
· The book explores and examines why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the 2021 West Bengal Election
TO
READ CURRENT AFFAIRS OF 6TH JANUARY : CLICK HERE | TO
READ CURRENT AFFAIRS OF 8TH JANUARY : CLICK HERE |