Daily Current Affairs February 20 & 21 2022

CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS

World Day of Social Justice – 20^th February

The United Nations’ (UN) World Day of Social Justice is annually observed on February 20 to encourage people to look at how social justice affects poverty eradication.
World Day of Social Justice 2022 Theme: “Achieving Social Justice through Formal Employment”
The International Labour Organization unanimously adopted the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization on 10 June 2008.
Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations.

World Pangolin Day:

Every year, World Pangolin Day is celebrated on the Third Saturday of February.
In 2022, the annual World Pangolin Day is being celebrated on 19th February 2022.
It marks the 11th edition of the event.
The main aim of this day is to raise awareness about these unique mammals and speed up conservation efforts.

About Pangolins

Pangolins are the only mammal to be covered in scales.
To protect themselves, they curl into balls like hedgehogs.
Their name comes from the Malay word ‘pengguling’ meaning ‘something that rolls up’.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

Government approves Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) Scheme to continue till 31st March, 2026:

The Government has approved the scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for continuation till 31^st March, 2026 or till further review, whichever is earlier.
The proposal entails an expenditure of Rs. 12929.16 crore out of which Central Share is Rs. 8120.97 crores and the State Share is of Rs. 4808.19 crores.
It has been envisaged to support around 1600 projects under the new phase of the scheme.
Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) is an overarching scheme, operating in mission mode for funding the state government universities and colleges to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence.

About RUSA:

Launched: 2013
Launched by (prime minister): Manmohan Singh
Ministry: Ministry of Education

Prime Minister to inaugurate Bio-CNG Plant in Indore:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Gobar-Dhan (Bio-CNG) Plant in Indore, Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing.
Modi has recently launched the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0, with the overall vision of creating Garbage Free Cities.
The Mission is being implemented under the overarching principles of waste to wealth and circular economy for maximising resource recovery and both of which are exemplified in the Indore Bio-CNG plant.
The plant has a capacity to treat 550 tonnes per day of segregated wet organic waste.
It is expected to produce around 17 thousand kilogram per day of CNG, and 100 tonnes per day of organic compost.

Union Minister of Ayush has laid the foundation stones of 4th section of Dhanwantri Bhawan in Delhi:

Union Minister of Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation for the fourth part of Dhanwantri Bhawan organised by the All-India Ayurveda Congress at its headquarters in Punjabi Bagh West, Delhi.
Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga travelled to India for treatment of his daughter’s eyesight.
Her eyesight was restored by Ayurvedic treatment for which he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to spread Ayurveda across the world.

About AYUSH:

The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy is purposed with developing education, research and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India.
Union Minister: Sarbananda Sonowal
Founded: 9 November 2014, India
Headquarters: New Delhi

Ministry of Power notifies green hydrogen policy:

The Ministry of Power has notified green hydrogen policy, the target of production of 5 million tonnes of Green hydrogen by 2030 and the related development of renewable energy capacity.
Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the National Hydrogen Mission on India’s 75th Independence Day (i.e. 15th August, 2021).
The Mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate targets and making India a green hydrogen hub.
Production of these fuels by using power from renewable energy, termed as green hydrogen and green ammonia, is one of the major requirements towards environmentally sustainable energy security of the nation.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Global trade hits record high of $28.5 trillion in 2021 – UNCTAD

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)‘s released its annual Global Trade Update 2022, which shows that the value of global trade, both in goods and services, reached a record level of $28.5 trillion in 2021.
This is an increase of 25% in 2020 and 13% higher compared to 2019.

Forecasts for 2022 :

The UNCTAD report indicates that trade growth will slow during the first quarter of 2022.
The positive trend for international trade in 2021 was largely the result of increases in commodity prices, subsiding pandemic restrictions and a strong recovery in demand due to economic stimulus packages.
According to the UNCTAD update, most global trade growth took hold during the first half of 2021, and continued in the second half of 2021.
After a relatively slow third quarter, trade growth picked up again in Q4 2021, when the value of global trade increased by about 3% relative to Q3 2021.

About UNCTAD :

Founded: 30 December 1964
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Head : Rebeca Grynspan

CURRENT AFFAIRS : STATE NEWS

MP government announces welfare schemes on Ravidas Jayanti

On Feb 16, 2021, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced welfare schemes for Dalits, including one related to self-employment, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.
Chouhan announced that the Global Skill Park, which is being built in Bhopal, would be named after Guru Ravidas.

Schemes for the welfare of scheduled caste community :

Grant up to ₹2 crore to the youths from Scheduled Caste community for self employment and skill development under the Mukhyamantri Anusuchit Jati Vishesh Pariyojana Vitta Poshan Yojana
Loans up to ₹1 lakh to MSMEs established by beneficiaries belonging to scheduled caste communities under Bhimrao Ambedkar Aarthik Kalyan Yojana
Sant Ravidas Swa-rozgar Yojana (under which loans up to Rs 25 lakh will be made available, for which the government will pay 5 percent interest), Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Aarthik Kalyan Yojana and Mukhyamantri Anusuchit Jati Vishesh Pariyojana Vitta Poshan Yojana to provide employment to the youths
Sant Ravidas community buildings to be constructed in scheduled caste dominated areas of every district
Loan assistance of ₹1 lakh-50 lakh to youths from Scheduled caste community for setting up manufacturing unit
The Madhya Pradesh government will expand the reach of the ‘Deendayal Antyodaya Rasoi Yojana’ to ensure that no one goes hungry.
It made a provision of Rs 32.41 crore towards providing professional training to the youth from the Scheduled Caste communities.
Other than this, the state government has made a provision of Rs 30 crore for development of SC-dominated villages.

About MP :

Capital: Bhopal
Chief minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Governor : Mangubhai C. Patel
National Parks : Kanha National Park, Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhav National Park, Sanjay National Park, Van Vihar National Park, Panna National Park, Satpura National Park, Pench National Park, Mandla Plant Fossils National Park
Wildlife Sanctuaries : Bori Wildlife Sanctuary, Bagdara Sanctuary, Phen Sanctuary, Ghatigaon Sanctuary, Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, Karera Sanctuary, Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary, Kheoni Sanctuary, Narsingharh Sanctuary
Tiger Reserve : Kanha Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Panna Tiger Reserve, Satpura Tiger Reserve, Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve

CURRENT AFFAIRS : BANKING & ECONOMY

BSE Ebix, LIC join hands for distribution of insurance products

BSE Ebix Insurance Broking, a joint venture of BSE and Ebix Fincorp Exchange Pte Ltd, signed an insurance broker agreement for the distribution of Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) products on its platform.
Under this agreement, BSE EBIX will offer their clients insurance products offered by LIC such as Life and Health, using its omni-channel digital presence.

Aim :

To offer customer-centric solutions backed by technological innovations and best in class services.

Note :

MD and CEO at BSE : Ashishkumar Chauhan

SBI Report – India’s GDP growth for FY22 at 8.8% and Q3 FY22 at 5.8%

According to the latest edition of SBI’s research report Ecowrap, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow at 5.8% in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
The FY22 GDP growth is now revised downwards to 8.8% from the earlier estimate of 9.3%.
The real GDP will be around Rs 2.35 lakh crore more or 1.6% higher than the FY20 real GDP of Rs 145.69 lakh crore.
The country’s economy expanded by 8.4 percent in the second quarter of 2021-22, to cross pre-pandemic levels.
However, the GDP growth in July-September period was slower than the 20.1 percent expansion in Q1 FY22.
The Nowcasting Model is based on 41 high frequency indicators associated with industry activity, service activity, and global economy.
The high frequency indicators suggest some weakening of demand in Q3 also continuing to January 2022, reflecting the drag on contact-intensive services.
Rural demand indicators stated two-wheeler and tractor sales, continued to decline since August 2021.
Amongst the urban demand indicators, consumer durables and passenger vehicle sales contracted in Q3, while domestic air traffic weakened in the wake of the Omicron variant.
The report suggested that the government can offer livelihood loans, say up to Rs 50,000 to rural poor.
If the government were to bear, 3 percent interest subsidy, on a portfolio of Rs 50,000 crore, the outlay would be only Rs 1,500 crore during 2022-23.
The report further stated that given the significant success of vaccination in the third wave in rural pockets, the livelihood loans can be the silver bullet catapulting the broader economy to unprecedented highs.

About SBI :

Founded: 1 July 1955
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairperson: Dinesh Kumar Khara

Juspay Technologies launches OpenPPI to support Interoperability of Prepaid Instruments

JusPay, a Softbank-backed digital payments infrastructure company, introduced OpenPPI.
This software stack aids prepaid instruments (PPI) such as digital wallets in implementing and complying with RBI’s PPI interoperability guidelines.
Juspay claims that the existing and prospective PPI players can comply with the new regulation by using this end-to-end secure cloud solution.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced in May 2021 that by March 31, 2022, all full-KYC compliant prepaid cards and wallets must be fully integrated and mutually compatible.
The restrictions are intended to accelerate the transition from cash to PPI devices and wallets for small and convenient payments.
Juspay raised $60 million in a fundraising round led by SoftBank Vision Fund II last December. SoftBank contributed $50 million, with the remaining funds coming from current investors VEF and Wellington Management.

About Justpay :

Co-Founder & COO : Sheetal Lalwani

RBI cancels license of Mantha Urban Cooperative Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has canceled the license of Mantha Urban Cooperative Bank and consequently, the bank ceases to carry on banking business.

The Reserve Bank canceled the license of the bank as:

The bank does not have adequate capital and earning prospects & as such, it does not comply with the provisions of section 11(1) and section 22 (3) (d) read with section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
The bank has failed to comply with the requirements of section 22(3) (a), 22 (3) (b), 22(3)(c), 22(3) (d) and 22(3)(e) read with section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
The continuance of the bank is prejudicial to the interests of its depositors;
The bank with its present financial position would be unable to pay its present depositors in full; and
Public interest would be adversely affected if the bank is allowed to carry on its banking business any further.

Mantha Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd Manta, District: Jalna, Maharashtra is prohibited from conducting the business of ‘banking’ which includes acceptance of deposits and repayment of deposits as defined in Section 5(b) read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 with immediate effect.
On liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of his/her deposits up to a monetary ceiling of ₹5,00,000/- (Rupees Five lakh only) from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) subject to the provisions of the DICGC Act, 1961.
As per the data submitted by the bank, more than 99% of the depositors are entitled to receive the full amount of their deposits from DICGC.
As on January 27, 2022, DICGC has sanctioned ₹95 crore of the total insured deposits under the provisions of Section 18A of the DICGC Act, 1961 based on the willingness received from the concerned depositors of the bank.

About RBI :

Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Governor: Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors : Mahesh Kumar Jain, M. Rajeshwar Rao, Michael Patra and T. Rabi Shankar.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

Adidas appoints table tennis player Manika Batra as brand ambassador

Adidas has appointed India’s top ranked female table tennis player Manika Batra as brand ambassador.
This partnership focuses on Empowering women to realize their Dreams as the brand continues to be an ally, cheering for women breaking barriers and creating a reverberating impact in the world of sports.

About Manika Batra :

Batra was born on 15 June 1995 in Delhi, India.
In 2011, Batra won the silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open.
Batra became the first Indian woman to bag a commonwealth table tennis individual gold medal in CWG 2018.
She is the top-ranked female table tennis player in India and ranked 50th in the world as of February 2022.

Awards & Honors :

Batra won the Arjuna Award in 2018.
She was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna highest sporting honor of India in 2020.

About Adidas :

Founded: 18 August 1949
Headquarters: Herzogenaurach, Germany
Chairman : Thomas Rabe
CEO: Kasper Rørsted
Founder : Adolf Dassler

CURRENT AFFAIRS : MOU & AGREEMENTS

Tourism Ministry and Alliance Air Aviation sign MoU to promote domestic tourism

On 17th February, 2022, The Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Alliance Air Aviation Limited (AAAL) to boost tourism throughout India.

Objective :

To meet an integrated marketing and promotional strategy and a synergised campaign in association with AAAL.
Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and Vineet Sood, Chief Executive Officer on behalf of M/s Alliance Air Aviation Limited jointly signed the MoU.
The MoU was signed with a view to achieve the common purpose of joint domestic promotion and considering the need to synergise the activities of MoT and AAAL in the tourism markets.
Alliance Air is the front runner in promoting the “Regional Connectivity Scheme” (RCS) of the Government of India which is being promoted under the Prime Minister’s UDAN- (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme.

About Ministry of Tourism :

Cabinet Minister : G. Kishan Reddy
Minister of State : Shripad Naik, Ajay Bhatt

NAFED Signs MoU With IOC For Setting Up Biofuel Projects

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for setting up biofuel projects, plants for post-processing of products and marketing of end products of CBG (Cannabigerol).
NAFED is committed to work towards greener & sustainable future

About NAFED :

Founded: 2 October 1958
Headquarters: New Delhi
Chairman : Dr. Bijender Singh
NAFED is registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act.

Objective :

To promote cooperative marketing of agricultural produce to benefit the farmers.

About IOC :

Founded: 30 June 1959
Headquarters: New Delhi, Delhi, India
Chairperson: Shrikant Madhav Vaidya
It is under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India

CURRENT AFFAIRS : DEFENCE NEWS

Indian Navy Test-Fires BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile

Indian Navy’s warship INS Visakhapatnam carried out the test-firing of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile off the western seaboard.
The warship reached Visakhapatnam to take part in the President’s Fleet Review on February 21.
Recently, the missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam which is the latest warship of the Indian Navy inducted.
The advanced sea to sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was a joint venture between India and Russia where Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) represents the Indian side.

About BrahMos :

BrahMos is the main weapon system of the Indian Navy warships and has been deployed on almost all of its surface platforms.
It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated.
An underwater version is also being developed which will not only be used by the submarines of India but will also be offered for export to friendly foreign nations.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : RANKING & INDEX

Rajasthan Tops Solar Electrification Under Saubhagya Scheme

Rajasthan has the maximum households electrified through the solar-based standalone system, while hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir had nil beneficiaries under the initiative.
Under the Saubhagya scheme, as many as 1,23,682 households were electrified through solar-based standalone system in Rajasthan, followed by Chhattisgarh (65,373), Uttar Pradesh (53,234), Assam (50,754), Bihar (39,100), Maharashtra (30,538), Odisha (13,735), Madhya Pradesh (12,651).
Under the Scheme,817 crore households were electrified up to March 31, 2021, including 4.16 lakh through solar-based standalone systems.
It also entailed provision of solar based standalone systems to un-electrified households where grid extension is neither feasible nor effective.

About ‘Saubhagya’ :

Center had launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana ‘Saubhagya’ in October 2017.