Excellence by Saikat Sir: Daily Current Affairs March 24 2022

Daily Current Affairs March 24 2022

CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS

Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs Day- 23rd March:

March 23 every year is observed as Shaheed Diwas to mark the death anniversary of Indian freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar.
Also, 30 January is observed as Martyr’s Day or Shaheed Diwas in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1928, Bhagat Singh plotted to kill a police officer to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death.
Later, in 1929, Bhagat Singh and his associates dropped two bombs at the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and allowed themselves to be arrested, while shouting the famous freedom struggle slogan, “Inquilab Zindabad”, or “Long live the revolution”.
It was on March 23, 1931, when the three were hanged to death in the Lahore Central Jail in British India (now Pakistan) by Britishers.

World Meteorological Day 2022:

World Meteorological Day takes place every year on 23 March, commemorating the date in 1950 when the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organization came into force.
This year World Meteorological Day is celebrated keeping the theme of Early Warning and Early Action.
The day is celebrated as the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and it concentrates on the behaviour of Earth’s atmosphere.
World Meteorological Day is celebrated as the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which was established on March 23, 1950.
Today, it’s been 72 years of the organization, and it has made immense progress and helped the world to be a better place.
WMO headquarters is situated in Geneva, Switzerland.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

Ministry of Civil Aviation & FICCI to jointly organised ‘WINGS INDIA 2022’ in Hyderabad:

Ministry of Civil Aviation and FICCI will jointly organise Asia’s largest event on Civil Aviation – WINGS INDIA 2022 – from 24th to 27th of March at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad.
Theme of the event is “India@75: New Horizon for Aviation Industry.”
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will be formally inaugurating the event on 25th March.
On 25th March, WINGS INDIA AWARDS will be conferred upon the Aviation-related companies, institutions and organizations that have created benchmarks and made notable contributions in the area of civil aviation in the country.

CCEA approves extension of applicability of NIP-2012 for three units of Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Limited:

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved an extension of applicability of New Investment Policy, NIP-2012 for the three units of Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Limited, HURL in Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni.
HURL is a Joint Venture Company by Coal India Limited, NTPC and Indian Oil Corporation.
These three facilities integrate the world’s best technologies aiming to meet the demand for urea in Seven States – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.
The company is reviving the erstwhile Gorakhpur and Sindri Units of Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited and Barauni Unit of Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited by setting up new gas-based Urea Plants with the installed capacity of 12.7 Lakh Metric Ton Per Annum each.
All three HURL units have various unique features like state-of-the-art blast proof control room equipped with Distributed Control System, Emergency Shutdown System and environment Monitoring Systems.

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to inaugurate Step-Up to End TB – World TB Day Summit on occasion of World TB Day:

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will inaugurate the Step-Up to End TB-World TB Day Summit on the occasion of World TB Day on 24th of March in New Delhi.
Chief Guest at the summit will be Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel, who will attend the summit virtually.
The two days summit will provide a forum to showcase the National TB Elimination Programme’s learnings and successes.
During the event, Union Health Minister will award well-performing states and districts for achieving improved levels of TB elimination.
TB survivor will also share her story and journey of overcoming this disease

Cabinet approves Minimum Support Price of Raw Jute for 2022 -23 season:

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Minimum Support Price, MSP for Raw Jute for 2022-23 season.
The approval is based on recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.
The MSP of Raw Jute, TDN3 equivalent to TD5 grade has been fixed at 4750 rupees per quintal for 2022-23 season.
This is an increase of 250 rupees over the previous year.
This will ensure a return of 60-point, 53 percent over all India weighted average cost of production.
The announcement is in line with the principle of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times all India weighted average cost of production as announced by the Government in the Budget 2018-19.
It assures a minimum of 50 percent as margin of profit.

Govt Extends FAME-II Scheme till March 2024:

The Union government has announced the extension of the second phase of FAME India scheme by two years till March 31, 2024.
The FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacture of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles) Scheme is an incentive scheme for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country.
Ultimate objective of the scheme is to promote electric mobility and it gives financial incentives for enhancing electric vehicle production and creation of electric transportation infrastructure.
The incentives are provided in the form of subsidies to manufacturers of electric vehicles and infrastructure providers of electric vehicles.
Launched by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in 2015, the first phase of the scheme started in 2015 and was completed on March 31st, 2019.
Phase I of the FAME-India Scheme was implemented with an outlay of INR 895 Cr.
Approximately 2,18,625 Electric Vehicles were promoted by FAME I till July 2018.

About FAME:

The FAME India Scheme is an incentive scheme for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country
Earlier this month, the Union government increased incentives on electric two- and three-wheelers to help boost broad-based adoption
During the period of the scheme, Indian EV startups raised $601 Mn between 2014 and 2019.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : STATE NEWS

Kerala Becomes First State To Introduce Carbon-Neutral Farming

Kerala is set to become the first State in the country to introduce carbon-neutral farming methods in selected locations.
For that the government has set aside ₹6 crore in the 2022-23 Budget.
In the first phase, carbon-neutral farming will be implemented in 13 farms under the Agriculture department and tribal areas, and steps are on to convert the State Seed Farm at Aluva to a carbon-neutral farm.
In the second phase, model carbon-neutral farms will be developed in all the 140 Assembly constituencies.
The Agriculture department was involved in a process of adopting new farming methods in phases, which would reduce carbon emissions and help carbon to be stored in the soil.

Ways to reduce carbon footprint in agriculture :

Improving soil health through integrated farming methods
Rotation of crops
Adoption of fertigation
Precision farming methods
Changing the ways in which the soil is irrigated
Limiting the indiscriminate use of fertilizers.

About Kerala :

Governor: Arif Mohammad Khan
Capital: Thiruvananthapuram
Chief minister: Pinarayi Vijayan

Music instrument of TN Narasinghapettai Nagaswaram gets GI tag

Tamil Nadu’s traditional wind instrument ‘Narasinghapettai Nagaswaram’ made by traditional village artisans of Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu has got the prestigious Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
It has got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag under musical instruments of class 15’.
On behalf of Thanjavur Musical Instruments Workers Co-operative Cottage Industrial Society Limited, the application for receiving the GI tag was filed by Tamil Nadu’s Nodal Officer for GI Registration of Products.

About Narasinghapettai Nagaswaram’ :

Unique Feature :

Narasinghapettai nagaswaram’ is its production process – it is handmade in Narasingapettai village in Thanjavur, unlike the other machine-made ones.
A major portion of the ‘Narasinghapettai nagaswaram’ is made from the aacha (Hardwickia binata) tree.
The nagaswaram now being used by artists throughout is called ‘pari nagaswaram’, which is longer than the ‘thimiri’.
The instrument’s length is5 feet..
It has a body that is cylindrical in shape and takes the shape of a bell at the bottom.
This form of the nagaswaram provides volume and tone.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS NEWS

Rupeek partners with NSDC to build skilled gold appraisers:

Asset-backed digital lending platform Rupeek has announced the launch of ‘Rupeek Academy’ in collaboration with the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), an initiative by NSDC.
The partnership is aimed at attracting young talent looking for career opportunities within India’s gold loan industry.
With a vision to create a centre for excellence in developing and managing talent for gold appraisers, Rupeek has set up a skilling programme.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : BANKING & ECONOMY

Paytm Payment Gateway launches ‘Payment Analytics’

A wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications Limited, Paytm Payments Services Limited, has launched a first-of-its-kind service called ‘Payment Analytics’, designed by Paytm Payment Gateway.

About Payment Analytics’ :

It is a data analysis feature for online and offline merchants. This is available to all Paytm merchants at no extra cost.
It offers three services

Payment source analytics
Customer analytics
Payment flow analytics

It has been exclusively designed to provide ready-made reports about payment sources, payment flows, customer behaviour, user retention, payment success rates and reasons for payment failures.
This will allow business owners to effectively analyse the transaction patterns and preferences of customers on their website and/or app.
With these services, Paytm’s offline merchant partners can ascertain their Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and even find out the total number of transactions on a day-to-day or monthly basis.

About Paytm Payments Services Limited :

Incorporated : 10 October 2020
CEO : Praveen Sharma
Directors : Sanjeev Garg, Madhur Deora, Vivek Kumar Mathur and Vikas Garg

Fitch Ratings declines India’s FY23 growth forecast to 8.5% from 10.3%

Rating agency Fitch slashed India’s growth forecast for the next fiscal to 8.5 percent from 10.3 percent, citing soaring energy prices and rising inflation on account of the Russia-Ukraine war.
It has revised upwards the GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal by 0.6 percentage points to 8.7 percent.
For 2023-24, it is estimated at 7 per cent.
Fitch has reduced the world GDP growth forecast by 0.7 percentage points to 3.5 percent.

Note :

Russia supplies around 10 percent of the world’s energy, including 17 percent of its natural gas and 12 percent of oil.
Inflation to remain elevated throughout the forecast horizon, at 6.1 per cent annual average in calendar year 2021 (CY21) and 5 per cent in CY22.

About Fitch Ratings :

Founded : 1914
Headquarters : New York, U.S
President : Ian Linnell

RBI cancels license of Kanpur-based People’s Co-operative Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the license of Kanpur-based People’s Co-operative Bank Limited as the bank does not have adequate capital and earning prospects.

The Reserve Bank cancelled 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
Consequent to the cancellation of its license, People’s Co-operative Bank Limited, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 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 a deposit insurance claim of up to Rs 5 lakh from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).
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 February 14, 2022, DICGC has sanctioned ₹6.97 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
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Governor : Shaktikanta Das
Deputy governors : Mahesh Kumar Jain, Rajeshwar Rao, Michael Patra and T. Rabi Shankar

About DICGC :

Founded: 15 July 1978
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Chairman : M.D. Patra
DICGC is a specialised division of Reserve Bank of India which is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

NABARD sanctions Rs 4,013cr financial assistance for Odisha

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 4,013 crore to the Odisha government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) during the financial year 2021-22.
With an assistance of Rs 2,568 crore (64 percent of the state’s total sanction) has been sanctioned for construction of rural roads.

Key Highlights :

These projects are expected to benefit more than 10 lakh people in the state by way of creating and upgrading the road and bridge length of 2,000 km and 17.13 km
The NABARD has approved financial assistance of Rs 840 crore for 9 mega piped water supply projects aimed at providing safe drinking water to about 17 lakh rural population in Odisha.
An amount of Rs 605 crore has also been given to the state for development of various agro-allied and irrigation infrastructure.
Some of the notable projects sanctioned include Kusumi Irrigation Project and Livestock Vaccine Production Unit at Berhampur.
The total cumulative sanctions of NABARD since the inception of RIDF has crossed Rs 32,100 crore for Odisha.

About NABARD :

Founded: 12 July 1982
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Chairman : Govinda Rajulu Chintala
NABARD was established on the recommendations of Sivaramman Committee (by Act 61, 1981 of Parliament).

About Odisha :

Governor: Ganeshi Lal
Capital: Bhubaneswar
Chief minister: Naveen Patnaik

CURRENT AFFAIRS : AWARDS & HONORS

NITI Aayog Organizes 5th Edition of Women Transforming India Awards

On March 21, 2022, NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is organizing the fifth edition of the Women Transforming India Awards (WTI).
As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, the WTI Awards have been conferred on 75 women achievers for their contribution towards a Sashakt Aur Samarth Bharat’.
The Awards were conferred by acclaimed personalities such as
Kiran Bedi, former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
Lakshmi Puri, former Assistant Secretary-General of UN
Dr Tessy Thomas, Director-General of Aeronautical Systems, DRDO
Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairperson of State Bank of India
Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM;
Ila Arun, acclaimed singer.
Sports champions :
Shiny Wilson, Track and Field Athlete
Karnam Malleswari, first Indian woman to win a medal in weightlifting in the 2000 Olympics
Lovlina Borgohain, Tokyo Olympic medallist in boxing
Mansi Joshi, World No. 1 para-badminton singles’ player in SL3
Pranati Naik, Tokyo 2020 Olympian gymnast and 2019 Asian Championship medallist
Simranjit Kaur, Tokyo 2020 Olympian and 2018 AIBA World Championship medallist

About Women Transforming India Awards :

The Women Transforming India Awards is NITI Aayog’s annual initiative to highlight the commendable and ground-breaking endeavours of India’s women leaders and change-makers.

About Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) :

WEP is an aggregator portal that aims to catalyse the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women and address information asymmetry.
To build a vibrant ecosystem for women-led enterprises, the platform works to strengthen industry linkages and increase awareness of existing programmes and services.

Click here for full list of winners

About NITI Aayog :

Established : 1 January 2015
Headquarters : New Delhi, Delhi, India
CEO : Amitabh Kant
Chairperson : Narendra Modi
Vice Chairperson : Rajiv Kumar

CURRENT AFFAIRS : MOU & AGREEMENTS

Indian Potash Ltd inks MoU with Israel Chemicals Limited for the supply of Muriate of Potash (MOP)

Indian Potash Limited (IPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative under the Department of Fertilisers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Israel Chemicals Limited (ICL) for providing Muriate of Potash (MOP) from 2022 to 2027.
The annual quantity supply would be 6 to 6.5 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT).
The MoU is signed in the presence of Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers in Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi.
It would prove beneficial in view of the affected supply chain of potash due to the Ukraine-Russia war and escalating cost of potash and other fertilisers supplied from that region.
The Indian government is committed to increase the agricultural production and income of farmers with judicious use of fertilisers, he said and sought cooperation of Israeli side in improving fertilisers use, and use of alternate environment friendly fertilisers.

About MOP :

MOP is Potassium Chloride, it contains 60% of potash ( essential for plant growth).

About IPL :

Founded : 17 June 1955
Headquarters : Chennai, TN, India
Director & Managing Director : Dr. P. S. Gahlaut
President : D. John Thankam

About IFFCO :

Founded: 3 November 1967
Headquarters: New Delhi, Delhi, India
Chairman : Dileep Sanghani
MD & CEO : Dr. U.S Awasth

CURRENT AFFAIRS : DEFENCE NEWS

Cold Response 2022 – NATO military exercise begins in Norway

The Major military exercise ‘Cold Response 2022’ has kicked off in Norway from 14^th March till 1^st April 2022 organized by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

About Cold Response 2022 :

Cold Response 2022 is a long-planned and regular exercise, which Norway hosts biannually.

Aim :

To test how Norway would manage Allied reinforcements on its soil, in line with Article 5 of NATO‘s charter which requires member states to come to the aid of another member state under attack.
The exercise has brought together 220 aircraft, 30000 soldiers, and over 50 ships from 27 countries.
It is organised every two years, the naval, air and ground drills are held over vast swaths of Norway, including above the Arctic Circle.

About NATO :

Formed : 4 April 1949
Headquarters : Brussels, Belgium
Secretary General : Jens Stoltenberg
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee : Lt. Admiral Rob Bauer
It is an intergovernmental military alliance among 28 European countries and 2 North American countries.

About Norway :

Capital: Oslo
Currency: Norwegian krone
PM : Jonas Gahr Støre

3rd edition of India-Uzbekistan joint military exercise begins in Yangiarik

The 3rd edition of joint training exercise between Indian and Uzbekistan armies, EX-DUSTLIK is being conducted at Yangiarik, Uzbekistan from March 22 to 31 2022.
The exercise would focus on Counter Terrorism operations in semi-urban terrain under a United Nations Mandate.
The Indian contingent will be represented by the Grenadiers Regiment and will join the Uzbekistan Army contingent represented by troops of the North-Western Military District.