Latest Current Affairs For Thursday 14th April, 2022

Siachen Day observed every year on 13 April

Indian Army observed the 38th edition of Siachen Day on April 13 2022. This day has been observed to celebrate the bravery of the Indian Army under "Operation Meghdoot".

On April 13, 1984, Operation Meghdoot was launched which was led by the Lieutenant-General Prem Nath Hoon.

The Day also honours the Siachen Warriors who serve India successfully from the enemy.

The Siachen Glacier is the highest battleground on the earth.

Madhya Pradesh Champion of Change Award 2021

The actress Divyanka Tripathi has been honoured with Madhya Pradesh Champion Of Change Award 2021 for her phenomenal work as an artist.

The event was organized by the Interactive Forum on Indian Economy (IFIE) at Kushabhau Thackeray auditorium in Bhopal.

Other awardees:

Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Former Governor of UP and Mizoram: Dr Aziz Qureshi

Music performer: Padma Vibhushan Teejan Bai

Mayor of Indore: Malini Laxmansingh Gaur

Mumbai is recognised as a 'Tree City Of The World'

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) and Arbor Day Foundation have recognised Mumbai city as 'Tree City of the World’ for 2021 after Hyderabad (2020 Tree City of the World). 

Mumbai has received recognition for its commitment towards growing and maintaining urban trees and greenery in building healthy, resilient and happy cities.

CEO of Arbor Day Foundation: Dan Lambe

UNFAO Director-General: Qu Dongyu, Headquarters: Rome

Centre extended ₹40 crore relief to Central Tibetan Relief Committee

The Union government has extended the grant of ₹40 cr to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for another five years (up to 2025-26).

The scheme to provide grants to CTRC was launched in 2015.

Annual grant: Rs 8 crores

Purpose: To meet the administrative expenses of settlement offices and social welfare. 

Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir are the major concentration of the Tibetan refugees. 

NMDC wins two awards at 80th SKOCH Summit 2022

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), under the Ministry of Steel has been awarded with one gold and one silver award in the 80th SKOCH Summit in New Delhi.

The Theme 80th SKOCH Summit 2022 is ‘State of BFSI & PSUs’.

NMDC won gold in the category of social responsibility and silver in the category digital inclusion for the ‘Project Kalpataru’ for ERP implementation.

NMDC Headquarters: Hyderabad, Chairman & MD: Sumit Deb

National Delphic Games for Arts and Cultures in 2023 host by India

The International Delphic Council has announced that India will host the National Delphic Games in 2023.

Aim: Encompassing arts and cultures from 36 States/UT to celebrate the vast diversity of India's cultures.

It includes 6 categories of the arts: Musical Arts and Sounds, Performing Arts and acrobatics, Language Arts and Rhetoric, Visual Arts and Crafts, Social Arts and communications, Ecological Arts & Architecture. 

International Delphic Council: Berlin, Germany

BPCL collaborates with Microsoft for digital transformation

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) and Microsoft have come into a strategic cloud partnership to speed up the digital transformation in the oil and gas industry.

The partnership will accelerate the BPCL’s digital transformation effort named ‘Project Anubhav’.

The services will be provided by Microsoft to BPCL including platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, network and security services on the cloud and many more.

BPCL Chairman: Arun Kumar Singh

India handover consignment of Covishield to PM of Cambodia Hun Sen

India has delivered the consignment 3 lakh 25 thousand doses of Made in India Covishield vaccines to PM of Cambodia, Hun Sen, in Phnom Penh under the Quad’s flagship Vaccine Partnership to Cambodia.

India has committed to donate 500,000 doses of Covid vaccines to the Indo-Pacific under the Quad vaccine initiative.

The Quad Vaccine Partnership was announced by the Quad Leaders at their first Summit in 2021.

Ambassador of India to Cambodia: Devyani Khobragade

India LOC funded Hi-tech Park foundation laid in Bangladesh

The High Commissioner of India Vikram Doraiswami has laid the foundation stone for the first IT/ Hi-Tech Park was laid at Keraniganj near Dhaka along with Bangladesh State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, and Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Nasrul Hamid.

This is the first park under the Line of Credit (LOC) extended by the Indian government to Bangladesh.

With a committed LOC of over USD 7.86 bn Bangladesh becomes India’s largest development partner.

India, ADB sign 2 million Project Readiness Financing Loan to Nagaland

The government of India has signed USD 2 mn  Project Readiness Financing Loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Nagaland.

Focus area: Designing climate-resilient urban infrastructure; Strengthening institutional capacity; and improving municipal resource mobilization in 16 districts.

Towns and cities of Nagaland are facing long-term challenges of lack of basic amenities, climate change, and poor connectivity.

Nagaland CM: Neiphiu Rio, Governor: Jagdish Mukhi

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launches 'SVANidhi se Samriddhi'

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the 'SVANidhi se Samriddhi' program in addition to 126 cities across 14 States and UT.

SVANidhi se Samriddhi is an additional program of PM-SVANidhi which was launched in January 2021 in 125 cities in Phase one.

Prime Minister Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) has been implementing since June 2020

Aim: Provide working capital loans to Street Vendors

Netherlands crowns 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.

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.

Most successful team: Netherlands

2023 Women's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup: Santiago, Chile

PM Narendra Modi to be awarded prestigious Lokmanya Tilak Award 2023

The Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust (Hind Swaraj Sangh) would confer the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Award 2023 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Pune on August 1, 2023.

Reason: This award recognizes PM Modi's supreme leadership under which India has climbed the ladder of progress

It is presented annually on the occasion of Lokmanya Tilak's death anniversary.

Other awardees: Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sharad Pawar, Cyrus Poonawalla, and Manmohan Singh. 

J&K Bank wins award for Best Performance in CASA

Jammu & Kashmir Bank has been felicitated for the Best Performance in CASA-India (1st Runner up in Small Bank Category) at ICC Emerging Asia Banking Conclave & Awards 2022.

The event was participated by banks from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Myanmar.

The function was organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Goa.

Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in Calcutta.

India poised to become world’s 2nd-largest economy by 2075: Goldman Sachs

According to the Investment Bank Goldman Sachs, India is poised to become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075.

As per the report, India would cross Japan, Germany, and the US With a population of 1.4 billion people.

India’s GDP is estimated to expand remarkably, reaching 52.5 trillion dollars surpassing the US GDP projection.

The labour force participation set to make India the second-largest economy in the world by 2075.

L&T and Spain's Navantia sign agreement for submarine project

L&T has signed a teaming agreement with Spanish-based Navantia for the submission of a techno-commercial bid for the Indian Navy’s prestigious P75 (India) submarine program.

P75 (India) Submarine Project is expected to be valued at €4.8 billion.

Navantia would carry out the design of P75(I) submarines based on its S80 class of submarines.

The first S80 class submarine was launched in 2021 and is undergoing sea trials prior to its delivery to Spanish Navy. 

India overtakes China as most attractive emerging market for investing

According to a study by Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management, India has overtaken China to become the most attractive emerging market for investing in sovereign wealth funds this year.

Reason: This is due to its solid demographics, political stability, and proactive regulation. 

Positives for the nation also include the rapidly expanding demography, strong regulatory actions, and a welcoming climate for sovereign investors.

World Population Day 2023: 11 July

World Population Day is observed every year on July 11 in order to raise awareness about global population issues, including population control.

2023 theme: Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities. 

It was established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1989, after the day the world approximately reached a population of five billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987.

MoHUA conducts SBM-U 2.0 Planning & Implementation Review-cum-Workshop

The Housing Ministry organized a review-cum-workshop to evaluate and accelerate the planning and implementation of the SBM-Urban 2.0.

PM Modi launched the 2.0 versions of SBM-U and AMRUT on October 1, 2021.

SBM-U 2.0: Achieving 100% waste segregation in all households and premises and 100% door-to-door collection of segregated waste from each. 

AMRUT 2.0: To provide complete coverage of water supply to all households and sewerage and septage in 500 AMRUT cities. 

Gujarat CM launches pilot project of ‘Antyodaya Shramik Suraksha Yojana’

Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel launched the Antyodaya Shram Suraksha Accident Insurance Scheme from Kheda

All those registered under the e-Shram portal from Nadiad will benefit from the scheme.

It is being implemented through the Indian Postal Department, the IPPB, and the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Under this scheme, insurance with a premium of Rs. 289 and Rs. 499 per year will be a big support to workers in the event of death or partial disability.

OCA elects Sheikh Talal as the new President

Kuwait’s Sheikh Talal Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah has been elected as the new President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

He replaced his older brother Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who led the OCA for 30 years until 2021.

The OCA was founded in 1982 by his father Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who led it until 1990.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance wins Insurer Innovation Award 2023

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has won the Insurer Innovation Award 2023 for the APAC region at the 8th World Digital Insurance Awards, hosted by TDI - The Digital Insurer.

Recognition: Bajaj Allianz Life's ground-breaking WhatsApp Conversational Platform - empowering customers to digitally services their policies seamlessly. 

The award entries were shortlisted by industry experts and the winner was selected by the community through pre-voting and live event voting.