Current Affairs Quiz 11th March 2022 : Daily GK Update Quiz

Tripura Government has announced a special scheme ‘Mukhyamantri Chaa Srami Kalyan Prakalpa’, allotting Rs. 85 crores for its implementation, as a step towards bringing the 7000 tea garden workers of Tripura under social security net.

About 75% of the 7000 tea garden workers are women and they produce nearly 90 lakh kilograms of tea through 54 tea estates & 21 tea processing factories across the state. The tea production is mainly distributed in North, Sepahijala, Unakoti and West Tripura districts.

This special scheme would ensure housing, rations and financial support to the tea garden workers by integrating the facilities that are entitled to them, by the state government and the central government.

The Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Amit Shah had recently inaugurated the year 2022 Women Empowerment Campaign and Chief Minister Shramik Kalyan Prakalp scheme for the women of Tripura on the occasion of International Women’s Day & has also laid the foundation stone for National Forensic Sciences University in Agartala, capital of Tripura.

Exp. Jyotiraditya Scindia and Shivraj Chouhan inaugurated first drone school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the first drone school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

In addition, Madhya Pradesh was also the first state in the country in advancing the use of drone technology at a big scale by organising drone meta in Gwalior in December last year.

Exp. India’s 1st fully women-owned industrial park inaugurated in Hyderabad

India’s first 100% women-owned industrial park became operational in Hyderabad, Telangana. It is spread over a 50-acre area in Sultanpur near Patancheru industrial area.

Industrial Park is promoted by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) in partnership with the state government of Telangana.

Initially, the park has 25 women-owned and operated units, across 16 different green category industrial segment Estimated investment cost of the project is Rs 250 crores.

Aim: To propagate and encourage sustainable development and growth

Exp. BIS signed MoU with IIT Roorkee for ‘BIS Standardization Chair Professor’

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has signed MoU with IIT Roorkee for establishment of ‘BIS Standardization Chair Professor’ at IIT Roorkee.

This would be the 1st Standardization Chair established by BIS in an Institute for activities on Standardization and Conformity Assessment.

It will help in sensitizing students on how standards can encourage and facilitate innovation and will help in grooming students making them better prepared for their future challenges.

Exp. Andhra Pradesh retained first rank in Skoch State of Governance ranking 2021

Andhra Pradesh has retained its number one spot in the SKOCH State of Governance rankings in 2021. According to a release, the State retained the first rank for the second consecutive year.

The second rank was bagged by West Bengal and Odisha was ranked 3, Gujarat was ranked 4 and Maharashtra was ranked 5. Neighbouring Telangana was ranked 6.

In 2020 too, Andhra Pradesh bagged top rank in governance. Andhra Pradesh was ranked at second position in 2018 and later it slipped to 4th position in 2019, according to Skoch.

Andhra Pradesh also bagged top position in police and safety, agriculture, district administration and rural development.

The SKOCH Group has released the SKOCH Governance Report Card for 2021 in New Delhi, ranking the states according to their performance in various projects at state, district, and Email Article Print Article municipal levels.

Exp. V-Dem’s Democracy Report 2022: India ranked 93rd; Sweden topped

According to the Swedish based V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute report titled, ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature’, India has been ranked among the top ten autocratic countries in the world and has been ranked 93rd on the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) out of 179 countries.

India is one of the top ten ‘autocratisers’ in the world, which indicates that India is autocratic rather than a democracy that it can more suitably be indicated as electoral autocracy.

India is in the bottom 40% to 50% of countries on V-Dem’s Liberal Democracy Index (LDI).

In Democracy report 2020, the institute classified India as an electoral autocracy. It has slipped further down in the Electoral Democracy Index, to 100, and even lower in the Deliberative Component Index, at 102.

Most autocratic countries: Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Venezuela are among the most autocratic in the world.

Top 5 LDI Countries:

• Sweden
• Denmark
• Norway
• Costa Rica
• New Zealand

Exp. V-Dem’s Democracy Report 2022: India ranked 93rd; Sweden topped

According to the Swedish based V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute report titled, ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature’, India has been ranked among the top ten autocratic countries in the world and has been ranked 93rd on the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) out of 179 countries.

India is one of the top ten ‘autocratisers’ in the world, which indicates that India is autocratic rather than a democracy that it can more suitably be indicated as electoral autocracy.

India is in the bottom 40% to 50% of countries on V-Dem’s Liberal Democracy Index (LDI).

In Democracy report 2020, the institute classified India as an electoral autocracy. It has slipped further down in the Electoral Democracy Index, to 100, and even lower in the Deliberative Component Index, at 102.

Most autocratic countries: Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Venezuela are among the most autocratic in the world.

Top 5 LDI Countries:

• Sweden
• Denmark
• Norway
• Costa Rica
• New Zealand

Exp. India signed $125 million loan agreement with World Bank for social protection services in West Bengal

Government of India, Government of West Bengal, and World Bank has signed $125 million IBRD loan to support efforts to help poor and vulnerable groups access social protection services in West Bengal.

World Bank runs more than 400 programs for social assistance, care services, and jobs under umbrella platform called Jai Bangla.

West Bengal Building State Capability for Inclusive Social Protection Project will support these interventions at the state level, with particular focus on vulnerable groups such as women, tribal and scheduled caste households, and the elderly, as well as households in the state’s disaster-prone coastal regions.

Exp. ToneTag partnered with NSDL Payments Bank & NPCI to launch VoiceSe UPI digital payments for feature phone users

ToneTag has partnered with NSDL Payments Bank and NPCI to launch its “VoiceSe UPI payments service” for feature phone users.

This comes after the Reserve Bank of India has launched the UPI 123Pay facility that enables UPI payments for feature phone users. ToneTag is a sound-based proximity communication and payments service provider based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

To access the “VoiceSe UPI payments service” feature phone users need to call on the IVRS number 6366 200 200.  Every user can only proceed with the financial transaction through UPI PIN. They do not require internet connectivity or a smartphone for making payments.

Exp. NaBFID will be regulated as All India Financial Institution under RBI Act

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) will be regulated and supervised as an All India Financial Institution (AIFI) by it under the Sections 45L and 45N of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934.

It shall be the 5th AIFI after Export Import (EXIM) Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Housing Bank (NHB) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Act, 2021, received the assent of the President on March 28, 2021 and came into force with effect from April 19, 2021.’

About National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID):

Founded: 2021

Headquarters: Mumbai

Chairperson: K V Kamath

Exp. Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance entered into bancassurance partnership with Bharat Co-operative Bank

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance (ABSLI), the life insurance subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), and Bharat Co-operative Bank (Mumbai) Ltd. have announced their bancassurance partnership.

This collaboration facilitates a common platform to reach out to the bank’s five lakh plus customers with relevant life insurance solutions. The agreement will provide life insurance support to more than 5 lakh customers of the bank.

Exp. Ashwani Bhatia appointed as whole-time member of SEBI

The cabinet has appointed Ashwani Bhatia, managing director of the State Bank of India (SBI), as a whole-time member (WTM) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved Ashwani Bhatia’s appointment as a whole-time member of SEBI for three years from the date of his assumption of the command.

In August 2020, Ashwani Bhatia, who will be retiring in May 2022, that is this year, was promoted to the post of managing director of State Bank of India.

He was the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of SBI Mutual Fund before his promotion to the post of MD of SBI. He was employed with SBI as a Probationary Officer (PO) in 1985. He has held various posts over his 33-year career at the State Bank of India.

Exp. Prabha Narasimhan appointed as CEO of Colgate-Palmolive India

Prabha Narasimhan has been appointed as the CEO and MD of Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited. She succeeded Ram Raghavan, who has been promoted to the role of President, Enterprise Oral Care, at Colgate Palmolive Company.

Prior to this, she was working as executive director of Hindustan Unilever (HUL). Colgate-Palmolive (India) provides oral care products under ‘Colgate’ brand. It also provides personal care products under ‘Palmolive’ brand name.

Exp. India topped medal tally with 4 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze in 2022 ISSF World Cup

India has taken first place in the medal standings at the ISSF World Cup 2022 in Cairo, organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation.

By winning a total of seven medals, the Indian team took first place in the medals tally, with four gold, two silver, and one bronze.

Norway took second place in the medals tally with six medals (three gold, one silver, and two bronze). France came in third place with three gold medals out of a total of twenty.

India medal winners in ISSF World Cup 2022:

Women’s 25m pistol team – Gold (Rahi Sarnobat, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan)

Men’s 10m air pistol – Gold (Saurabh Chaudhary)

Women’s 10m air pistol team – Gold (Esha Singh, Nivetha Paramanantham, Ruchira Vinerkar)

25m rapid fire pistol mixed team – Gold (Rhythm Sangwan and Anish Bhanwala)

Women’s 10m air pistol event – Silver (Esha Singh)

Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team – Silver (Gurpreet Singh, Anish Bhanwala and Bhavesh Shekhawat)

50m rifle 3 positions mixed team event – Bronze (Shriyanka Sadangi and Akhil Sheoran)

Exp. Biography of late Soli Sorabjee titled “Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times” authored by Abhinav Chandrachud

A new biography, titled “Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times” announced on March 9 2022, during the occasion of 92nd birth anniversary of Soli Sorabjee.

It is authored by advocate and legal scholar Abhinav Chandrachud and will be released in April 2022. The book highlights the personal details of life of Soli Sorabjee, his family background.

He was the former Attorney General (AG) of India and served two times for the years 1989-90 and then from 1998- 2004.

Exp. 10 March: International Day of Women Judges

This year, 10 March will be celebrated as the International Day of Women Judges. The day will be celebrated and observed for the first time after the UN General Assembly passed the resolution concerning the same in April 2021.

The International Day of Women Judges aims to recognise the efforts and contributions being made by women judges. The day also empowers young women and girls who aspire to become judges and leaders in the community.