Current Affairs Quiz 31st May 2022 : Daily GK Update

Exp. PM to release benefits under PM CARES for Children Scheme on 30 May

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi released benefits under the PM CARES for Children Scheme on 30 May 2022.

Prime Minister transferred scholarships to school going children.

A passbook of PM CARES for Children, and health card under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana was handed over to the children during the programme.

About the scheme:

PM CARES for Children Scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 29 May 2021.

The aim was to support children who have lost both the parents or legal guardian or adoptive parents or surviving parent to Covid-19 pandemic, during the period from 11 March 2020 to 28 February 2022.

The objective of the Scheme is to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children in a sustained manner by providing them boarding and lodging, empowering them through education and scholarships, equipping them for self-sufficient existence with financial support of Rs. 10 lakhs on attaining 23 years of age and ensuring their wellbeing through health insurance.

The portal is a single window system which facilitates approval process and all other assistance for children.

Exp. Bank of Maharashtra tops PSU lenders chart in loan growth during FY22

State-owned Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has ranked first in the list of the top performer among public sector lenders in terms of loan and deposit growth in percentage terms during 2021-22.

The Pune-headquartered lender recorded a 26 per cent increase in gross advances at Rs 1,35,240 crore at the end of March 2022.

It was followed by State Bank of India and Union Bank of India with 10.27 per cent and 9.66 per cent growth, respectively.

Union Bank of India was second with an 11.99 per cent growth in deposits (Rs 10,32,102 crore) while Indian Bank recorded a 10 per cent increase at Rs 5,84,661 crore.

Total business growth of BoM was also the highest at 20 per cent at Rs 3,37,534 crore followed by Union Bank of India at 11.04 per cent at Rs 17,31,371 crore at the end of FY’22.

Exp. National Council for Teacher Education Launches Portal to Simplify Process of Teacher Education Programme

National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has launched an online portal to simplify the process of recognition of teacher education programs of higher education institutions.

The portal launched to streamline the process seeks to help right from the time of inviting application for courses till the stage of issue of recognition orders including the inspection of institutions.

This is a four-year integrated teacher education programme (ITEP).

This portal seeks to bring a paradigm shift in the functioning of NCTE.

It aims to provide an automated robust framework thereby enhancing accountability, transparency and ease of doing business.

Exp. National AI Portal celebrates its second anniversary

On 30th May 2022, second-year anniversary of ‘National AI Portal’ is being celebrated.

This portal is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM.

This portal has focused on creating and nurturing a unified AI ecosystem in the country to drive excellence and leadership in knowledge creation to develop an AI-ready robust workforce for the future and use AI to foster economic growth.

In 2020, the portal was launched by the Hon’ble Minister for Electronics and IT and Communications.

The portal has been visited by more than 4.5 lakh users.

It has one of the best databases on India’s AI ecosystem featuring details of 121 government initiatives and 281 start-ups.

One of the main focuses of INDIAai’s upcoming efforts is on AI Literacy.

INDIAai released a book on the basics of AI titled ‘AI for Everyone’.

The booklet aims to provide free and open AI literacy to the community of young minds and new learners to enable them in their aspirations beyond the digital divide.

Exp. PARAM ANANTA Supercomputer commissioned at IIT, Gandhinagar

PARAM ANANTA is a state-of the art Supercomputer at IIT Gandhinagar.

It is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), was commissioned.

This facility is established under Phase 2 of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

This indigenous software stack is developed by C-DAC and is a Make in India initiative.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between IIT Gandhinagar and Centre for Development in Advanced Computing (C-DAC) on 12th October 2020 to establish this 838 TeraFlops Supercomputing Facility under NSM.

PARAM ANANTA system is based on Direct Contact Liquid Cooling technology to obtain a high-power usage effectiveness and thereby reducing the operational cost.

Under NSM, till date 15 supercomputers have been installed across the nation with aggregate compute capacity of 24 petaflops.

Others:

PARAM PORUL, a state-of-the-art Supercomputer was inaugurated at NIT Tiruchirappalli in a joint initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Exp. NHA launches online public dashboard for Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

The National Health Authority (NHA) under its flagship scheme of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has launched a public dashboard for near real-time information on the scheme.

This dashboard displays the detailed information about the registries under Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) numbers, Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR) missions.

Till date total number of ABHA which has been created is 22.1 crore, 16.6 thousand registered in the HPR, 69.4 thousand in the HFR.

The dashboard captures data related to the number of ABHA generated, number of healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses etc. registered, digital health records linked with ABHA.

Exp. Bihar has India’s largest gold reserves

According to the survey processed by Geological Survey of India states that gold reserve of around 222.88 million tonnes including 27.6 tonnes of mineral-rich ore is present in Jamui district of Bihar.

The survey indicates that the presence of gold is in Karmatia, Jhajha and Sono in Jamui district.

Bihar has 222.885 million tonnes of gold metal, which amounts to 44 per cent of the total gold reserves in the country.

The state Mines and Geology Department is in consultation with agencies engaged in exploration, including GSI and the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), for exploration of gold reserves in Jamui.

Till 2015, total resources of primary gold ore were estimated at 501.83 million tonnes with 654.74 tonnes of gold metal.

Out of this Bihar is endowed with 222.885 million tonnes (44 per cent) of ore containing 37.6 tonnes of metal.

Exp. PMEGP extended till FY26 with Rs 13,000 crore outlay

The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme has been extended till the financial year 2025-26 with the total outlay of Rs 13,554.42 crore.

The scheme will create sustainable employment opportunities for about 40 lakh persons in five financial years.

This scheme facilitates the employment opportunities for youth all over the country by assisting them for non- farm sectors.

The extension of the scheme is over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Modifications in the scheme:

Increase in the maximum project cost from existing Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh for manufacturing units and from existing Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for service units.

Revised definition of village industry and rural area

Along with the extension of the time frame, some major modifications have been made in the existing scheme.

These include increase in the maximum project cost from existing Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh for manufacturing units and from existing Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for service units.

High subsidy

Subsidy:

25% in urban areas (for SC, ST, OBC, women, transgender, physically disabled, NER, aspirational and border district applicants)

35% in rural areas (for SC, ST, OBC, women, transgender, physically disabled, NER, aspirational and border district applicants)

15% in urban areas (for General category)

25% in rural areas (for General Category)

Exp. Hindi Journalism Day: 30 May

On 30 May every year the Hindi Journalism Day is celebrated in India.

The day aims to spread awareness for all the Hindi newspaper journalists in India and the role they played during India’s freedom struggle.

On May 30, 1826, the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand, was published.

Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla was the editor who started this newspaper.

He originally belonged to Kanpur, who later settled in Calcutta.

Exp. US surpasses China as India’s biggest trading partner in FY22

The US surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner in 2021-22.

The bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $119.42 billion as against $80.51 billion in 2020-21.

Exports to the US increased to $76.11 billion in 2021-22 from $51.62 billion in previous fiscal year. Also, imports rose to $43.31 billion as compared to about $29 billion in 2020-21.

India’s two-way commerce with China aggregated at $115.42 billion as compared to $86.4 billion in 2020-21

China

Exports to China: increased to $21.25 billion last fiscal year from $21.18 billion in 2020-21

Imports: jumped to $94.16 billion from about $65.21 billion in 2020-21

Trade gap: rose to $72.91 billion in 2021-22 from $44 billion in previous fiscal year

In 2021-22, India had a trade surplus of $32.8 billion with the US.

China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 till 2017-18 and also in 2020-21.

Before China, the UAE was the country’s largest trading partner.

In 2021-22, the UAE with $72.9 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India.

It was followed by Saudi Arabia ($42,85 billion), Iraq ($34.33 billion) and Singapore ($30 billion).

Exp. World Vape Day

World Vape Day is being celebrated on 30th May across the world.

This day is celebrated to create awareness about the alternatives to harmful tobacco products.

Before the day was being observed as the World No Tobacco Day on 31 May but now it is celebrated as World Vape Day.

World No Tobacco Day was observed by the World Health Organisation.

World Vape Day is initiated by the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA).

WVA was established by and receives funding from the Consumer Choice Center.

Exp. World No Tobacco Day observed on 31st May

World No Tobacco Day is observed on May 31.

This day is observed to raise awareness about the damage caused by consuming tobacco.

The day is celebrated by WHO since 31st in 1987.

Theme: “Protect the Environment”.

This year, the WHO has selected Jharkhand for the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award-2022.

India runs a National Tobacco Control Programme to educate people about the health implications of tobacco consumption.

This programme was extended to Jharkhand in 2012.

Around 80 to 90 percent people diagnosed with lung cancer have a history of tobacco smoking.

Exp. World Menstrual Hygiene Day: May 28

World Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed on 28 May.

The day is celebrated to create awareness about menstruation, provide safe and hygienic practices to girls, and burst the bubble of taboo.

This day was initiated by the German-based NGO WASH united in 2013 and was observed for the first time in 2014.

Theme 2022: ‘making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030’

Exp. World Hunger Day 2022: May 28

World Hunger Day is observed globally every year on May 28.

The day is commemorated to raise awareness about the substantial rise in hunger in recent years.

According to the United Nations, in 2019, about 690 million people were malnourished, mostly in Asia and Africa.

By 2030, an estimated 840 million people would be hungry if current trends continue.

World Hunger Day was first marked on May 28, 2011, by The Hunger Project, a non-profit organisation dedicated to solving world hunger that was started in 1977.

Theme 2022: 'Youth Ending Hunger'

Exp. Goa Statehood Day: May 30

Every year on May 30, Goa celebrates its foundation day.

This day is celebrated on 30th May because Goa has got its full statehood on this day.

Goa also celebrates its Liberation Day on 19th December as the state got liberated on 19 December 1961.

About Goa:

Goa is the smallest state in India by area and the fourth smallest state by population.

Goa is famous all over the world for its beautiful beaches and famous architecture.

Shri Dayanand Bhandarkar became the first elected Chief Minister of Goa, on 20 December 1962.