Current Affairs Quiz 5th October 2022 : Daily GK Update

Exp. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis launched ‘Vande Mataram’ initiative

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched the ‘Vande Mataram’ initiative in the state.

The launch of the initiative is commensurate with the 153rd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The initiative will be binding on the government employees to say ‘Vande Mataram’ instead of ‘hello’, the first word spoken when a phone call is made.

About Maharashtra

• Capital – Mumbai
• Chief Minister– Eknath Sindhe
• Governor – Bhagat Singh Koshyari

Exp. Election Commission launched Matadata Junction awareness program

The Election Commission has launched Matadata Junction, a year-long voter awareness program on All India Radio.

A total 52-episode programme of 15-minute duration each will be broadcast every Friday on Vividh Bharati stations, FM Rainbow, FM Gold and Primary channels of AIR.

The Matadata Junction programme will be broadcast in 23 languages across the country.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar launched the Program in the presence of Election Commissioner Anoop Chandra Pandey, CEO Prasar Bharati Mayank Kumar Agrawal and Director General AIR News Vasudha Gupta in New Delhi.

About Election Commissioner of India (ECI)

Founded – 25 January 1950

25 January – Voter’s Day

HQ – New Delhi

1st Chief – Sukumar Sen

1st Women Chief – V.S. Ramadevi

25th Chief – Rajiv Kumar

Commissioner – Anup Chandra Pandey & Ajay Bhadoo

Tenure – 6/65yrs

Article – 324

Exp. Dr. Jitendra Singh launched portal for PM’s Excellence Awards

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has launched the Web portal for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2022.

The portal http://www.pmawards.gov.in launched in New Delhi.

Objective – To encourage constructive competition, innovation and institutionalization of best practices.

The total number of Awards under the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration – 2022 will be 16.

Exp. India’s economic growth to decline to 5.7% in 2022: UNCTAD report

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Report 2022, India’s economic growth is expected to decline to 5.7% in 2022 from 8.2% in 2021.

India’s GDP will further decelerate to 4.7% growth in 2023, as per this report.

The report has cited higher financing costs & weaker public expenditures for this decline in growth.

About United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Founded- 30 December 1964

Headquarters – Geneva, Switzerland

Secretary-General -Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica)

Updated GDP List

• World Bank – 7.5% (FY23), 7.1% (FY24)
• MOODY’S. – 7.7% (FY23)
• S&P – 7.3% (FY23), 6.5% (FY24)
• IMF – 7.4% (FY23)
• ADB – 7% (FY23), 7.2% (FY24)
• RBI – 7% (FY23)
• FITCH RATING – 7% (FY23), 6.7% (FY24)
• FICCI – 7% (FY23), 6.4% (FY24)
• OECD – 6.9% (FY23), 6.2% (FY24)
• CRISIL – 7.3% (FY23)
• NSO – 8.7%.     Q4 – 4.1% (FY23)
• SBI – 6.8% (FY23)
• Morgan Stanley – 7.2% (FY23), 6.4%(FY24)
• Nomura – 7.2% (FY23)

Exp. Sandeep Kumar Gupta appointed Chairman of GAIL

Seasoned finance professional Sandeep Kumar Gupta has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). It is the nation’s largest gas company.

Gupta who previously was Director (Finance) at Indian Oil Corporation, replaces Manoj Jain, who superannuated on 31st Aug 2022.

Gupta will have a term till Feb 2026.

GAIL is India’s largest gas transmission and gas marketing company, with a 14,502-kilometre gas pipeline network and a capacity of 206 million standard cubic meters a day. Its natural gas pipeline network covers 21 states.

It holds around 70 percent share of the gas-transmission network and more than 50 percent share of natural gas sales in India.

About Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL)

Founded – 1984

Headquarters – New Delhi

MD & CEO – Sandeep Kumar Gupta

Recent Appointment

• Chairman of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)- N S Rajana
• Deputy Election Commissioner – Ajay Bhadoo
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MyGov, MiETY – Akash Tripathi
• President of Indian American Chambers of Commerce (IACC) – Lalit Bhasin
• CEO of Data Security Council of India (DSCI) – Vinayak Godse

Exp. ISRO Scientist Anil Kumar appointed as the Vice President of IAF

Senior Scientist of ISRO Dr. Anil Kumar has appointed as the Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).

Anil Kumar is currently working as Associate Director, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC).

Founded in 1951, IAF is world’s leading space advocacy body with 433 members in 72 nations. IAF actively encourages the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes and supports the dissemination of scientific and technical information related to space, the national space agency noted.

About International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

• Founded – 1951
• Headquarters – Paris, France
• President – Clay Mowry

Recent Appointment 

• CEO of Britannia Industries – Rajneet Kohli
• Executive Vice-Chairman and MD of Britannia Industries – Varun Berry
• Attorney General of India – R Venkataramani
• Director General of ESIC – Rajendra Kumar
• Independent Director of Stashfin – Vijay Jasuja

Exp. Sujoy Lal Thaosen appointed as CRPF Director General

Senior IPS officer Sujoy Lal Thaosen has been appointed as 37th Director General (DG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

He will have a term till Nov 2023.

Earlier, Thaosen was holding charge of DG of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) as well as the additional charge of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief.

IPS officer Anish Dayal Singh has been appointed as the new DG of ITBP.

Other Appointment

• Director General of BSF – Pankaj Kumar Singh
• Director General of CISF – Subodh Kumar Jaiswal
• Director General of ITBP – Anish Dayal Singh
• Director General of CRPF – Sujoy Lal Thaosen
• Director General of NSG – M A Ganapathy
• Director General of Indian Coast Guard – Virender Singh Pathania
• Director General of Indian Army – General Manoj Pande
• Director General of NCC – Lt. Gen. Gurbirpal Singh
• Director General of Indian Air Force – Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari
• Director General of Indian Navy – Admiral R. Hari Kumar

Exp. Sanjeev Kishore appointed as Director General of Indian Ordinance Factory

A 1985 batch officer Sanjeev Kishore has been appointed as Director General of the Indian Ordnance Factory Service (IOFS).

He has replaced M K Garg.

Before taking over the post, Kishore was the additional director general ordnance at the Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services), Kolkata.

Kishore has held many senior positions including that of the first CMD of Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd (AVNL), one of the seven new DPSUs formed by the Government of India in 2021.

Recent Appointment 

• MD and CEO of NPCI – Dilip Asbe (re-appointment)
• MD and Chairman of RailTel Corp – Sanjai Kumar
• Director of AIIMS Delhi – Dr. M Srinivas
• Director General of ICMR – Dr. Rajiv Bahl
• Director General of National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) – Bharat Lal
• President of Hockey India – Dilip Tirkey

Exp. Writer Madhav Hada to be awarded 32nd Bihari Puraskar

Writer Dr. Madhav Hada will be awarded the 32nd Bihari Puraskar for his 2015 literary criticism book ‘Pachrang Chola Pahar Sakhi Ri’.

The Bihari Puraskar is one of the three literary awards instituted by the foundation in 1991.

Named after famous Hindi poet Bihari, the award is given every year for an outstanding work published in the last 10 years by a Rajasthani author in Hindi or Rajasthani. It carries a cash prize of ₹2.5 lakh, a plaque and a citation.

The recipient is chosen by a selection committee headed by Chairman Hemant Shesh.

Recent Awards

• SASTRA Ramanujan Prize 2022 – Yunqing Tang
• Lifetime Achievement Award by US President – Dr. Vivek Lall
• Changemaker’ award at UN SDG Action Awards – Srishti Bakshi
• Best adventure tourism destination award – Uttarakhand
• Lata Mangeshkar Award 2021 – Kumar Sanu
• Lata Mangeshkar Award 2020 – Anand-Milind
• Lata Mangeshkar Award 2019 – Shailendra Singh
• 52nd Dadasaheb Phalke Award – Asha Parekh

Exp. IITM scientist Roxy Koll received Devendra Lal Memorial Medal 2022

Roxy Mathew Koll, a scientist at the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has received the American Geophysical Union’s Devendra Lal Memorial Medal 2022.

Koll was selected for his outstanding research in Earth & space sciences.

This medal is named in honour of Prof Devendra Lal, a distinguished geophysicist whose work spanned diverse areas of the Earth & space sciences.

Recent Awards

• First Queen Elizabeth II Woman award – Indian-origin Suella Braverman
• German PEN award – Indian author & poet Meena Kandasamy
• Top French civilian honour – Swati Piramal
• Lok Nayak Foundation Sahitya Puraskar – Tanikella Bharani
• International Tourism award 2023 – West Bengal (for best destination for culture)
• Emmy award for his narration in Netflix documentary – Barack Obama (Our Great National Parks)

Exp. Alain Aspect, John Clauser, Anton Zeilinger won Nobel Prize 2022 in Physics

Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments with entangled photons establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.

In 2021, the award was given to Giorgio Parisi, Klaus Hasselmann and Syukuro Manabe for their efforts in explaining and forecasting complicated natural factors that contributed to our understanding of climate change.

The three laureates conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated. Their results have cleared the way for new technology based on quantum information.

Exp. 5 October – World Teachers’ Day

World Teachers’ Day is observed every year on 5 October.

Objective – To express gratitude for the contributions of teachers, who prepare children to face the world.

Theme 2022 – The change of education begins with teachers

In the year 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed October 5 as World Teachers’ Day.