Current Affairs Quiz 9th March 2022 : Daily GK Update Quiz

Exp. Chhattisgarh government launched ‘Kaushalya Matritva Yojana’

Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel in Raipur launched the ‘Kaushalya Matritva Yojana’ by handing cheques of Rs 5,000 each to five women beneficiaries for the safe motherhood practices.

It aims to help women financially for the nutrition of themselves and their child after pregnancy. It will also prevent female foeticide.

Under this scheme, financial assistance of Rs 5000 will be provided to women for bringing up their second girl child. The entire expenditure of this scheme will be borne by the Chhattisgarh government.

Exp. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister inaugurated India’s largest floating solar power project at Thoothukudi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M K Stalin inaugurated India’s largest floating solar power plant constructed at a cost of Rs 150.4 crores. The floating plant is established in Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC) factory at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to provide clean energy.

It aims to provide environmentally sustainable power generation and to reduce carbon footprint.

The floating power plant has the capacity to produce 42 million units of electricity per annum.

The solar power plant is owned by Greenam Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AM International. SPIC worked with France-based floating solar power specialists and global leader Ceil & Terre for the constructions and designs.

Exp. Prime Minister unveiled Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Pune

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a tall statue of great Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Pune, Maharashtra. The Statue is made up of 1,850 kg of gunmetal and is about 9.5-feet tall.

He also launched a 12-km stretch of 32.2-km-long metro rail project at a total cost of more than ₹ 11,400 crores in Pune. Pune Metro is the first project in India to have aluminium body coaches, indigenously manufactured under the ‘Make in India’.

PM Modi also laid the foundation stone for the rejuvenation and pollution abatement of the Mula-Mutha River projects in Pune. The rejuvenation will be done in a 9 km stretch of the river under the project which will cost more than Rs 1080 crores.

Exp. IPC banned Russian, Belarusian athletes from Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has banned the athlete’s entries from the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Belarus (83 athletes from Russia and Belarus which hosted troops for Moscow’s attack) for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics due to the war in Ukraine.

Previously IPC has stated that the athletes from both countries would be allowed to compete as neutrals in the games. The IPC joins range of sporting bodies like Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) etc, that have banned the participation of Russians and Belarusians, which includes football, track, basketball, hockey, and others.

Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics scheduled to take place from 4th to 13th March 2022 & it marks the 13th Winter Paralympic Games.

About International Paralympic Committee (IPC):

Founded: 22 September 1989

Headquarters: Bonn, Germany

CEO: Xavier Gonzalez

President: Brazil Andrew Parsons

Vice President: New Zealand Duane Kale

Exp. Centre approved continuation of Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana till FY26 with an outlay of Rs 3,274.87 crores

Central Government has approved the continuation of Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana (SSSY) for Financial Years 2021-22 to 2025-26. The total outlay of SSSY is Rs 3,274.87 crores.

Under SSSY freedom fighters and their eligible dependents are given pension and other financial benefits, till 2025-26. The proposal for continuation of the SSSY was received from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Union Minister Amit Shah.

The Central government is committed to remember the sacrifices of freedom fighters during the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Presently, there are 23,566 SSSY beneficiaries across India. The amount of pension has been revised from time to time and Dearness Relief (DR) is also given since August 15, 2016.

Exp. Himachal Pradesh CM presented Rs 51,365 crores Budget for 2022-23

Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Jai Ram Thakur who also holds the state’s finance portfolio, tabled Rs 51,365 crore State Budget 2022-23 in the state Assembly, Himachal Pradesh.

It was his 5th and last budget for the fiscal 2021-22 of the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government. FY23 budget focuses more on the poor and social security. No new tax has been proposed in the Budget.

An 8.3% growth rate for Himachal Pradesh is forecasted in FY22 after contracting in 2020-21 and registering a negative growth of 6.2%.

An increase in the Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development (MLALAD) fund from the existing Rs 1.80 crore to Rs 2 crores is proposed in the budget. This has been increased by Rs 20 lakh.

Exp. Telangana govt proposed Rs 2.56 lakh crores Budget for 2022-23

The Finance Minister of Telangana Harish Rao presented the budget of Rs 2.56 lakh crore for the financial year 2022-23. The budget focused on infrastructural development of the state, healthcare, security and agriculture.

The budget includes revenue expenditure of Rs 1,89,274.82 crore and capital expenditure of Rs 29,728.44 crore.

Rs 3,330 crores allocated to Palle Pragathi, or transformation of villages and Rs 1,394 crore allocated to Pattana Pragathi or development of towns.

The total cultivated area in Telangana has been increased from 1.31 crore acres in 2014-15 to 2.09 crore acres in 2020-21 with the help of Mission Kakatiya, irrigation projects and Rythu Bandhu with the total of Rs 50,448 crore. The Telangana government waives crop loans up to Rs 75,000.

Exp. RBI launched UPI for feature phones ‘UPI123Pay’ and 24*7 helpline ‘DigiSaathi’

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) launched two landmark initiatives UPI123Pay and DigiSaathi.

With the new facility, both smartphone and feature phone holders can now easily transact digitally.

UPI123PAY for feature phones will have all of the necessary smartphone features. This initiative will improve digital payments to a higher level, paving the way for a cashless economy.

DigiSaathi will help customers address queries in the digital payments umbrella including cards in two languages – english and hindi and also working towards all vernacular languages.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) MD & CEO: Dilip Asbe

Exp. Axis Bank rolled out ‘HouseWorkIsWork’ initiative to bring educated women to workforce

Axis Bank Limited has started the ‘HouseWorkIsWork’ initiative that provides opportunities to those women who want to rejoin the professional space as the urban educated women’s participation in the workforce is still not at desired levels.

Aim: To give confidence to women about their employment and also about the skills they possess that could fit in various job roles in a bank.

There are many women who are willing to extend to all formats of work not only GIG-A, including women who want to come and work in branches. GIG-A-Opportunities is Axis Bank’s new platform for alternative work models to attract the finest talent, with a promise of growth with flexibility, diversity and inclusivity.

Exp. T Raja Kumar appointed as President of FATF

T Raja Kumar, from Singapore, has been named president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing agency.

His appointment is for a set two-year term, which begins on July 1. During the FATF plenary, he was chosen to succeed Dr Marcus Pleyer of Germany.

Mr Raja’s nomination marks the first time Singapore has assumed the president of the organisation. Mr Raja is a senior advisor at MHA and has been the leader of Singapore’s FATF mission since January 1, 2015. Since July 2018, he has also been a member of the steering group, which advises the FATF president.

The FATF is an intergovernmental organisation set up by the G7 in 1989 to prevent and combat money laundering, terrorism, and proliferation finance.

Exp. B Chandra Sekhar taken over as Commandant of Air Force Academy

Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar has taken over as Commandant of Air Force Academy, Indian Air Force.

He is an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College Wellington, College of Defence Management, Flying Instructors School and National Defence College, New Delhi.

He was commissioned in Indian Air Force in 1984. He has more than 5400 hours of incident-free flying on various aircraft. He also holds the distinction of landing first MLH class of helicopter in the Siachen Glacier.

Exp. Mary Kom appointed Brand Ambassador of Lupin Limited’s Shakti campaign

Lupin Ltd signed six-time World Boxing Champion Mary Kom as the Brand Ambassador for its Women’s Cardiovascular Health Awareness Initiative – ‘Shakti Campaign’.

Objective: To increase awareness on heart diseases among women as coronary heart diseases are the leading cause of death for women in India and yet awareness levels on the issue remain inadequately low.

A Facebook Live session is held featuring Mary Kom along with Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta & leading cardiologists to draw attention to the myths surrounding cardiovascular diseases in women on 8th March 2022 (International Women’s Day).

Exp. PARAM Ganga Petascale Supercomputer installed at IIT Roorkee

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has designed and installed a supercomputer named “PARAM Ganga”, at IIT Roorkee, under Phase II of National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). PARAM Ganga has a supercomputing capacity of 1.66 Petaflops.

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeiTY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The mission is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

The NSM Mission aims to build and deploy 24 facilities with cumulative compute power of more than 64 Petaflops. Till date 11 systems have been deployed by C-DAC at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR, NABI-Mohali and C-DAC under NSM Phase-1 and Phase-2 with a cumulative computing power of more than 20 Petaflops.

Exp. Priyanka Nutakki became 23rd Woman Grandmaster of India

19-year-old Priyanka Nutakki has secured her final WGM-norm at MPL’s forty-seventh National Women Chess Championship. She became India’s twenty-third Woman Grandmaster.

She is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Priyanka Nutakki scored her first WGM-norm in January 2019 and crossed the 2300 rating criteria in the next two months.

Priyanka braved the odds, resumed playing over-the-board tournaments in October 2021 at ChessMood Open. In her third over-the-board tournament of the year, she scored her second WGM and maiden IM-norm at the 7th Sunway Sitges Open 2021.

Exp. 9 March: No Smoking Day

No Smoking Day is celebrated on the second Wednesday in the month of March every year across the world.

The day is celebrated to help those who wish to quit smoking as well as to raise awareness about the implications of smoking on an individual’s health.

This year No Smoking Day will be celebrated on 9 March. The main reason to observe this day is to spread awareness and educate people about the adverse impacts of tobacco on their health through cigarettes and other means.

No Smoking Day was first observed in the year 1984 in the Republic of Ireland on Ash Wednesday. It was on this day that the clergy determined that giving up cigarettes will be a good thing for Lent.

Exp. Former Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar passed away

Veteran politician, former Supreme Court judge and President of Pakistan, Rafiq Tarar passed away at the age of 92 years due to prolonged illness.

Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was born on 2 November 1929 in Peer Kot, Pakistan. He served as a Supreme Court judge from 1991 to 1994.

He also served as the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court from 1989 to 1991. Later, he became Pakistan’s President for the period of 1997 to 2001.