GK Snapshots on 3 July 2021

Crop Insurance week 2021 – 1 – 7 July 2021

Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Ministry for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) flags off the observance of the Crop Insurance week 2021 from 1st – 7th July 2021 over a virtual platform.

He also launched the Crop Insurance Awareness Campaign during the event of Crop Insurance Week.

Key People:

Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary, Minister of State MoA&FW, Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare along with the senior officers of the ministry, insurance company officials and other stakeholders participated in the virtual event.

Kerala’s Crop Insurance Day 2021 – July 1:

i.July 1st is observed as the Crop Insurance Day 2021 by the State Agriculture Department, Kerala.

ii.The State Agriculture Department is organising a 2-week crop insurance campaign (July 1 to July 15 2021) with an aim to encourage the farmers to enrol for crop insurance coverage.

iii.The 2-week campaign will be held at the Panchayat level.

iv.The farmers can apply for coverage and obtain their policies on www.aims.kerala.gov.in instead of visiting the Krishi Bhavans.

World Sports Journalists Day 2021 – July 2

World Sports Journalists Day is annually observed across the globe on 2nd July to recognise the efforts and devotion of the sports journalists across the globe. The day also celebrates the achievements of the sports journalists.

The day is celebrated across the globe by the International Sports Press Association (Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive, AIPS).

The term ‘Sports journalism’ refers to the reports on sporting topics, one of the essential elements of news media organizations.

66th Foundation Day of SBI – July 1 2021

On July 1 2021, the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender and the oldest commercial bank in India, has celebrated its 66th Foundation Day.

• On the same day in 1955, the Government of India took control of the Imperial Bank of India, with the Reserve Bank of India taking a 60 percent stake, renamed it as the State Bank of India.

• It has allocated Rs 62 crore to PM CARES Fund on its foundation day to support the fight against Covid-19.

3-new Asteroids discovered by Indian Teacher-Student duo in IASC Citizen Science Programme

3-new asteroids were discovered by Bala Bharathi, Principal of Bharathi Matriculation Higher Secondary School, and G. Aazhimukilan, B.Sc. Physics student from St. Joseph’s College from Trichy, Tamil Nadu. The discovery was a part of the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) Citizen Science Programme, organised by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
i.The 3 asteroids were temporarily named as BBM2101, BBM2102, and BBM2103.
ii.IASC’s International Asteroid Search Campaign promotes common citizens to develop a knowledge of Astronomical science by letting them identify new asteroids.

Procedure used: Participants were provided with images from space telescope in Hawaii, to identify the possible moving objects A special software called “Astronomica” will be used by participants to further track the potential asteroids

OneWeb Launches 36 Satellites into Orbit

36 Broadband Satellites of OneWeb (a venture backed by Bharti Airtel) were launched into orbit by a Soyuz rocket from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia, Russia. The launch of the satellites will enable it to provide commercial internet services in areas of the Northern Hemisphere (areas north of 50th Degree Latitude) by the end of 2021.

• UK, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, Continental US, the Arctic Seas and Canada are the countries/regions which have been covered.

• This mission was the OneWeb 8, the eighth OneWeb launch since the first satellites launched in 2019, and will bring the total number of satellites in OneWeb’s blooming internet constellation up to 254.

• The launch marks the completion of OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ ambition to bring into orbit the satellites required to enable connectivity services to the Northern Hemisphere and above before the end of 2021.

• One Web will start full satellite broadband service in India by May 2022.

Indian Men and Women Hockey teams remain at 4th & 10th in FIH rankings

In the recent rankings released by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), the positions of Indian Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams remain unaltered at 4th and 10th position respectively.

i.Australian Men’s team moved up to the top position, while Netherlands Women Team remains at the Top position in the World Hockey Rankings.

MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan Released Dr. Gauri Shankar Sharma’s book “Janaksuta Sut Shaurya”

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister(CM) of Madhya Pradesh(MP) released a book titled “Janaksuta Sut Shaurya ” written by Dr Gauri Shankar Sharma ‘Gaurish’ at his residence in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The book discusses the subject related to the Uttar Ramayana in simple and easy poetic forms.

Key People: senior litterateurs Mahesh Saxena and Dr P.D. Mishra along with Anil Ajmera and Gokul Soni were present during the release.
About Uttar Ramayana:

• The Uttar Ramayana is not a part of the Original Valmiki Ramayana which is supposedly written at a later date.

• The part deals with the return of Rama to Aayodhya, Ashwamedha yagna and his twin sons Luv and Kush.

Ashok Chakravarti’s New Book Titled “The Struggle Within: A Memoir of the Emergency”

HarperCollins released a new book titled “The Struggle Within – A Memoir of the Emergency” authored by Ashok Chakravarti, an economist and senior Economic Advisor to the Government of Zimbabwe, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The book is published by HarperCollins India.

• The book features the struggles during the Emergency period, one of independent India’s darkest hours.

• During the emergency period, more than 150,000 people were imprisoned without trial while around 11 million forcibly sterilized and many were killed in police firings or otherwise eliminated.

Prakash Javadekar e-inaugurated Asia’s longest & World’s 5th largest HST in Pithampur, Indore (MP)

On the lines of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Initiative, Union Minister Prakash Kehav Javadekar, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises (MoHI&PE) virtually inaugurated Asia’s longest and world’s 5th largest 11.3 km NATRAX (National Automotive Test Tracks) High-Speed Track (HST) in India’s Pithampur district of Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

• The project NATRAX was built under NATRiP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project) of MoHI&PE. NATRiP is a 100% Government funded project worth Rs. 3727.30 crore.

• HST will be used for measuring the maximum speed capabilities of high-performance two-wheelers, premium luxury cars and heaviest tractor trailers and other categories of vehicles.

Government’s Flagship Programme ‘Digital India’ completes 6 years

Indian Government’s Flagship Programme ‘Digital India’ completed 6 years on July 1, 2021. To commemorate this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology organised a programme in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the beneficiaries.

Digital India (DI)

The programme was launched on July 1, 2015 with a funding of INR 1,13,000 crore.

i.The main objective of DI is to ensure that Government’s services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and making India digitally empowered in the field of technology.

ii.The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks.

iii.The programme is centered on 3 key vision areas – Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen, Governance & Services on Demand, and Digital Empowerment of Citizens.

iv.Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) is the primary custodian of the Digital India project.

v.DI programme is the enabler and beneficiary of other Government of India schemes like BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, Industrial Corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala.

International Migrant Labour rises to 169 million – ILO report

International Migrant Workforce increases to 169 million in 2019, a rise of 5-million increase in total count or 3% rise compared to the figures of 2017, as per the “ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers: Results and Methodology” report released by the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO). i.This is also a 12.7 % increase from the 2013 estimate of 150 million migrant workers.
ii.Increase in the international migration will contribute to the migrant’s country of origin through remittance and other economic perspectives

LIC Launched ‘Saral Pension Plan’

On July 1, 2021, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India launched a non-linked, non-participating, single premium, individual ‘immediate annuity plan’ named ‘Saral pension plan’ as per the guidelines of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

• The plan allows policyholders to pay a lump sum amount as the purchasing price of the plan and to receive a fixed amount of money at regular intervals.

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