GK Snapsots on 7 July 2021

World Zoonoses Day 2021 – July 6

World Zoonoses Day is annually observed across the globe on 6th July to create awareness about zoonoses or zoonotic disease, a disease or infection transmitted from vertebrate animals to humans. The day also commemorates the first vaccination administered against zoonotic disease.

Zoonoses or Zoonotic Disease:

i.Zoonoses include the major percentage of all the new and existing diseases in humans such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), Ebola virus disease, salmonellosis, Avian influenza, West Nile virus and COVID-19.

ii.Zoonoses like HIV began as zoonoses and mutated into human-only strains.

iii.According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), there are more than 200 known types of Zoonoses.

iv.The health and economic cost of zoonotic diseases fall on the poor countries which bear around 98% of the global burden of zoonoses.

Zoonotic Pathogen:

Zoonotic pathogens refer to the pathogens like bacterial, viral or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents and can spread to humans through direct contact or through food, water or the environment.

KIAB Airport Inducted into ACI DG’s Roll of Excellence 2020

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB Airport), Karnataka owned by the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), has been inducted into the Airports Council International (ACI) Director General(DG)’s Roll of Excellence for the year 2020.

• ACI DG’s Roll of Excellence recognises the airports that delivered excellence in customer service by winning multiple ASQ awards over a period of 5 years.

Decoding Shankar wins Biographical Film Award at the Toronto International Women Film Festival 2021

A documentary on singer Shankar Mahadevan titled ‘Decoding Shankar’ has won Best Biographical Film Award at the Toronto International Women Film Festival, 2021.The documentary was directed by Kochi-based filmmaker Deepti Pillay Sivan. This documentary also won a Special Jury Award at the Indo French International Film Festival.

President Ram Nath Kovind Appoints New Governors for 8 States

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed new Governors for 8 States.

New Appointments & Transfers

MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari Became ‘Brand Ambassador’ of Khadi Prakritk Paint

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways & MSME (Micro Small & Medium Enterprises) announced himself as the Brand Ambassador of ‘Khadi Prakritk Paint’ (cow dung paint) to promote the paint across the country and encourage the young entrepreneurs to manufacture it.

• Khadi Prakritk Paint is India’s 1st and only paint made from cow dung

• He also inaugurated a new automated manufacturing unit of Khadi Prakritik Paint virtually on the campus of Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute (KNHPI), Jaipur, Rajasthan, the institute is a unit of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC))

• The new unit was intended to double the production capacity of Prakritik Paint from 500 litres (Current protection).

Note – Nitin Gadkari appreciated KVIC for the successful research and set the target to set up a Parkritik Paint unit in each and every village.

IBM president and former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst quits

American multinational technology company International Business Machines Corporation(IBM) has announced that Jim Whitehurst has decided to step down as President of the company, Whitehurst former CEO of Red Hat has played a pivotal role in the $34 billion IBM and Red Hat integration deal in 2018 and He will continue to work as senior advisor to Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM.

Kiren Rijiju Launched 5 Portals on AYUSH sector along with 4 Publications

On July 5, 2021, Minister of State (Independent Charge)-Additional Charge Kiran Rijiju, Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy) launched five important portals of importance along with four publications during a virtual event. He launched CTRI portal along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals.

• The minister also released four publications related to the Traditional Indian Medicine System of India.

Nihal Sarin wins Silver Lake Open Chess tournament in Serbia

In July 2021, Nihal Sarin (16-year old) from Kerala won the Silver Lake Open Chess tournament in Serbia. He won 8 points from 9 rounds and defeated Serbia’s Branko Damljanovic in the finals. India’s Raunak Sadhwani and Abhimanyu Puranik with 7 points each have secured the 2nd & 3rd places in the tournament.

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Launches NIPUN Bharat Programme

Union Minister for Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually launched ‘National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)’ Mission & its Guidelines. It aims to ensure that every child in India attains foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.

i.Purpose – To cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3-9 years.

ii.The mission has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of ‘Samagra Shiksha’ and will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy by setting up a five-tier implementation mechanism at the national-state-district-block-school level in all states & UTs.

iii.Originally, The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) had aimed to attain foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2025. But it has been pushed back to 2026-27 due to COVID-19 which has disrupted 2 academic years.

Focus areas

The programme will focus on providing access and retaining children in foundational years of schooling, teacher capacity building, development of high quality and diversified Student and Teacher Resources/Learning Materials and tracking the progress of each child in achieving learning outcomes.

Goa to host 52nd IFFI from 20th – 28th November 2021

On July 5th 2021, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Prakash Javadekar announced the dates for 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which will be held in Goa from 20th to 28th November, 2021. He also released the regulation booklet and the poster of 52nd IFFI.

i.Following the success of 51st IFFI, the Ministry has planned to host this year’s event also in the hybrid format.
ii.2021 is the 100th Birth anniversary of India’s legendary filmmaker “Satyajit Ray”, to mark this a Special Retrospective was arranged by the Directorate of Films Festivals at 52nd IFFI.
iii.A new award – “Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema” will be instituted annually starting from 2021

MoEFCC approves Ramgarh Vishdhari Sanctuary as 4th Tiger Reserve of Rajasthan

Ramgarh Vishdhari Sanctuary in Bundi, Rajasthan has been sanctioned as the 4th Tiger Reserve of Rajasthan and 52nd Tiger Reserve of India by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC).

• In June 2021, The Technical Committee of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the proposal for Ramgarh Vishdhari Sanctuary into Tiger Reserve.

• The proposed sanctuary falls between 2 Tiger Reserves – Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in the Northeast and Mukundra Tiger Reserve in the South.

• The other 3 Tiger Reserves in Rajasthan namely Ranthambore in Sawai Madhopur, Sariska in Alwar, and Mukundra Tiger reserve in Kota are home to 102 Tigers.

HDFC Launched ‘salaam dil sey’ initiative to acknowledge Service of Doctors

In order to acknowledge the tireless service of doctors during COVID-19 pandemic, HDFC (Housing Development Finance Corporation) Bank launched ‘Salaam Dil Sey’ initiative. In this regard, a web portal has been created by bank www.salaamdilsey.com where the general public can log in and share their thank you message for doctors. These can be shared via email, social media, and WhatsApp.

Key Points:
i.The bank also virtually felicitated Padma Bhushan Dr Naresh Trehan, a renowned Cardiovascular and Cardiothoracic surgeon as a thank you gesture from the bank to all doctors across the country.

• He is Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), and Chief Cardiac Surgeon at Medanta -The MediCity, Gurugram (Haryana).

ii.On National Doctors’ Day i.e. on July 1, 2021, the bank unveiled ‘Wall of Dedication’ at its Corporate Office in Worli, Mumbai (Maharashtra). It consisted of a collage of thank you messages for doctors from across the country.

• An anthem, A Musical Tribute, to doctors, featuring bank staff from remotest locations was also released.

NCDEX Launched 2 New Agri Commodity Indices – GUAREX, SOYDEX

National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India’s agricultural commodity exchange, launched India’s 1st sectoral indices in agricultural-commodities space such as GUAREX and SOYDEX.

• GUAREX and SOYDEX were also India’s 1st return based agricultural futures index in agricultural-commodities.

Key Facts about the Indices:

i.These indices will be available on the NCDEX’s website to represent the performance of Guar complex and Soy complex. Futures trading in these indices will be launched later.

ii.Price Tracking:

• GUAREX – It is the return based index, it tracks the change in the price of the futures contracts of Guar Seed and Guar Gum Refined Splits on a real-time basis.

• SOYDEX – It will also trace the price changes in futures contracts of Soybean and Refined Soy Oil.

iii.Weightage:

• GUAREX will have a weightage of 63.43 percent guar seed and 36.57 percent guar gum refined splits.

• In SOYDEX, soybean and refined soy oil will have a weightage of 67.92 percent and 32.08 percent, respectively.

iii.Both the indices will be useful for hedgers to identify low-cost products. It will also offer trading strategies and risk management exercises

iv.Existing Index: In May 2020, NCDEX had launched AGRIDEX, a return-based composite index tracking futures price movement in 10 commodities on NCDEX. It has given over 40 percent return within 1 year of operations.

ASCI, FSSAI sign Agreement to curb Misleading Claims in Food & Beverage Ads

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) & Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have signed an agreement to protect consumers from misleading claims in Food & Beverage (F&B) advertisements.

• The agreement was signed in the presence of Arun Singhal, CEO of FSSAI & Professor Bejon Misra, Adviser, Public Affairs, ASCI.

• As per the deal, ASCI will identify advertisements that violate provisions of Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018 and FSSAI will investigate the cases.

• ASCI will set up a three-member expert panel to evaluate foods and beverages advertising identified by the ASCI monitoring team.

Sukhbir Singh Sandhu Appointed as Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand

Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Minister(CM) of Uttarakhand has appointed Sukhbir Singh Sandhu (SS Sandhu), a 1988 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, as the new Chief Secretary(CS) of Uttarakhand, replacing Om Prakash.

• SS Sandhu was on deputation at the Centre as the Chairman of the National Highway Authority of India(NHAI).

• Om Prakash has been made the chief resident commissioner of Delhi.

Richard Donner – Director of “Superman” passes away

Richard Donald Schwartzberg, the famous Blockbuster movie director of Hollywood, popularly known as Richard Donner passed away at the age of 91, he belongs to the United States of America. The creator of multiple blockbuster movies from various genres including Thriller, Comedy & Adventure movie was also the creator of the 1st ‘Superman’ movie. Popular Movies Directed by Richard Donner:

• “The Omen” (1976)

• “Superman” (1978)

• “Maverick” (1994)

• “Conspiracy Theory” (1997)

• “Lethal Weapon” movie series

News in Detail