GK Snapshots on 26 May 2021

World Thyroid Day 2021 – May 25

World Thyroid Day is annually observed across the globe on 25th May to create awareness about the importance of Thyroid and educate about the prevention and treatment of Thyroid diseases.

Background:

i.The World Thyroid Day was established in 2008 and the first World Thyroid Day was observed on 25th May 2008.

ii. The day was launched by European Thyroid Association(ETA), the American Thyroid Association(ATA), the Asia-Oceania Thyroid Association(AOTA), and the Latin American Thyroid Society(LATS).

iii. The day was established with an aim to highlight the prevalence of thyroid diseases and to focus on the need to educate about the prevention of thyroid disease.

iv. In 2007, the members of Thyroid Federation International decided to observe World Thyroid Day on 25th May which is already observed as a nation thyroid awareness day in various Scandinavian countries.

theme “Mother-Baby-Iodine: The Importance of Iodine on the Woman and her Baby”.

International Missing Children’s Day 2021 – May 25

International Missing Children’s Day(IMCD) is annually observed across the globe on 25th May to create awareness about the issues of child abduction and educate the parents about the measures to protect and safeguard their children.

Aim:

• To spread awareness about children who go missing across the globe.

• To focus on the efforts to find the children who went missing.

‘Forget me not’ flower is the official emblem of the International Missing Children’s Day.

Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa Became the 1st Female PM of Samoa

Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa, the leader of Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (Fast) party was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister(PM) of Samoa at a ceremony conducted in a makeshift tent outside the parliament. She replaces Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) the incumbent Male PM of Samoa.

About Fiame Naomi Mata’afa: i.Fiame Naomi Mata’afa is a former member of the HRPP who has served as the first female Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa from 2016 to 2020. ii.She was also the first female cabinet Minister of the country.
About Samoa: Prime Minister– Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa Capital– Apia Currency– Samoan Tālā

BAI President Himanta Biswa Sarma Elected As BWF Council Member

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected to the Badminton World Federation(BWF) council for the period of four years i.e 2021-25. i.Himanta Biswa Sarma is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Assam. ii.He is also the vice president of Badminton Asia.

Palak Kohli And Parul Parmar Became The First Indian Para Shuttlers To Qualify For Tokyo Paralympics 2021

Indian women’s pair of Palak Kohli and Parul Parmar have qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics 2021. They are the first Indian para shuttlers to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympics. Palak Kohli is ranked no.11 in the world and she is becoming the youngest para-badminton player in the world to qualify for Tokyo 2021 Paralympics

Asia Cup 2021 Postponed to 2023 by ACC

The 2021 edition of the Asia Cup has been postponed by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to be held in 2023 due to COVID-19. Background: ACC had postponed the 2020 edition of the Asia cup successively for 2 years, as initially it was postponed to June 2021 and allotted to Sri Lanka(shifted from Pakistan) and now again postponed to 2023 as there is already an Asia Cup in 2022 which will be hosted by Pakistan. There has been no Asia Cup since 2018. Recently, Barcelona, Spain gave its citizens the chance to vote for building a cricket ground and the ‘building of cricket ground’ got the most votes.

India & Israel sign three-year Work Program for development in Agriculture cooperation

India & Israel have signed a three-year 5th Indo-Israel Agriculture Action Plan (IIAP) 2021-23 agreement for development in Agriculture cooperation. Under the work program, both countries will implement two initiatives namely ‘Indo-Israel Agricultural Project Centre of Excellence’ & ‘Indo-Israel Villages of Excellence (IIVoE)’.It will benefit local farmers through the Centers of Excellence and the Villages of Excellence.

• Objective – To grow existing Centres of Excellence (CoE), establish new centers, increase CoE’s value chain, bring CoE into the self-sufficient mode, and encourage private sector companies and collaboration.

• The villages around these COEs will be transformed into villages of Excellence through numerous development projects.

• The program was attended by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare – Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary and other senior officials of the Israel Government.

Cheetah to be re-introduced into India at Kuno National Park, MP

Cheetah, declared extinct in India in 1952 is set to be re-introduced into India in November, 2021 at the Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh (MP). It is the 1st time in the world that a large carnivore will be relocated from one continent to another.

• As per the plan, 10 African Cheetahs will be brought from South Africa & Namibia and reintroduced in India.

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has approved a budget of INR 1, 400 Lakh for the 2021 Fiscal under ‘Project Cheetah’.

• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) will release money for the project to Madhya Pradesh and the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in June, 2021.

• India’s last Cheetah died in Chhattisgarh in 1947.

Ministry of Power to set up a National Mission on the use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants

The Ministry of Power is set to establish a National Mission on the use of Biomass in coal-based Thermal Power Plants.

i.It will address the issue of air pollution caused by farm stubble burning and reducing carbon footprints of thermal power generation.

• It will help India’s energy transition & help in meeting India’s Clear energy targets (450 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy by 2030).
• The proposed National Mission will have a minimum duration of 5 years & will contribute to the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Objectives of National Mission on use of Biomass

i.To increase the level of co-firing from the present 5% to higher level to have a larger share of carbon neutral power generation from the thermal power plants.
ii.To take up Research & Development activity in Boiler design for handling the high amount of silica, alkali in the biomass pellets.
iii.To facilitate overcoming the constraints in supply chain of biomass pellets and agro-residue and its transport upto to the power plants.
iv.To consider regulatory issues in biomass co-firing.

NPCI Onboards PayCore to Develop SoftPoS Solutions for RuPay

On May 24, 2021, The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has onboarded PayCore, Turkey’s global payment solutions company as one of the certified partners for ‘RuPay SoftPOS’ to drive cashless payments across the country.

Objective: Along with PayCore, NPCI aims to reduce the investment cost required by banks to reach over the MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) and intents to increase the spread of ‘RuPay SoftPOS’ across India with its network of banks.

About Rupay SoftPoS:

On March 05, 2021, NPCI partnered with SBI Payments and launched ‘RuPay SoftPoS’ to transform NFC enabled smartphones into Point of Sale (POS) terminals for the merchants and retailers. Click here to know more

Key points:

i.Under the partnership, NPCI has authorised the PayCore’s SoftPOS solution for RuPay, which will enable smartphones and tablets to be used as POS terminals without any additional devices.

ii.Using SoftPoS merchants can use their Near Field Communication(NFC)-enabled smartphones as PoS machines to accept contactless payments.

iii.RuPay SoftPOS enables merchants to accept payments securely from contactless cards, mobile wallets, wearables, and QR-based payment solutions over Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Flexiloans Ties With Up Vivriti Capital To Disburse Rs 300 Crore Loans To MSMEs

Fintech lender FlexiLoans.com has partnered with financial services company Vivriti Capital to provide working capital financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by disbursing loans worth Rs 300 crore.
ii.PayNearby is currently funding small-ticket, unsecured loans between Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh with tenure ranging from 6 months to 24 months.
iii.The loan turn-around time is about 48 hours, and the entire life cycle of the loan is completely digital.
iv.Centrum will improve the efficiency of PayNearby’s lending business and harness its rich data acquired through processing billions of transactions per day.

India Records Highest Ever FDI Inflow of US$81.72 Billion in FY21

As per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India has attracted the highest ever total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow of US$81.72 billion during FY21, which is 10 percent more than FY20(US$74.39 billion).

• FDI equity inflow grew by 19 percent in FY21 (US$ 59.64 billion) compared to FY20 (US$ 49.98 billion).

i.Top Investing countries in FY21:

Singapore is the top investing country with 29 percent of total investment, followed by the United States of America (USA) with 23 percent and Mauritius with 9 percent.