GK Snapshots on 4 December 2021

Indian Navy Day 2021 – December 4

The Indian Navy Day is annually observed across India on 4th December to commemorate the victory of India Navy’s Operation Trident, launched during the 1971 Indo-Pak war and to pay homage to the martyrs who lost their lives in the line of duty.

The day reaffirms the Indian Navy’s commitment to preserve, protect and promote India’s maritime interest.

The theme of 2021 Indian Navy Day is ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’, which highlights the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Indian armed forces in the 1971 Indo-Pak War.

Significance of December 4 – Operation Trident:

i.During the 1971 Indo-Pak War, the Indian Navy launched “Operation Trident” on the Karachi Port, Pakistan on 4th December 1971.

ii.The operation was conducted on the night 4-5 December 1971 and successfully sank Pakistan’s minesweeper, a destroyer and a cargo vessel carrying ammunition and destroyed the Karachi harbour fuel fields.

iii.In Modern Naval history (post World War II), Operation Trident was considered one of the most successful operations.

iv.Operation Trident witnessed the first use of anti-Ship missiles in combat in the region.

History of Indian Navy Day:

i.Under British Rule, the Royal Indian Navy celebrated the first Navy Day on 21st October 1944 to create awareness about the Navy among the people.

ii.Later, Navy Day was celebrated on 15th December and the week on which December 15th falls was observed as Navy Week.

iii.Since 1972, Navy day has been observed on December 4th and the Navy week is observed from 1st to 7th December.

PM Narendra Modi Inaugurated, lays Foundation Stone for Multiple Projects in Dehradun

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi inaugurated 7 projects worth Rs 2,573 crore and laid the foundation stone of 11 projects worth Rs 15,728 crore in Dehradun, Uttarakhand (Cumulatively the projects worth around Rs 18,000 crore).

• Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also participated in the project’s inauguration.
• More than Rs 1 lakh crore has been approved by the Centre in the last five years for the development of Uttarakhand.

India-ITU Launch Joint Cyber Drill 2021

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) operating under the Ministry of Communications conducted a ‘Joint Cyber Drill 2021’. It was conducted for the Critical Network Infrastructure (CNI) operators of India.

• It is a four-day virtual event that will take place from November 30 to December 3, 2021.
• The CNIs are the systems, assets and networks that are essential to ensure the security of a country.

Participants: The speakers, panelists, and experts from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), INTERPOL, the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), and other prestigious organisations.

Main purpose of Cyber Drill:

i.The 2021 India-ITU joint CyberDrill for Indian entities will emphasize the role of national Computer Incident and Response Teams (CIRTs) and Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) in building cyber resilience and protecting critical information infrastructure.
ii.It will improve the cyber security readiness of India and also helps to test an organization’s cyber capabilities against cyber-attacks, information security incidents, and other disruptions in our country.

22nd Hornbill Festival begins in Nagaland

The 22nd Hornbill Festival began in Nagaland at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama(Kohima).The Governor of Assam and Nagaland Prof. Jagdish Mukhi inaugurated the programme of the 10-day festival. It is also called the ‘Festival of Festivals’.

• It is the largest celebration of the Indigenous Warrior Tribes of Nagaland, generally celebrated for 10 days .
• The festival is also known as Dhanesh bird festival. Organized by the State Tourism and Art & Culture Departments.

Objective:

i.To revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions.
ii.To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural heritage of Nagaland.

Highlights:

i.The festival is named after the bird Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state’s tribes.
ii.The festival is currently being celebrated in the major parts of Nagaland that includes Kisma to Kohima, Mocomchung, Dimapur, Okha etc.
iii.It is celebrated by organising several traditional arts, folk songs & games, indigenous traditions etc.

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Announced New Helicopter Policy to Set Up Dedicated Hubs & Corridors

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation has announced a New 10- point(Step) Helicopter Policy at the 3rd Helicopter Summit 2021 – India@75: Expediting the Growth of Indian Helicopter Industry and Enhancing Air Connectivity organised by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry), Ministry of Civil Aviation(MoCA) and Pawan Hans Ltd. in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

• Under this new policy dedicated hubs and corridors will be established to boost air connectivity. Initially four Heli Hubs and Training Units will be set up Juhu in Mumbai, Guwahati, Delhi, and Bangalore.
• He also stated that 10 cities and 82 routes were identified to develop helicopter corridors.

Features of the New Policy:

i.Under this policy, the landing charges and parking deposits were abolished to boost commercial operations.
ii.As a part of the new policy, the government will also form a dedicated helicopter acceleration cell in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which will monitor the issues of the helicopter industry.
iii.An advisory group will also be formed under the Ministry to discuss the difficulties faced by the helicopter industry.

Viktor Axelsen, Tai Tzu Ying named 2021 BWF Male & Female Player of the Year

Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen and China’s Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying were named Male and Female player of the year 2021 respectively by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

• It was the first season-ending award in this category for both Vicktor Axelsen and Tai Tzu Ying — the All England champions of 2020.

Key points:

i.Viktor Axelsen is the Olympic champion and Tai Tzu Ying is the Tokyo Games silver medallist. Viktor Axelsen was rewarded for his extraordinary run starting from the Barcelona Spain Masters in February 2020.
ii.Tai Tzu Ying won the All England Open title in 2020 and all three finals at the three-tournament Asian Leg in January 2021. She also won the BWF World Tour Finals in 2020 and secured a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
iii.All eight winners were honoured in a virtual broadcast on BWF online platform.

Mathematician Nikhil Srivastava and 2 others selected for AMS’s Ciprian Foias Prize

Indian-American Mathematician Nikhil Srivastava nominated for American Mathematical Society (AMS) for the first Ciprian Foias Award in Operator Theory. Along with Nikhil Srivastava, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, Adam Marcus (Switzerland) and Daniel Spielman (United States)are the other two recipients.

• The award has been given for Nikhil Srivastava for his work in developing and introducing techniques to understand the characteristic polynomial of matrices, including the iterative sparsification.

Key points:

i.Nikhil Srivastava and the other two awardees will receive the award on January 5, 2022, during the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Seattle, United States. which is characterised as “the world’s largest mathematics meeting”.

ii.the trio has published a research paper titled ‘Interlacing families II: mixed characteristic polynomials and the Kadison–Singer problem‘ (Annals of Mathematics, 2015), which solves the famous ‘paving problem’ in operator theory, formulated by Richard Kadison and Isadore Singer in 1959.

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