Table of Contents
Important Days
Global Day of Parents 2022 Celebrates on the 1st of June
Every year Global Day of Parents is observed on the 1st of June globally. The Global Day of Parents is an annual event that celebrates the importance of parents in children’s lives. The purpose of the Global Day of Parents is to promote understanding and appreciation for the role parents play in their children’s lives. It also aims to raise awareness about the importance of quality parenting and family life.
The theme for Global Parent Day 2022 is ‘Family Awareness’, awareness internationally. Being conscious of one’s own and one’s family’s emotional and physical well-being might be critical. Being able to track and discuss one’s mental and physical health with one’s family members, as well as being there for one another and assisting one another through tough times, is incredibly vital for humans everywhere.
World Milk Day 2022 observed on 1st June
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations adopted June 1 as World Milk Day. The day is marked to recognize milk as global food and to celebrate the dairy industry. The day is intended to provide an opportunity to bring attention to activities that are connected with the dairy sector. The day has been observed on June 1 each year since 2001.
The main of World Milk Day is to raise public awareness about the value of milk in people’s lives. It is the first meal consumed by a kid after birth, and it may be the only food consumed throughout life. The idea of World Milk Day is to celebrate the contributions of the milk and dairy sector to the world.
The theme of World Milk Day 2022 is to bring attention to the climate change crisis and how the dairy sector can reduce its impact on the planet. The aim is to achieve ‘Dairy Net Zero’ by reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years and improving waste management in order to make the dairy sector sustainable.
Useful Notes For All Competitive Exams:
- FAO Headquarters: Rome, Lazio;
- FAO Director-General: Qu Dongyu;
- FAO Founded: 16 October 1945;
- The parent organization of FAO: United Nations Economic and Social Council..
National
PM announces ‘Yoga for Humanity’ is the theme of the eighth International Day of Yoga
‘Yoga for Humanity’ has been chosen as the theme of the eighth International Day of Yoga to be organized in India and across the globe on June 21. The theme has been selected after much deliberation and consultation and it appropriately portrays how yoga served humanity in alleviating suffering during the peak of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the theme in his “Maan Ki Baat’ broadcast. The main event of International Day of Yoga this year will be held in Mysuru, Karnataka. Focusing on the theme of ‘yoga for humanity’, special programs have been designed this year for specially-abled people, the transgender population, women, and children. Human values that are an integral part of yoga education in schools are also in focus.
The 8th edition of International Day of Yoga (IDY) will see many firsts, one of them is an innovative program, named “Guardian Ring”, under which participation of people performing yoga will take place along with the movement of the sun from different countries, beginning from the east and marching towards west.
NCTE launches online portal to Simplify Process of Teacher Education Programme
National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has launched an online portal to simplify the process of recognition of teacher education programs in higher education institutions.
The portal launched to streamline the process seeks to help right from the time of inviting application for courses till the stage of issue of recognition orders including the inspection of institutions. The applications for the recently launched four-year integrated teacher education programs (ITEP) applications will be processed on this portal.
The four-year ITEP is available for all students who choose to teach as a profession after secondary, by choice. The integrated course will benefit students since they will save one year by finishing it in four years rather than the customary five years required by the present BEd plan.
NCTE under the Ministry of Education has devised the curriculum for this course as per NEP 2020 in such a way that it enables a student-teacher to get a degree in education as well as a specialized discipline such as History, Mathematics, Science, Arts, Economics, or Commerce.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- National Council for Teacher Education Founded: 1995, India;
- National Council for Teacher Education Chairperson: Shri Santosh Sarangi, IAS;
- National Council for Teacher Education Headquarters: New Delhi.
LIC Launches Savings Life Insurance Plan Bima Ratna
The World Health Organization (WHO) has chosen Jharkhand for the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award-2022, in recognition of the state’s efforts to reduce tobacco usage.
The award will be presented to the State Tobacco Control Cell of the Health Department in New Delhi in honor of World No Tobacco Day. The coveted award, which honored the State Government’s achievements in reducing tobacco usage, was given by the National Tobacco Control Program in Jharkhand.
According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-1 report, the NTCP was begun in Jharkhand in 2012, when the state’s tobacco prevalence rate was 51.1 percent, with 48 percent of smokers.
According to the GATS-2 study, tobacco users in the state decreased to 38.9%, with 35.4 percent of those using smokeless tobacco.
International
The new law introduced in Canada aims to ‘freeze’ handgun ownership
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled new legislation that would implement “some of the harshest gun control measures” in decades, including a “freeze” on the country’s handgun purchases and sales.
Trudeau cited a succession of mass shootings in Canada over the years, as well as recent assaults in the United States, as part of his government’s motivation to propose Bill C-21 during a press conference in Ottawa.
Canada has stronger gun ownership laws than the United States, gun control supporters have campaigned for tougher regulations in recent years in the wake of a number of mass shootings, including a 2017 attack on a Quebec mosque that killed six worshipers and a fatal shooting in Toronto in 2018.
The AR-15 weapon, which was used by a shooter to murder 26 adults and children in the Sandy Hook tragedy in the United States in 2012, and the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, which was used by a gunman to murder 14 women at a Montreal engineering school in 1989, were among those banned.
Long-gun magazines will also be permanently changed so that they can never store more than five rounds, and the sale and transfer of large-capacity magazines would be prohibited.
Appointments
Rajesh Gera appointed DG National Informatics Centre
Senior scientist Rajesh Gera has been appointed as the Director-General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), a Personnel Ministry order issued. He is currently Deputy Director-General in the NIC. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Gera, Scientist ‘G’, to the post of Director-General.
The National Informatics Centre is an Indian government organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, was established in 1976 with the objective to provide technology-driven solutions to central and state governments.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- National Informatics Centre (NIC) Headquarters: New Delhi;
- National Informatics Centre (NIC) Founded: 1976.
Indian-origin academic appointed to Bank of England’s monetary panel
Leading UK-based academic, Dr. Swati Dhingra has been named as the first Indian-origin woman to be appointed as an external member of the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting committee.
Dhingra will replace current external member, Michael Saunders, who has been on the MPC since August 2016.
According to the UK government’s Treasury Department, the appointment of external members to the MPC is designed to ensure that the committee benefits from thinking and expertise in addition to that gained inside the Bank.
The Bank of England’s independent MPC makes decisions about the operation of the monetary policy of the UK. It comprises the Governor of the Bank of England, its three Deputy Governors, one member of the Bank with responsibility for monetary policy, and four external members who are appointed by the Chancellor.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- The Governor of the Bank of England: Andrew Bailey.
Former SBI officer Natarajan Sundar joins NARCL as MD & CEO
Former State Bank of India executive Natarajan Sundar joined National Assets Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) as Managing Director and CEO on May 30. Sundar is a banking veteran having served SBI for over 37 years and retired as Dy MD and Chief Credit Officer of the bank.
He was selected through a competitive selection process through an open advertisement and was interviewed in April 2022, by a selection panel consisting of senior bankers from both the Public and Private sectors.
NARCL appointed Mr. Karnam Sekar as the Independent Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board. Sekar was the MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank from July 2019 to June 2020. Earlier he was MD and CEO of Dena Bank from Sep 2018 until its merger in April 2019.
Agreements
Public Sector Banks doubled their Net Profit to almost Rs 66,500 crore in FY22
Israel has inked its first free trade agreement with an Arab country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement was signed in Dubai by Israel’s Economy and Industry Minister Orna Barbivay and the UAE’s Economy Minister Abdalla Bin Touq Al Marri.
According to an official statement released by Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, the comprehensive, significant, and ground-breaking agreement is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods and services, increase Israeli exports to the United Arab Emirates, and provide customs exemption on 96% of trade between the countries: food, agriculture, cosmetics, medical equipment, medication, and more.
Defense
Defence Ministry signs Rs 2,971-crore deal for indigenous Astra Beyond Visual Range missiles
The Defence Ministry has signed a contract with the defense public sector undertaking Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for the supply of the indigenously developed Astra Mk-I Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missiles and associated equipment for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Navy at a cost of Rs 2,971 Crore.
The missile, for which successful trials have already been undertaken by the IAF, is fully integrated on the Su-30 MK-I fighter aircraft and will be integrated with other fighter aircraft in a phased manner, including the Light Combat Aircraft.
Astra has a range of over 100 km with modern guidance and navigation techniques and has midcourse guidance and RF seeker-based terminal guidance to achieve target destruction with pinpoint accuracy, as the DRDO had stated earlier.
Air to Air missile with BVR capability provides large standoff ranges to fighter aircraft which can neutralize the adversary aircraft without exposing themselves to adversary air defense measures, thereby gaining and sustaining superiority of the air space.
A longer range and more sophisticated Astra-Mk2 is under development by DRDO and once it is inducted will free up the dependency on imports in the BVR segment.
Science and Technology
PARAM ANANTA Supercomputer commissioned at IIT, Gandhinagar
Param Ananta is a state-of-the-art supercomputer at IIT Gandhinagar dedicated to the nation under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), which was commissioned. This indigenous software stack is developed by C-DAC and is a Make in India initiative.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between IIT Gandhinagar and the Centre for Development in Advanced Computing (C-DAC) on October 12, 2020, to establish this 838 TeraFlops Supercomputing Facility under NSM.
The system is equipped with a mix of CPU nodes, GPU nodes, high memory nodes, high throughput storage, and high-performance Infiniband interconnect to cater to the computing needs of various scientific and engineering applications.
Business
Tata Motors Inks Pact For Potential Acquisition Of Ford India’s Plant In Gujarat
Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), a subsidiary of Tata Motors Ltd, and Ford India Private Limited (FIPL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Gujarat (GoG) for the potential acquisition of FIPL’s Sanand vehicle manufacturing facility.
The MoU includes the potential acquisition of the facility’s land & buildings, vehicle manufacturing plant, machinery and equipment, and transfer of all eligible employees of FIPL Sanand’s vehicle manufacturing operations, subject to the signing of definitive agreements and receipt of relevant approvals.
The Ford India vehicle manufacturing site at Sanand is a state-of-the-art site. TPEML would invest into new machinery and equipment which is necessary to commission and make the unit ready to produce its vehicles. With the proposed investments, it would establish an installed capacity of 300,000 units per annum, which would be scalable to more than 400,000 units.
Useful Notes for all competitive exams:
- Tata Motors Ltd Headquarters: Mumbai;
- Tata Motors Ltd Founder: J. R. D. Tata;
- Tata Motors Ltd Founded: 1945, Mumbai.
Summits and Conferences
Gujarat to host the National Education Ministers’ Conference
Gujarat will host the two-day National Education Ministers’ Conference. The meeting will be attended by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as well as other union ministers and state and union territory education ministers.
Deliberations on how to boost the country’s education ecosystem are likely to take place during this conference. It will concentrate on the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, school skilling, and digital projects such as the National Digital Education Architecture and the National Educational Technology Forum, among others.
The state education ministers will also pay visits to Vidya Samiksha Kendra, BISAG (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics), NFSU (National Forensic Science University), and the International Automobile Centre of Excellence.
Union Minister Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology, Dharmendra Pradhan was accompanied by Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Annapurna Devi, Minister of State for Education Dr. Subhash Sarkar, and senior officials from the Ministry of Education.
Useful notes For All Competitive Exams:
- Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology: Dharmendra Pradhan
- Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
- Minister of State for Education: Dr. Subhash Sarkar
Schemes and Conferences
PM Narendra Modi Unveils PM CARES for Children Scheme
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the benefits of the PM CARES for Children scheme for children who lost their parents due to the Covid-19 pandemic. PM Modi has promised Rs 4,000 a month for basic needs, financial support for schooling, scholarship for higher education, and free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh.
Prime Minister transferred scholarships to school-going children. A passbook of PM CARES for Children, and a health card under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana were handed over to the children during the program. PM CARES for Children Scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 29 May 2021.
The aim was to support children who have lost both their parents or legal guardian or adoptive parents or surviving parents to the Covid-19 pandemic, during the period from 11 March 2020 to 28 February 2022.
Obituary
Bollywood Singer KK dies after performing at Kolkata concert
Noted Bollywood singer KK (Krishnakumar Kunnath) who mesmerized music lovers for over three decades is no more. The 53-year-old singer died in Kolkata after a live performance. KK was regarded as one of the top singers of Bollywood. KK sang in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Assamese.
KK sang numerous hit songs in various films. Some of KK’s most popular songs that remain his best songs include Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai (Gangster), Tadap Tadap Ke Is Dil Se (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), Awarapan Banjarapan (Jism), Aankhon Mein Teri Ajab Si (Om Shanti Om) and Khuda Jaane (Bachna Ae Haseeno). His song Yaaron, released in 1999, made him a household name.