Daily Current Affairs and GK | 23 October 2021

Topic: Awards and Prizes

1. Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to Martin Scorsese, and Istevan Szabo at 52nd IFFI.

• Film directors Istvan Szabo and Martin Scorsese are going to be awarded the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
• This announcement has been made by Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur.
• The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2021 will be the 52nd edition of the award ceremony and that is going to be conducted from November 20 to 28 in Goa.
• This will be the first time when leading OTT players have been invited by IFFI to take part in the festival.
• Over the past few decades, Istvan Szabo has been recognized as the most critical Hungarian film director and known for such masterpieces as Mephisto (1981) Father (1966).
• Martin Scorsese is known as the leading figure of the New Hollywood era and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential directors in film history.
• This will be the first time that films from five BRICS countries, i.e. Brazil, Russia, South Africa, China, and India, will be screened through the BRICS Film Festival in association with IFFI.

Topic: Important days

2. Mole Day: 23 October

• Mole Day is celebrated on October 23 every year.
• Chemists, chemistry students, and chemistry enthusiasts celebrate this day across the world.
• This day is celebrated to give honor to Avogadro’s number and celebrated on 23rd October from 6:02 am to 6:02 pm.
• The purpose of this day is to promote various activities related to mole and chemistry, which will increase students’ interest in chemistry.
• To define the number of particles present in one mole of any substance, the Avogadro number is expressed as 6.02×10²³.
• This number - or mole - is a basic measurement unit for atoms and molecules, discovered by the 18th-century Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro.
• Around the 1980s, this day was originated when an article appeared in The Science Teacher.
• Later, Maurice Ohler of Wisconsin, USA, a retired high school chemistry teacher, took inspiration from the article and founded the National Mole Day Foundation.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

3. Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny wins Sakharov Prize.

• The European Parliament has awarded Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny the Sakharov Prize for his work to expose corruption and to fight for human rights.
• Every year, the Sakharov Prize is presented to people working for human rights or democracy.
• The award will be presented during a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in December.
• A group of Afghan women for their battle for women's rights in Taliban-run Afghanistan, and Jeanine Anez, a former Bolivian president were the other nominees for the prize.
• On October 20, European legislators selected Alexei Navalny for the Sakharov Prize.

Topic: State News/ Assam

4. Bhaskarabda to be added to official Assam Government calendar.

• Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that Bhaskarabda, a Luni-Solar Calendar, will be used as an official calendar. This was decided during a meeting held by the officials of the General Administration Department.
• At present, Saka and the Gregorian calendar are the official calendars of the Assam government.
• The gap between Bhaskarabda and Gregorian is 593 years. It is counted from the date of the ascension of Bhaskaravarman, the 7th-century ruler of Kamrup.
• Bhaskar Varman was a contemporary of northern Indian ruler Harshavardhana. He was the ruler of the Kamrupa kingdom in the 7th-century.
• The Saka Calendar is based on the luni-solar reckoning of time. The calendar consists of 365 days and 12 months. Saka Calendar was adopted as National Calendar in 1957.
• The Gregorian calendar is the most used calendar in the world. It was proclaimed in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. It is a solar-based calendar. It consists of 365 days in the common year divided into 12 months of irregular lengths.

Topic: Defence

5. DRDO carried out successful flight test of ABHYAS. 

• DRDO has carried out a successful flight test of ABHYAS- the High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT). 
• The flight test has been carried out from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Bay of Bengal in Odisha.
• ABHYAS can be used as an aerial target for the evaluation of various missile systems.
• ABHYAS is designed & developed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru.
• It is powered by a gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at subsonic speed. It is programmed for fully autonomous flight.
• The flight test has been carried out as a part of developmental flight trials. This indigenous target aircraft, once developed, will meet the requirements of high speed expendable aerial targets (HEAT) for Indian Armed forces.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Reports and Indices

6. COVID-19 is one of the causes of increase in child sexual exploitation and abuse online.

• Global Threat Assessment Report 2021 has said that COVID-19 is one of the causes of an increase in child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
• Global Threat Assessment report 2021, by WeProtect Global Alliance, was launched on 19 October.
• The report was a meta study that gets ideas and information from findings from multiple international studies on the issue.
• The findings show that reporting of child sexual abuse and online abuse has reached its highest level in the past two years.
• The report notes that the Internet Watch Foundation has observed a 77% increase in child ‘self-generated’ sexual material from 2019 to 2020.
• As part of the report, Economist Impact has carried out a global study of childhood experiences of more than 5,000 young adults (aged 18 to 20) across 54 countries.
• The report also contains a survey of technology companies that shows most of them were using tools to detect child sexual abuse material, but only 37% currently use tools to detect online grooming.
• During the pandemic, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) showed a 106% increase in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation to its global CyberTipline.
• NCMEC reported 95% increase in searches for child sexual abuse material during COVID-19 lockdown in India.
• WeProtect Global Alliance is a global movement. It consists of more than 200 governments, private sector companies and civil society organisations.
• They work together to transform the global response to child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, nonprofit organization established by the United States Congress. Its headquarters is located in United States.
• Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a registered charity based in England.

Topic: Sports

7. Ridhima Veerendrakumar bags gold medal in 50m backstroke for group II girls at the National Aquatic Championships.

• Karnataka swimmer Ridhima Veerendrakumar bagged the gold medal in 50m backstroke for group II girls at the Sub-Junior and Junior National Aquatic Championships in Bengaluru.
• She broke the 7-year record of Maana Patel. She completed the 50-meter backstroke in 29.94 Seconds.
• Shalini Dixit of Karnataka bagged the silver medal in this event while Sri Nitya Sago of Telangana won the bronze medal.
• Maharashtra's Apeksha Fernandes created a new national record of 34.4 seconds in the 50m breast stroke for group I girls.
• Karnataka's Dhinidhi Desinghu created a new national record in the 200m IM for Group III Girls event. She breaks Vania Kapoor's record of 2:37.99.
• Karnataka's Jas Singh won his fourth individual gold in the 100m freestyle for Group V boys.

Topic: Defence

8. United States successfully tested hypersonic missile technology.

• United States successfully tested hypersonic missile technology after China and Russia.
• United States will deploy its first hypersonic weapons by 2025.
• Earlier, China had conducted a test of Hypersonic Missile with nuclear capacity. It can travel around 2,000 kilometers and can carry nuclear warheads.
• Russia recently launched a hypersonic missile ‘Zircon’ from a submarine.

Topic: National News

9. NITI Aayog launched Digi-Book Innovation for You Sector in Focus - Atal Innovation Mission for Health Care.

• NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) launched “Innovations for You in Focus Health sector” Digi book to showcase the success stories of startups.
• These startups have worked in different domains. These have worked to create new, disruptive and innovative products, services, and solutions.
• The first edition of the book has focused on the innovation in Health care. The subsequent editions of the book will focus on other emerging sectors like AgriTech, EduTech, Mobility, EV among others.
• The book is a compilation of 45 health tech startups, incubated at Atal Incubation Centers across the country.
• The Digi-book has been unveiled by Vice Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar with other members of Niti Aayog. It will work as an encouragement for upcoming entrepreneurs to work on the path of creativity and imagination.

Topic: State News/ Bihar

10. President Kovind attended Bihar Assembly centenary function.

• President Ram Nath Kovind attended the centenary celebration function of the Bihar Legislative Assembly building.
• During his visit, the President also visited the Patna Gurdwara, Buddha Smriti Park, Mahavir temple.
• President also participated in a cultural programme organized at the Assembly Speaker residence. Nearly 1,500 current and former MPs and legislators from the State attended the centenary celebration function.
• The centenary celebration had begun from 7 February 2021 at the newly constructed Central Hall of the building.

Topic: Environment and Ecology

11. India is listed among 'countries of concern' list on climate change by US.

• Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan have been listed as ‘country of concern’ in the assessment of the American intelligence community.
• The other countries on the list are Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Nicaragua, Colombia, Myanmar, and North Korea.
• The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on climate.
• In this report, IC (Intelligence Community) has identified 11 countries as being “highly vulnerable” in terms of their ability to prepare for and respond to environmental and societal crises caused by climate change.
• The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has predicted that global warming will increase geopolitical tensions and risks to US national security in future.
• Water disputes can increase the tension in the South Asian region. Climate change can increase the risk of instability in African countries and small islands states in the Pacific.
• This report has also predicted that strategic competition will increase over the Arctic region. 
• Heat, drought, water availability, and ineffective government can make Afghanistan more vulnerable.

Topic: National News

12. GAIL (India) Ltd to build India's largest green hydrogen-making plant.

• GAIL (India) Ltd will build India's largest green hydrogen-making plant.
• As per GAIL chairman and managing director Manoj Jain, planned capacity of the plant is 10MW.
• He said 2-3 sites including one at Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh have been finalized for plant.
• He was speaking at India Energy Forum by CERAWeek. He said that the company has floated a global tender to procure an electrolyser.
• He said that government is promoting use of LNG as fuel for transport and mining sector.
• He said that 20 LNG dispensing stations will be set up on Golden Quadrilateral by March 2022. The ultimate target is to set up 1,000 LNG stations.
• NTPC had earlier announced a green hydrogen plant of 5MW capacity.
• India aims to achieve the target of increasing the share of natural gas in the energy basket from current 6.2% to 15% gas usage by 2030.
• GAIL (India) Limited is the Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise. It was established in 1984. It is India's largest gas transporting and marketing company.

Topic: Appointments

13. PK Garg appointed as new CEO of Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).

• PK Garg has been appointed by Sports Authority of India (SAI) as new CEO of Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
• Garg’s appointment as CEO of TOPS was officially ratified at SAI's Mission Olympic Cell meeting.
• Garg will assume office on October 25. He will replace Rajesh Rajagopalan. Rajesh Rajagopalan held the post from 2018 till Tokyo Olympics.
• Garg is an Arjuna Awardee recipient (1990) in sailing. Garg is Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardee in 1993-94.
• He represented India in five Asian Games from 1986 to 2002 in Enterprise Class sailing events.
• He also won a gold and silver at the Enterprise Class sailing World Championships in 1993 in Zimbabwe and in 1997 in Goa.

Topic: Sports

14. In FIFA rankings, India rises one spot to 106^th place.

• In FIFA rankings, India has moved one spot ahead to 106th place and Belgium continues to hold top position.
• Brazil remains second just 12 points behind Belgium. England dropped two places to fifth.
• India’s ranking has improved after Sunil Chhetri-led side won the South Asian Football Federation Championship (SAFF Championship).
• Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the final rounds of the UEFA Nations League have been played in October 2021.
• 2022 FIFA World Cup is the 22nd FIFA World Cup competition. It will take place in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022.
• It will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world. It will be the last competition to involve 32 teams. The number of teams will increase to 48 teams in 2026 tournament in the US, Mexico, and Canada.