Daily Current Affairs and GK | 27 and 28 October 2024

Topic: International News

1. No party got a clear mandate in the Japan election.

• Japan’s future government is in flux as no party got a majority in the recent election.
• The uncertainty has pushed the yen currency to a three-month low.
• Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition won 215 seats in the lower house of parliament.
• The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) won 148 seats, up from 98 previously.
• 233 seats is the magic number required to form the government.
• The parties now have 30 days to form a grouping that can form the government.
• The political instability comes as the country faces economic headwinds and a tense security situation in East Asia due to aggressive China and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Topic: Indian Economy

2. Between January-April 2024, Indians lost Rs 120 crore in digital arrest frauds.

• Indians lost Rs 120.30 crore in “digital arrest” frauds in the first quarter of 2024.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) monitors cybercrime at the central level through the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C).
• Digital arrests have become a prevalent method of digital fraud.
• The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) found that 46% of cyber frauds were reported in this period.
• National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) data show 7.4 lakh complaints were registered between January 1 and April 30 this year.
• 15.56 lakh complaints have been received in 2023. A total of 9.66 lakh complaints were reported in 2022.
• There are mainly four types of scams — digital arrest, trading scam, investment scam (task-based) and romance/dating scam.
• In many cases, the victims were “digitally arrested”, which meant they were forced to stay visible to the frauds until their demands had been met.

Topic: Banking System

3. The US-based Global Finance magazine has ranked RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das as the top central banker.

• This is the second consecutive year that he has been ranked as the top central banker globally.
• Governor Shaktikanta Das received the award for A+ grade in the Central Bank Report Card 2024.
• The award was presented on 26 October at an event organised by Global Finance in Washington DC, USA.
• Das has been ranked at the top of the list of three central bank governors who have been given an A+ rating.
• Apart from Das, Christian Ketel Thomsen of Denmark and Thomas Jordan of Switzerland have also been ranked in the 'A+' category of central bankers.
• The grades are based on a scale from A to F for success in inflation control, economic growth targets, currency stability and interest rate management.
• State Bank of India (SBI) has been recognised as the Best Bank in India for 2024 by Global Finance Magazine of the US at its 31st Annual Best Bank Awards event.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Environment and Ecology

4. To reduce the burden on the Sasan in Gujarat, a new lion safari is being built in Barda.

• On October 29, the first phase of Barda Wildlife Sanctuary and Barda Jungle Safari will be inaugurated at Kapurdi check post of Devbhoomi Dwarka, aimed at reducing the burden on Sasan (Gir National Park).
• This wildlife sanctuary will help in promoting wildlife tourism in Gujarat.
• Forest and Environment Minister Mulubhai Bera will lead the ceremony.
• Spread over approximately 192 square kilometers of Barda region, 'Barda Jungle Safari' Phase-I comprises its high and low hills, which has been designated as a sanctuary.
• The Barda Jungle Safari covers some of the most picturesque areas of the Bhanvad-Ranavav and Barda Wildlife Sanctuary.
• There are 368 plant species found in this sanctuary, of which the majority 54% are shrubs.
• The sanctuary serves as an important habitat for a diverse species of mammals, including 22 species of wild animals including Asiatic lion, leopard, wild cats, hyena, mongoose, jackal, fox, rabbit and many other wildlife.
• In February 1979, the Barda Hills Wildlife Sanctuary area was declared a sanctuary.

Topic: Reports and Indices/Rankings

5. India is ranked 176th out of 180 countries in the 2024 Global Nature Conservation Survey.

• With a very low score of 45.5 (out of 100), India has been ranked 176th in the Global Nature Conservation Index, 2024.
• In the ranking of 180 countries released on 24 October 2024, the country is among the five worst performing countries along with Kiribati (180), Turkey (179), Iraq (178) and Micronesia (177).
• Launched in October, the first Nature Conservation Index (NCI) evaluates conservation efforts using four criteria – land management, threats to biodiversity, capacity and governance, and future trends.
• The NCI is developed by the Goldman Sonnenfeld School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and BioDB.com, a non-profit website dedicated to maintaining biodiversity data.
• The main reasons for India's low ranking are the increasing threats to biodiversity and inadequate land management practices.
• The rate of land conversion in the country has been significant, with 53% of land used for urban, industrial or agricultural development.
• The index also highlights excessive fertiliser use, with a sustainable nitrogen index of 0.77, and warns of increasing soil pollution, which poses a threat to long-term soil health.
• India suffered a significant loss of 23,300 square kilometres of tree cover due to deforestation between 2001 and 2019.

Topic: Important Days

6. Indian Army celebrated 78th infantry day on 27 October 2024.

• The valor and sacrifice of brave infantry soldiers was remembered by the Indian Army on the occasion of 78th Infantry Day by organizing ceremonies at Leimakhong Military Station in Manipur and Jakhama Military Station in Nagaland.
• Infantry day is celebrated to mark the day when the infantry of the Indian army made its way into the Srinagar airfield in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.
• This infantry was led by 1st battalion of the Sikh Regiment.
• The Indian Army also celebrates Shaurya Diwas to commemorate the successful landing of the Indian Army on October 27, 1947 at Srinagar Airfield.
• The 1947 war was independent India's first successful military campaign.
• On this occasion, the courage of the martyred heroes of the Infantry was remembered by laying wreaths at the war memorials at Leimakhong and Jakhama.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Defence

7. Aircraft complex for manufacturing of C-295 military aircraft has been inaugurated by PM Modi.

• PM Modi and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez jointly inaugurated the TATA Aircraft Complex for the manufacturing of C-295 Military aircraft in Vadodara.
• This is India’s first private sector Final Assembly Line for military aircraft.
• In addition to Tatas, defence PSUs like Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Ltd will contribute to this programme.
• Private Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises will also contribute to this programme.
• In October 2022, the foundation stone for the Vadodara Final Assembly Line had been laid by the PM Modi.
• Total 56, C 295 military aircrafts will be produced for India under the projects. 
• Tata Advanced Systems Limited will manufacture 40 in Vadodara.
• Spain-based aviation giant Airbus will directly deliver 16 aircraft.
• The military transport aircraft manufactured at this facility will be capable of carrying 71 troops or 49-50 paratroopers.
• The first of these Made-in-India aircraft will be ready by September 2026. 

Topic: Sports  

8. In Table Tennis, India’s Yashaswini Ghorpade and Krittwika Roy won the women’s doubles title.

• The Indian duo won the title at the WTT Feeder Cagliari 2024 table tennis tournament in Italy.
• They defeated the South Korean pair of Yoo Siwoo and Kim Haeun 3-1 in the final.
• Earlier, the Indian table tennis players defeated the Italian team of Arianna Barani and Maria Picu 3-0 in the first round.
• The team defeated Japan’s Sachi Aoki and Sakura Yokoi in the quarter-finals.
• They secured place in the final with 3-1 win over German Sophia Klee and Franziska Schreiner.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Space and IT

9. Sarvam AI has launched a new language model for 10 Indian languages.

• The latest language model of Sarvam AI was trained with NVIDIA's NeMo framework on the Yotta Shakti Cloud using HGX H100 systems.
• The new AI model called Sarvam-1 supports Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu languages.
• Sarvam 2B launched its first foundational AI model in August 2024.
• This new AI model has been developed with 2 billion parameters. Parameter count is used to indicate the complexity of an AI model.
• Sarvam-1 and Phi-3 Mini AI models fall under the category of small language models (SLMs).
• Sarvam-1 is more efficient in handling Indic language scripts as compared to previous LLMs by using minimal tokens per word.
• Sarvam-1 is more efficient, with inference speeds that are 4-6 times faster than larger models like Gemma-2-9B and Llama-3.1-8B.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

10. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar received ‘The Harry Messel Award’.

• Bibhab Kumar Talukdar of Assam has received ‘The Harry Messel Award for Conservation Leadership by the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• He received the award during the ongoing 5th IUCN SSC Leaders’ Meeting in Abu Dhabi.
• 300 conservation experts have participated in the meeting to address the intertwined crises of biodiversity and climate change.
• Talukdar has received the award for his significant contributions to species conservation, particularly through his leadership in the SSC.

Topic: MoUs / Agreements

11. META collaborated with IndiaAI to advance open source AI innovation, research and development.

• On October 25, Meta announced a strategic collaboration with 'IndiaAI' at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to promote open-source AI innovation, R&D, and skills development in India.
• This includes the establishment of the Centre for Generative AI, Srijan at IIT Jodhpur.
• Also, it includes the launch of the 'AI for Skilling and Capacity Building' initiative in partnership with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
• This partnership will enable the development of indigenous AI applications and advance skill development in AI.
• Additionally, it will also boost research capabilities aimed at contributing to India’s AI mission of ensuring technological sovereignty and the vision of India-specific AI solutions.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

12. Sports Ministry discontinued the Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award.

• In an effort to "rationalise" the nation's numerous sporting accolades, the sports ministry stated on October 24 that the discontinuation of the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement from this year onwards and the introduction of the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).
• Arjuna Award (Lifetime) will be given for lifetime contribution towards sports development.
• Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award was instituted in 2002, named after Hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
• This award is given to individuals who have participated in Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games etc.
• Dronacharya Award will be given to recognize the efforts of coaches at the grassroots/development level.
• Additionally, in recognition of the Khelo India Scheme, the Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy will be awarded to the University for overall top performance in the Khelo India University Games.
• In 2023, Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award was given to former shuttler Manjusha Kanwar, former hockey exponent Vinit Kumar and Kabaddi player Kavitha Selvaraj.

Topic: National Appointments

13. Cabinet committee appointed a full-time MD for NAFED for five years.

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Deepak Agarwal as the regular MD of NAFED for a period of five years.
• ACC is responsible for appointing senior officials to key positions in the Central government, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies.
• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) was established on 2nd October 1958.
• It was set up to promote Cooperative marketing of agricultural produce to benefit the farmers.
• Its headquarters is in Delhi and regional offices are in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
• NAFED was also part of “Operation Greens” where price stabilization measures were implemented to increase farmers’ income.

Topic: Sports

14. Sharapova and Bryan brothers have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

• Five-time singles Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova and American twins Bob and Mike Bryan have been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
• They will be officially inducted on Aug 23, 2025, in a ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Newport.
• Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach the world number one ranking in 2005.
• She also won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
• The Bryan brothers had won 16 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles together and were the world’s top-ranked team for a record 438 weeks.
• The Bryans also won Olympic gold at London 2012 and were part of the U.S. Davis Cup-winning team in 2007.