Daily Current Affairs and GK | 29 June 2022

Topic: State News/ Karnataka

1. Karnataka government launched ‘Kashi Yatra’ scheme to provide financial assistance to pilgrims.

• The Karnataka government has approved the ‘Kashi Yatra’ project.
• Under the scheme, financial assistance of Rs 5,000 will be given to pilgrims going on pilgrimage to Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
• For this scheme, the applicants should be above 18 years and native of Karnataka. Beneficiaries have to present the proof that they have visited Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
• The government has sanctioned Rs 7 crore for the ‘Kashi Yatra’ project.
• Kashi Vishwanath Temple:
  • It is located in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
  • It is dedicated to Lord Shiva and the current structure of the temple was constructed by Ahilyabai Holkar in 1780.
  • It is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and the main deity is known by the name Vishvanatha.

Topic: Important Days

2. National Statistics Day: 29 June

• National Statistics Day is celebrated every year on 29 June.
• This year, the theme for the National Statistics Day celebration is ‘Data for Sustainable Development’.
• In 2007, the Government of India designated June 29 as the “Statistics Day”.
• National Statistics Day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of the late Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.
• He set up the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata. ISI also celebrates June 29 as the “Worker Day”.
• About Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis:
  • He was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He played a key role in shaping the first 5-year plan.
  • He introduced the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and random sampling.
  • He introduced the concept of pilot surveys. He also advocated the importance of sampling methods.

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

3. Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and MoS Communications Devusinh Chauhan have launched the ‘Dak Karmayogi’ portal.

• ‘Dak Karmayogi’ is an e-learning portal of the Department of Posts to enhance the competency of Dak Sevaks and department employees.
• It has been developed under the vision of ‘Mission Karmayogi’.
• Mission Karmayogi was conceptualized by PM Modi to bring efficiency to the actions of all government employees.
• ‘Dak Karmayogi’ portal will allow all the trainees to access the uniform standardized training content online or in blended campus mode.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

4. National Highways Excellence Awards-2021 given to the stakeholders and companies involved in the highway construction and maintenance of road assets.

• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla along with Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari gave away the awards.
• This year, the theme of the awards was “Innovation and Excellence in Road Construction”.
• National Highways Excellence Awards were started in 2018. They were started to incentivize stakeholders in the highway construction and maintenance process.

Topic: Defence

5. DRDO and Indian Army successfully test-fired indigenously-developed Laser-Guided ATGM from Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun.

• They successfully test-fired this Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) at KK Ranges with the support of Armoured Corps Centre & School (ACC&S) Ahmednagar on June 28, 2022.
• The ATGM use a tandem High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead to defeat Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) protected armoured vehicles.
• It has been developed with multi-platform launch capability.
• It is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from 120 mm rifled gun of MBT Arjun.
• It has the capability to hit the protected armoured vehicles in ranges from 1.5 to 5 kilometre.
• Two Pune based facilities of the DRDO’s Armament and Combat Engineering (ACE) Cluster have developed the Laser Guided ATGM in association with Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun.

(Source: PIB)

Topic: Sports

6. Deepak Punia won a bronze medal at the U23 Asian wrestling championships 2022 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

• Punia won the bronze medal in the 86kg freestyle weight category after defeating Maksat Satybaldy.
• In the opening two rounds, Punia lost to Azizbek Fayzullaev of Uzbekistan and Nurtilek Karypbaev of Kyrgyzstan.
• India won a total of 25 medals in the U23 Asian wrestling championships 2022, including 10 gold medals.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Corporates/Companies

7. Mukesh Ambani has resigned as CEO of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL).

• Mukesh Ambani has stood down as chairman of the board of directors of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, turning over the reins to his son Akash.
• Mukesh Ambani will remain chairman of Jio Platforms Ltd, the parent company of all Jio digital services brands.
• Pankaj Mohan Pawar's appointment as the company's managing director for a five-year term has been also approved by the Reliance Jio board.
• Additionally, it approved the appointment of K.V. Chowdary and Raminder Singh Gujral as additional directors of the firm who will serve as independent directors for a five-year term.
• Reliance Jio Infocomm:
  • The largest 4G and mobile broadband service provider in India, Reliance Jio Infocomm, is a division of Jio Platforms.
  • It is headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.
  • It was established on 15 February 2007.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

8. ‘Mo Bus’ service from Odisha Capital Region Urban Transport won the prestigious UN Public Service Awards for 2022.

• The public transportation service has been awarded for its contribution to "promoting gender-responsive public services to meet the SDGs" (Sustainable Development Goals).
• The awards have been given to 10 innovations from 10 countries to help the world better recover from COVID-19.
• The winners helped in keeping children safe, promoting gender equality, and protecting underwater life.
• Mo Bus: It is a public transport bus service inaugurated on 6 November 2018 and runs in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
• UN Public Service Awards:
  • The UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) program was started by the UN in 2003 in an effort to recognize the importance of public service.
  • The Award is given for excellence in public service delivery that helps achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting effectiveness, transparency, and inclusiveness.

Topic: National News

9. World Bank to give $250 mn loan to India for road safety programme.

• The $250 million loan amount to be given by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a maturity of 18 years.
• The India State Support Program for Road Safety will be implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with the financial support of the World Bank.
• The project will also create a national harmonised crash database system to analyse accidents, which will be used to construct safer roads.
• The fund will be also used to expand the network of basic and advanced life support ambulances and to provide training to first responders to road accidents.
• The project will also give incentives to States for leveraging private funding through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concessions and pilot initiatives.
• In India, around 1.5 lakh people died each year in road accidents. More than half of the victims are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists.

Topic: State News/ Punjab

10. Punjab Finance Minister presented the budget of ₹155,859.78 crores for 2022-2023.

• Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema presented the first budget of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
• The state government has announced the setting up of 117 mohalla clinics in the first year and 16 new medical colleges in the next five years.
• The government has allocated Rs 11000 crore for the agriculture sector and ₹6,947 crores for free power to tube wells used for agriculture.
• ₹4,731 crores have been allocated for the health sector and the government will give incentives to paddy growers, who will adopt non-conventional methods of direct seeding rice.
• The state government also announced 300 units of free electricity to every household from July 1.
• In 2022-23, the state government debt would rise from ₹283,756.82 crores to ₹305,361.44 crores.
• According to the budget, the government will focus on fiscal health, good governance, health, agriculture and education in the first year.
• The government will set up two super-speciality hospitals in Patiala and Faridkot.
• The Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences will be set up in Mohali.
• The government also announced the setting up of new godowns by Markfed at 13 locations.

Topic: Space and IT

11. NASA launched its first commercial rocket outside US from Arnhem Space Centre of Australia.

• NASA has successfully launched the first rocket from a commercial spaceport outside the United States.
• The rocket travelled around 300 kilometres (186 miles) into space to observe the Alpha Centauri A and B constellations.
• It will help scientists in studying the impact of a star's light on the habitability of nearby planets.
• It is the first of the three launches that are scheduled to take place in Australia. The other two rockets will be launched on 4th and 12th July.
• NASA had last launched the rockets from Australia in 1995.
• The Arnhem Space Centre is operated by Equatorial Launch Australia. It is located in the Northern Territory of Australia.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Reports and Indices/Ranking

12. Education Ministry releases first ever report on Performance Grading Index for Districts.

• The Department of School Education and Literacy has released the third Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for 2018-19 and 2019-20.
• Indian Education System is the largest in the world with 15 lakh schools, 97 lakh teachers, and nearly 26 crore students.
• 83-indicator-based PGI for District (PGI-D) has been designed to rate the performance of all districts in school education.
• PGI-D has graded the districts into ten grades. The Highest Grade is Daksh while the lowest grade in PGI-D is called Akanshi-3.
• PGI-D comprises of total weightage of 600 points across 83 indicators, which are grouped under 6 categories.
• According to this report, “none of the districts attained the highest grade ‘Daksh’ in 2019-20 and 2018-19.
• Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Jaipur from Rajasthan achieved the second grade. The number of districts in the third Atti-Uttam grade has increased from 49 to 86.
• Punjab with 14 districts in the ‘Ati-uttam’ grade followed by Gujarat and Kerala with each having 13 districts in this category.

Topic: Sports

13. Cyclist Ronaldo Singh created history by winning silver medal in Asian Championship.

• Ronaldo Singh becomes the first Indian to win the silver medal in the sprint event at the Asian Cycling Championships 2022.
• He had earlier won bronze medals in a 1km time trial and team sprint events. He created a national record in the quarter-final with a 9.946s sprint.
• This bronze medal was India’s first-ever medal in the senior category at the Asian Championships.
• Indian junior cyclist Birjit Yumnam won a bronze medal in the 15km Race.
• Japan topped the medal tally with 18 gold, seven silver and two bronze.
• The Asian Track Cycling Championships (ATCC) is part of the Asian Cycling Championship (Road & Track). It is organized by the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC).

Topic: Personality in News

14. Chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group Pallonji Mistry passed away.

• Pallonji Mistry passed away in Mumbai at the age of 93.
• Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group is the largest shareholder in the Tata Group with 18.37%.
• Mistry and his family control the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which was founded more than 150 years ago.
• He is known as the "phantom of Bombay House" for his indirect influence over the Tata Group affairs.
• The Shapoorji Pallonji group companies have built many famous buildings including the Reserve Bank of India building in Mumbai.