Daily Current Affairs and GK | 4 October 2022

Topic: Summits/ Conferences/ Meetings

1. TRAI organized a seminar on “Emerging Trends in Broadcasting Sector”.

• At the Indian Mobile Congress 2022, TRAI organized a seminar on “Emerging Trends in Broadcasting Sector”.
• The seminar was inaugurated by Chairman, TRAI, Dr PD Vaghela. The main aim of the seminar was to foster deliberations and discussions for the required changes in the regulatory framework.
• The seminar was divided into two sessions. The first session was focussed on de-regulating linear broadcasting, enabling new age content players and light touch policy and regulatory framework.
• The second session covers the role of broadcasting in education, and issues arising due to convergence in light of recent developments in the media and entertainment sector.
• The seminar has been organized in the spirit of the pro-active role of TRAI to work in collaboration with the industry and other stakeholders.
• The Seminar helped in developing a foundational understanding of the emerging trends of the sector.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI):
  • It was formed on 20 February 1997.
  • The Government of India had established TRAI under Section 3 of the Telecom Regulator of India Act, 1997.
  • Its headquarters is in New Delhi.
  • Its chairperson is P. D. Vaghela.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

2. Madhav Hada will be honoured with the 32^nd Bihari Puraskar.

• He will be honoured for his 2015 literary criticism book ‘Pachrang Chola Pahar Sakhi Ri’.
• KK Birla Foundation made this announcement on 29 September 2022.
• Hada has also been a member of the general council of the Sahitya Akademi and the Hindi Advisory Board.
• He has received the Bhartendu Harishchandra Award for Media Studies and the Devraj Upadhyay Award for Literary Criticism.
• His book ‘Pachrang Chola Pahar Sakhi Ri’ focuses on the life of medieval devotee poet Meera.
• About Bihari Puraskar:
  • KK Birla foundation instituted three literary awards in 1991 and Bihari Puraskar is one of them.
  • It is named after famous Hindi poet Bihari. It is given every year for an outstanding work published in the last 10 years by a Rajasthani author in Hindi or Rajasthani.
  • It consists of a cash prize of ₹2.5 lakh, a plaque and a citation. A selection committee headed by Chairman Hemant Shesh selects the recipient.

Topic: National Appointments

3. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved appointment of Ajay Bhadoo as Deputy Election Commissioner of India.

• Ajay Bhadoo is a 1999-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre.
• He has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner, ECI, from the date of assumption of the charge of the post, for an overall tenure of five years up to 24/07/2024 or until further orders, which is earlier.
• He was earlier appointed as Joint Secretary to former President Ram Nath Kovid in July 2020.
• Deputy Election Commissioners assist Election Commission of India (ECI). They are drawn from the civil service. They are appointed by the election commission with tenure system.

Topic: Sports

4. Rohit Sharma has become first Indian cricketer to complete 400 matches in T20s.

• He has become first cricketer from India to complete 400 T20 matches.
• He made this record during the 2nd T20I against South Africa in Guwahati.
• He is already having the record for the most number of Twenty20 internationals (T20I) played in men’s cricket. He has played 140 matches.
• Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are the Indian cricketers who have played more than 350 matches in T20s.
• Former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard holds the T20 record for most matches in T20. Dwayne Bravo is at the 2nd spot.
• Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik holds the record for most matches by an Asian player in T20s.
• Rohit Sharma recently broke Martin Guptill's record for most sixes in T20Is.
• He also holds the record for most runs (3712) in T20I cricket. Virat Kohli is at the second spot.

Topic: National Appointments

5. B D Mishra, Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, has been given an additional charge of Meghalaya.

• The tenure of the Governor of Meghalaya, Shri Satya Pal Malik has completed on 03 October 2022.
• Governor of India:
  • The executive power of the State is vested in the governor.
  • According to the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1956, a person can be the governor of two or more states.
  • Under Article 155, the Governor of a state is appointed by the President.
  • Under Article 156, the Governor can continue in his office for 5 years.

Topic: State News/ Gujarat

6. President Draupadi Murmu laid the foundation stone for various projects in Ahmedabad.

• On October 4, President Draupadi Murmu laid the foundation stone for various projects related to education and tribal development at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad.
• The President also launched the Gujarat University's start-up platform "HerSTART" for women entrepreneurs in Ahmedabad during her two-day visit to Gujarat.
• HerSTART is one of the flagship programs of the Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), which aims to support the entrepreneurial endeavors of women.
• On October 3, the President also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for different projects totalling Rs 1,330 crores at the GMERS campus in Gandhinagar.
• The President laid the foundation stone for Super Specialty Hospital, Critical Care Centre at Gandhinagar Civil hospital, GMERS hospital, and a hostel at Narmada.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

7. Indian-origin Dr. Vivek Lall has been awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by US President Joe Biden.

• Dr. Lall has been awarded Lifetime Achievement Award with the citation of 'With Grateful Recognition'.
• AmeriCorps gave the citation to Dr. Lall. AmeriCorps is a part of the US Government.
• AmeriCorps aims to foster activities that bring Americans closer together to "serve communities."
• Dr. Lall is Chief Executive Officer of General Atomics. It is a company which has developed state-of-the-art Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) like the Predator, Reaper, and Guardian drones.

Topic: Personality in News

8. National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) suspended Shivpal Singh for four years due to a doping violation.

• Shivpal Singh is an Indian javelin thrower. He has been suspended from competing till October 2025.
• The ban comes into effect from October 21, 2021. He tested positive for the banned substance methandienone.
• He is an Uttar Pradesh-based athlete. He was a silver-medalist at the 2019 Asian Championships.
• He also won the 2019 World Military Games. Tokyo Olympian Kamalpreet Kaur also failed a dope test earlier.
• Earlier, discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar and quarter-miler MR Poovamma have been banned from competitions due to doping violations.

Topic: Reports and Indices/Ranking

9. Around 62% of rural households in India have fully functional tap water connections.

• Around 62% of rural households in India have fully functional tap water connections within their premises.
• More than 80% of households in Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Puducherry have fully functional water connections.
• Around 50% of the households in Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim have fully functional connections.
• As per the report, three-fourths of households received water all seven days a week. On average 80% of their requirements for water are being met by the tap connections.
• Around 90% of the village-level institutions, such as schools and Anganwadi centres receive potable water.
• As per the survey, only 3% of the households use reverse osmosis for water purification for drinking water.
• Goa, Telangana and Haryana have achieved 100% tap connectivity to all households.
• Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu have also achieved the target of providing tap water connection to 100% households.
• The government is aiming to provide safe and adequate drinking water to the household through tap by 2024. The Jal Jeevan scheme has a financial outlay of ₹3.60 lakh crore.

Topic: International News

10. Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins's pro-Western centrist party wins elections in Latvia.

• Prime Minister Karins's New Unity party received 18.94% while the opposition Greens and Farmers Union party received 12.5% vote.
• Harmony party received a mere 4.8% of votes in comparison to the 2018 election.
• Only eight parties or electoral alliances passed the 5% mark.
• Latvia joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.
• Latvia:
  • It is a country in Northern Europe's Baltic region.
  • It is bounded by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west.
  • Its President is Egils Levits.
  • Its currency is Euro. Its capital is Riga.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

11. Svante Paabo wins the Nobel Prize in medicine.

• Svante Paabo received the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discoveries related to the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
• He discovered an earlier unknown human species called the Denisovans. His discovery created an entirely new scientific discipline, paleogenomics.
• The Nobel Prize in medicine is given by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. 10 million Swedish crowns ($900,357) is given as an award.
• He has been credited for transforming the study of human origins after developing new approaches to examine DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains.
• His key achievements include sequencing of the entire Neanderthal genome to create a link between extinct people and modern humans.
• Svante Paabo’s most famous research paper was published in 1989 with 4077 citations.
• Last year, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the Nobel Prize in medicine for the discovery of receptors in the human skin.

Topic: National News

12. Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city of India in Swachh Survekshan 2022.

• Surat is the second cleanest city while Navi Mumbai is the third cleanest in the category of cities with a population of more than a lakh.
• In the Swachh Survekshan 2022, Madhya Pradesh has been declared as the cleanest state in India. Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra are the second and third cleanest states.
• In the population category of less than one lakh, Panchgani and Karad from Maharashtra bagged the first and third positions. Patan from Chhattisgarh bagged the second position.
• Tripura got the cleanest State award in the “less than 100 urban local bodies category”. Jharkhand and Uttarakhand got the second and third spots respectively.
• In the Safai Mitra Suraksha category, Tirupati received the best city award while Haridwar received the award for the best Ganga town in more than one lakh population cities.
• As part of the Azadi@75 Swachh Survekshan 2022, the awards have been given by President Draupadi Murmu.

Topic: Sports

13. USA defeated China to win FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022.

• USA defeated China by 83-61 in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022.
• The championship was held in Australia. A'ja Wilson wins the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the tournament.
• The US finished the World Cup averaging 98.8 points. China won their first medal in the 1994 World Cup.

Topic: Defence

14. India and Armenia signed a deal for the export of missiles and weapon system.

• India will export missiles, rockets and ammunition to Armenia, which will be used to defend against Azerbaijan.
• Through a government-to-government route, Defence India signed an order for arms export.
• According to the report, India will export weapons worth more than Rs 2,000 crore to Armenia in the coming months.
• India will also export indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, which have been developed by the DRDO.
• The Indian government has set a target to sell weapon systems worth Rs 35,000 crore abroad by 2025.
• Last year, India exported defence equipment worth Rs 13,000 crores.
• Armenia:
  • It is a landlocked country in western Asia.
  • Yerevan is the capital of Armenia and the currency is Dram.
  • Nikol Pashinyan is the current Prime Minister of Armenia.
  • India recognized the independent Republic of Armenia in 1991.