Daily Current Affairs and GK | 5 October 2021

Topic: International News

1. Najla Bouden Romdhane appointed Tunisia’s first female Prime Minister.

• Najla Bouden Romdhane has been appointed as the first female Prime Minister of Tunisia.
• She is a 63-year-old female geologist and university professor. Tunisia has become the first Arab country to appoint a female Prime Minister.
• In 2011, she was appointed director-general in charge of quality at the Ministry of Higher Education.
• Tunisian President had sacked the earlier government and suspend the Parliament on 26 July. 

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

2. PM Modi launched Jal Jeevan Mission app and Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Jal Jeevan Mission App and Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh through video conference.
• It has been launched to improve awareness among stakeholders and for greater transparency and accountability of schemes under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
• Prime Minister said that Jal Jeevan Mission played a vital role in improving the condition of women. Earlier, women use to go long distances to fetch drinking water.
• Prime Minister also launched Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh, where any individual, institution, corporate, or philanthropist can contribute to the tap water connection in rural households, schools, and Anganwadi centers.
• At present, 1.16 lakh villages in 78 districts are getting tap water supply.

Topic: Important Days

3. World Teachers' Day: 5 October

• World Teachers' Day is observed annually on 5 October since 1994.
• It commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.
• It is co-convened in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and Education International (EI).
• The theme for World Teachers' Day 2021 is “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”.
• The celebrations for World Teachers' Day 2021 will occur together with the meeting of the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART).
• The meeting of Joint ILO-UNESCO CEART will take place from 4 to 8 October 2021.
• Education International (EI) is a global union federation of teachers' trade unions. It was founded in 1992. It is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

4. David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian awarded 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

• David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• They have won an award for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
• The Nobel Assembly said that this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have solved the question of how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived.
• California University’s David Julius used capsaicin to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat.
• Capsaicin is a pungent compound from chili peppers. It induces a burning sensation.
• Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.
• Last year, three scientists who discovered hepatitis C virus were awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Nobel Prize carries a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor. It is awarded annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics and peace.

Topic: State News/ Maharashtra

5. Alibaug white Onion gets GI tag for its health benefits.

• Recently, the Alibaug white onion gets the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for health benefits.
• The agriculture department and Konkan Agriculture University had jointly submitted the GI application on January 15, 2019.
• Alibaug's white onion has medicinal qualities and is used in the treatment of heart ailments, controlling cholesterol, and creation of insulin.
• It is sweet in taste and rich in protein, fat, and fiber. It boosts immunity in the body.
• It has low pungency and has ‘no tear factor’. The onion was also mentioned in a government gazette published in 1883.
• It is mainly grown in Alibaug taluk of Maharashtra.

Topic: Environment and Ecology

6. Environment Minister launched ‘Wetlands of India’ Portal.

• On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav launched a web portal – ‘Wetlands of India Portal’.
• The portal has been developed under a Technical Cooperation project “Wetlands Management for Biodiversity and Climate Protection” (Wetlands Project) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
• The project has been commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) under the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
• The portal will also contain capacity building material, data repository, videos, and information for students.
• The portal will act as single point access for all information related to wetlands. It is a dynamic system for processing information and making it available for stakeholders in an efficient and accessible manner.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Sports

7. India finished campaign with two bronze medals at the Asian Table Tennis Championship.

• The two Indian pairs of Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan, and Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar won bronze medals in the men’s doubles of the Asian Table Tennis Championship.
• Sharath Kamal-G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar-Harmeet Desai lost their respective semi-final clashes and had to settle for bronze medals.
• In the first semifinal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar were defeated by South Korean players Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim.
• Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan were defeated by Japan’s Yukiya Uda and Shunsuke Togami in the Semifinal.
• Both losing semi-finalists get bronze in the competition.

Topic: Important Days

8. Ganga River Dolphin Day: 5 October

• Every year National Ganga River Dolphin Day is celebrated on 5th October.
• In India, the Ganga River Dolphin have been formally adopted as the National Aquatic Animal on 5th October 2009.
• The Gangetic Dolphins are generally blind and catch their prey in a unique manner.
• ‘My Ganga My Dolphin’ campaign was also launched to conduct Dolphin census in the 250-km stretch from Bijnor to Narora.
• In 2012, dolphin conservation began in India with the joint efforts of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and UP government.
• In India, the dolphins are found in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Around 3700 Gangetic river Dolphins are in India.

Topic: State News/ Uttar Pradesh

9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates three-day urban conclave in Lucknow.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated New Urban India: Transforming Urban Landscape conference in Lucknow.
• The New Urban India conference will be organized by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) from October 5 to 7 October 2021.
• He also digitally handed over keys of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) houses to 75,000 beneficiaries in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
• He laid the foundation stone of 75 Urban Development Projects of Uttar Pradesh under Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT. He flagged off 75 smart electric buses under FAME-II for seven cities.
• The Prime Minister will also announce the setting up of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Chair in Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow.

Topic: Miscellaneous

10. Amitabh Bachchan named as brand ambassador of CoinDCX.

• Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed as the brand ambassador of CoinDCX.
• He will be the face of a new campaign, which will focus on popularizing crypto as an asset.
• CoinDCX will help in spreading awareness about Cryptocurrency.

Topic: State News/ Assam

11. Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre inaugurated by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

• Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre has been inaugurated by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu in presence of Governor Jagdish Mukhi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Panbazar in Guwahati.
• State Government has converted the old Deputy Commissioner's bungalow atop the BarphukanarTila in Panbazar into Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre. It continued to be Deputy Commissioner's bungalow until 2011.
• The British annexed Assam in 1826 and created the post of DC for Guwahati in 1839. No accommodation was available in the city for Captain James Matthie, the first DC.
• Several sites were surveyed and Barphukanar Tilla on the banks of the Brahmaputra was then chosen for Deputy Commissioner's bungalow.
• Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu is in Guwahati as part of his Northeast tour. He began his trip by inaugurating the Brahmaputra River Heritage Cultural Centre.

Topic: State News/ Jammu and Kashmir

12. First consignment of Kashmir walnuts dispatched from Budgam to Bengaluru.

• First consignment of Kashmir walnuts was dispatched from Budgam to Bengaluru under One District, One Product (ODOP) Initiative of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• Kashmir accounts for 90% of India’s walnut production. India currently imports walnuts on large scale despite the availability of Kashmir walnuts.
• The Kashmiri walnuts are a great source of nutrients and hence widely in demand across the globe.
• Walnuts are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acid. They also contain vitamin E and B6, biotin, manganese and molybdenum.
• One District, One Product (ODOP) is an initiative to convert each District of the country into an Export Hub by identifying products with export potential in the District.
• Department of Commerce through the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is engaging with State / UT Governments to implement the ODOP Initiative in all districts of the country in a phased manner.
• Under the initial phase of ODOP programme, 106 Products have been identified from 103 districts across 27 States.

(Source: PIB)

Topic: Defence

13. Submarine-launched hypersonic missile successfully test fired by Russia.

• Submarine-launched hypersonic missile has been successfully test fired by Russia for the first time.
• On 4 October, Russia said that it has successfully test fired a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile from a submarine for the first time.
• Russia’s defence ministry announced that Severodvinsk submarine fired the missile in the Barents Sea and the missile successfully hit its chosen target.
• In July, Russia had test fired the Tsirkon missile from a warship.