Daily Current Affairs and GK | 7 October 2022

Topic: National Appointments

1. Sujoy Lal Thaosen assumed the charge as the 37th Director General of CRPF.

• Sujoy Lal Thaosen assumed the charge in a formal ceremony after the Guard of Honour.
• He is a 1988-batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer.
• Previously, he was holding the charge of Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) as well as the additional charge of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Sujoy Lal Thaosen after the retirement of Kuldiep Singh on September 30.
• He will head the CRPF until his superannuation on November 30, 2023, or till further orders, whichever is earlier.
• Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF):
  • It is the largest Central Armed Police Force in India.
  • It works under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
  • It mainly assists the State/Union Territories police to maintain law and order and counter-insurgency operations.
  • It became the Central Reserve Police Force on the enactment of the CRPF Act on 28th December 1949.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

2. Annie Ernaux won Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2022.

• She is a French writer. She has been awarded for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
• She describes her style as “flat writing” (ecriture plate). She has written a book “La Place” (A Man’s Place).
• “The Years” (Les annees) is her most critically acclaimed book. It received many awards and honours.
• Her first book, Cleaned Out, was an autobiographical novel.
• She is a pioneer of autofiction. It is a style of writing that combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction.
• Tanzanian-born, U.K.-based writer Abdulrazak Gurnah won last year’s Nobel Prize. Louise Glück won the prize in 2020.
• Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000).

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Summits/Conferences/Meetings

3. International Solar Alliance’s Fifth Assembly will be organized in New Delhi from 17^th to 20^th October.

• Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy R.K Singh will preside over the Assembly.
• He unveiled the Fifth Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on 06 October, 2022.
• Ministers, missions and delegates from 109 Member and Signatory Countries will take part in this meeting.
• India currently holds the office of the President of the ISA Assembly.
• 5th Assembly of the ISA will deliberate on the key initiatives of ISA on three critical issues.
• These three critical issues are energy access, energy security, and energy transition.
• Following the 5th Assembly, three analytical reports will also be launched.
• These three reports will be World Solar Technology Report, World Solar Market Report and World Solar Investment Report.
• About the Assembly of ISA:
  • The Assembly is the apex decision-making body of ISA. Each Member Country is represented in it.
  • It makes decisions concerning the implementation of the ISA’s Framework Agreement and coordinated actions to be taken to achieve its objective.
  • The first Assembly of the ISA was organized from 2nd to 5th October 2018 in Greater Noida, India.
  • It assesses the aggregate effect of the programmes in terms of deployment of solar energy, performance, reliability, cost and scale of finance.

Topic: International News

4. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar took part in the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame Awards 2022.

• He launched the book "Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery" in Auckland.
• During the event, members of the Indian community in New Zealand were felicitated for their exceptional achievements and contributions.
• New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was also present during the event.
• External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar started his official engagements with a traditional Maori welcome.

Topic: Summit/Conference/Meeting

5. US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (USISCEP) ministerial dialogue held on 7 October 2022.

• Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep S. Puri will lead an official and business delegation to Washington DC and Houston, the USA from 6-11 October 2022.
• Mr. Puri co-chaired the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (USISCEP) Ministerial Dialogue with Ms. Jennifer Granholm, United States Secretary of Energy, in Washington DC on 7 October 2022.
• The restructured USISCEP was launched in line with the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership announced by PM Modi and Joe Biden, during the Leaders' Summit on Climate held in April 2021.
• Expanding emerging clean energy technologies; and the partnership continues to advance energy security and innovation using technological interventions through the following five pillars:
  • Responsible Oil and Gas Pillar
  • Power and Energy Efficiency Pillar
  • Renewable Energy Pillar
  • Sustainable Growth Pillar
  • Emerging Fuels and Technologies
• The Union Minister will also interact with World Bank officials regarding climate-resilient urban infrastructure.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

6. To launch India's RuPay Debit Card in Oman, a historic MoU was signed.

• India's RuPay Debit Card will now work in Oman as well, making it easier for Indians living here to send money to their families.
• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) signed an MoU to launch the RuPay debit card in Oman's capital Muscat.
• The Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, said the launch of the RuPay Debit Card in Oman will pave the way for a new era of financial connectivity.
• Oman:
  • Oman is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia.
  • Capital: Muscat and Currency: Omani rial
  • Sultan: Haitham bin Tariq

Topic: State News/Delhi

7. Delhi government launched a month-long anti-dust campaign.

• This campaign has been launched to check compliance of pollution norms at construction sites.
• 586 teams have been formed to check dust pollution at construction sites across the city. The teams will conduct surprise checks at construction sites.
• The campaign has been launched under the Graded Response Action Plan to combat pollution.
• As per the norms, construction sites larger than 5,000 square metres (sqm) need to set up one anti-smog gun.
• Construction sites larger than 10,000 sqm should have two anti-smog guns and sites larger than 15,000 sqm have to set up three anti-smog guns.
• Likewise, construction sites bigger than 20,000 sqm have to set up four anti-smog guns to prevent dust pollution.

Topic: Space and IT

8. Researchers have found new evidence of the existence of liquid water under the south polar ice cap of Mars.

• The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge with involvement from the University of Sheffield used spacecraft laser-altimeter measurements.
• They used spacecraft laser-altimeter measurements of the shape of the upper surface of the ice cap to identify subtle patterns in its height.
• The results provide the first independent evidence, using data other than radar, that there is liquid water beneath Mars' South Pole.
• The researchers noted that the water beneath the South Pole might be salty in order to be liquid at such cold temperatures.
• This would make it difficult for any microbial life to inhabit it.
• Like Earth, Mars has thick water ice caps at both poles. They were roughly equivalent in combined volume to the Greenland Ice Sheet.
• However, unlike Earth's ice sheets, polar ice caps on Mars have until recently been considered to be frozen solid.

Topic: Indian Economy

9. World Bank cuts India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.5%.

• World Bank in its South Asia Economic Focus report, cuts India's GDP forecast to 6.5% from an earlier estimate of 7.5% for FY 2022-23.
• World Bank has revised its forecast of India’s growth for the third time.
• Earlier, World Bank slashed its forecast to 7.5% in June.
• World Bank has cut the forecast due to the global slowdown and rise in interest rates.
• The spillovers from the Russia-Ukraine war and higher prices of key commodities will affect the domestic demand in FY 2023-24.
• Private investment growth will reduce due to uncertainty and higher financing costs.
• World Bank in its report said that India is recovering faster than the rest of the world.
• World Bank has also cut growth estimates for Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India also cut its growth forecast to 7 per cent from an earlier estimate of 7.2 per cent.

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

10. Department of Financial Services modified Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the aviation sector.

• The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has raised the loan limit for the aviation sector from ₹400 crore to ₹1,500 crores.
• Under the modified ECLGS 3.0, an airline would be eligible for 100 per cent of their fund-based or non-fund-based loan outstanding as on the reference dates or ₹1,500 crore, whichever is lower.
• Rs 500 crores shall be considered, based on equity contribution by the owners.
• The main objective of the modification is to give necessary collateral-free liquidity at reasonable interest rates to solve the cash flow problems.
• Eligible borrowing companies were allowed to avail up to 50 per cent of their highest total fund and non-fund based outstanding loans, subject to a maximum amount of Rs 400 crore per borrower.
• Earlier, the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was extended from March 2022 till March 2023.
• The ECLGS was launched in March 2020 to help various sectors during the outbreak of Covid-19.
• Till 5 August 2022, Loans worth around ₹3.67 lakh crore have been sanctioned under ECLGS.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

11. Nobel Prize for Physics 2022 has been given to three scientists for their work on quantum mechanics.

• Three scientists Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger received the Nobel Prize for Physics 2022 for their work on quantum mechanics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
• The scientists have received the award for their experiments related to photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.
• These three scientists conducted a series of experiments on entangled quantum states.
• The three scientists have been awarded for discovering ways to connect or capture particles called 'photons' even after separating them over long distances.
• Quantum mechanics have many applications in different fields such as quantum computers, quantum networks and secure quantum encrypted communication
• Alain Aspect is a French Physicist, Anton Zeilinger is an Austrian and John Clauser an American.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: State News/ Gujarat

12. Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel launched Gujarat Gati Shakti Portal.

• Gujarat has become the first state to launch Gati Shakti Portal at the state level.
• The portal will bring more transparency to the governance and offer ease of doing business to investors.
• It has been developed by Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board in association with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics.
• Gati Shakti Gujarat Portal will integrate more than 500 layers of data from 21 state government departments and 52 sub-departments.
• The portal will focus on the speedy execution of infrastructure projects.
• It will make the process of application, granting permissions and monitoring the progress of the projects faster.
• Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti was launched by PM Modi on 13 October 2021.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Personality in News

13. Pankaj Tripathi declared ‘National Icon’ by the Election Commission of India.

• Pankaj Tripathi, a renowned actor, has been chosen as ‘National Icon’ to create awareness among voters.
• The announcement was made in Delhi by the Chief Election Commissioner.
• CEC Rajiv Kumar said that decision to make him the ‘national icon’ has been taken in keeping view of his commitment to the cause and wide appeal across the country.
• Earlier, he was the state icon of the Election Commission in Bihar.
• Pankaj Tripathi urged young voters to pro-actively participate in the elections.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Important Days

14. World Teachers Day: 5 October

• Every year, 5 October is observed as World Teachers' Day to recognize the work of teachers, researchers, and professors.
• World Teachers’ Day is also known as International Teachers’ Day.
• This year’s theme for World Teachers’ Day is “the transformation of education begins with teachers”.
• It is observed to honour teachers for their valuable contributions to society.
• In 1994, UNESCO declared 5 October as World Teachers’ Day.
• The day highlights the importance of quality teachers to guide or motivate students.