Daily Current Affairs and GK | 8 April 2023

Topic: National News

1. 200^th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Dayanand Saraswati were inaugurated by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar in New Delhi.

• He released a postage stamp on Swami Dayanand Saraswati in the presence of Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan, and Members of Parliament Dr Satya Pal Singh, and Sumedhanand Saraswati.
• Spiritual leaders Swami Ramdev and Swami Chidanand Saraswati were also present on the occasion.
• Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj in Mumbai 148 years ago.
• Swami Dayanand Saraswati:
  • He was born on 12 February 1824, in Gujarat and his real name was Mool Shankar.
  • He founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay in 1875.
  • He had given the slogan- ‘Go back to the Vedas‘ and ‘the Vedas are the source of all knowledge’. He emphasized the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation.
  • He was against the caste system, idol worship, and untouchability. He had founded the Dayanand Anglo Vedic schools for the education of men and women.

Topic: Sports

2. India has moved up five places to be ranked 101st in the latest FIFA rankings.

• India won by 1-0 and 2-0 over Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan respectively in Imphal in March 2023.
• India gained 8.57 ranking points. It gained five places up from the previous 106th spot.
• India is now one place below New Zealand. It is now one place above Kenya.
• With 1200.66 total points, Indian team is at 19th place among 46 Asian nations.
• India’s best ranking so far was 94th in 1996. Japan is ranked at the top among Asian nations.
• Argentina is on the top of the list. France, Brazil, Belgium, England, Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain are other countries in the top 10.  
• Igor Stimac is the current head coach of the India national football team.

Topic: Banking System

3. RBI proposed to expand UPI digital payments system to allow credit.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expanded the reach of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) digital payments system by permitting credit to be offered via pre-approved bank lines.
• Individuals with pre-approved credit lines from banks will be able to use it to make payments over the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
• RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that this initiative will promote innovation in the country.
• UPI accounts could now offer an alternative to credit cards.
• Recently, RBI has also allowed RuPay credit cards to be linked to UPI. It has enabled customers to link their credit cards to UPI.
• UPI is an instant real-time payment system that allows users to transfer money across multiple banks without disclosing bank account details.
• 8.65 billion Transactions amounting to 14.05 trillion rupees were recorded through UPI in March 2023. It is the highest-ever transactions since UPI was introduced.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

4. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky received the highest honour of Poland.

• Volodymyr Zelensky has been awarded Poland's highest award, the Order of the White Eagle.
• He has received the award for his service to security, resilience and the defense of human rights.
• Polish President Andrzej Duda presented the award to Volodymyr Zelensky.
• The Order of the White Eagle is the oldest and highest decoration of Poland.
• It is given to the most eminent persons of Poland and the highest-ranking representatives of foreign countries.
• This award was officially instituted on 1 November 1705 by Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland.
• Zelenski also met with the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki before attending a Polish-Ukrainian economic forum.

Topic: State News/Telangana

5. PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth over Rs 11,300 crore in Telangana on 08 April 2023.

• He also flagged off the Secunderabad – Tirpuati Vande Bharat Express train.
• This train takes around 8 hours and 30 minutes to reach Tirupathi from Hyderabad.
• This is the second Vande Bharat train for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• The PM also laid the foundation stone for the re-development of the Secunderabad railway station.
• He dedicated to the country the completed sections of the Secunderabad-Mahabubnagar doubling project.
• He virtually laid the foundation station of various development works at AIIMS Bibinagar.
• He will flag off 13 new Multi-Modal Transport Service (MMTS) services in the Hyderabad-Secunderabad twin city region.

Topic: International News

6. UAE and Vietnam have signed a joint declaration to begin negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries.

• The aim of CEPA negotiations is to strengthen economic and trade partnerships.
• UAE is currently Vietnam’s largest trade partner in the Arab countries.
• UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Trade urged the Vietnamese private sector to take benefit from the NextGenFDI initiative of the UAE.
• NextGenFDI initiative offers a wide array of incentives to participants, including relocation support and easy access to bank financing and commercial and residential rental incentives.
• In February 2022, UAE signed its first ever CEPA with India. After that, UAE signed free trade agreement with Israel, Indonesia and Turkey.
• United Arab Emirates:
  • It is located in Western Asia at the northeast end of the Arabian Peninsula.
  • Abu Dhabi is the capital and UAE Dirham is the currency of UAE.
  • Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the Prime Minister of UAE.
  • Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the President of UAE.

Topic: Science and Technology

7. Government gave approval to build an advanced gravitational-wave detector in Maharashtra.

• The Union Cabinet approved a project to build an advanced gravitational-wave detector in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 2,600 crore.
• LIGO-India is scheduled to begin its scientific operation from 2030.
• LIGO India will be the fifth detector after Virgo of Italy and KAGRA of Japan.
• It will be made with the exact specifications of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave \Observatories (LIGO) in Louisiana and Washington in the U.S.
• The LIGO-India project is a collaboration between a consortium of Indian research institutions and the U.S. observatories and other international partners.
• This project has been approved by the Indian government in 2016.
• Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories (LIGO):
  • The LIGO is a giant L-shaped instrument in which each arm of the ‘L’ shape is 4km long.
  • Researchers use this instrument to detect, record, and study gravitational waves.
  • The study of gravitational waves will assist scientists in understanding the most fundamental physical laws.

Topic: State News/ Tripura

8. Tripura became the best-performing state among North Eastern States in implementing e-Procurement.

• Tripura received this award at a National Workshop on e-Procurement.
• A National Workshop on e-Procurement was organized by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology.
• The Tripura government has been recognized for their work in various departments in the last 5 years.
• The Tripura government has received this award for completing the work within a specified time under the Power Department’s Saubhagya Yojana.
• Tripura also gets the title of the best performer in agriculture, and panchayat self-employment.
• The Finance Minister of Tripura said that the state government has emphasized on transparency in administration.
• The Tripura government made e-procurement mandatory for the procurement of goods and services above Rs 25,000.
• In the 2022-23 FY, 9815 tenders have been made through the e-procurement portal. 3095 orders have been placed through GEM as of December 2022.
• In FY 2022-23, the total value of bidding and tendering via e-procurement and GEM was Rs 7373 crore.

Topic: National Appointments

9. Kalikesh Singh Deo assumed charge as president of NRAI.

• Senior vice-president Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo becomes the new president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
• He has taken place of Raninder Singh, who went on leave after serving for more than 12 years as NRAI president.
• Raninder served as president from December 29, 2010 to Dec 29, 2022.
• The Sports ministry has asked the NRAI to hold elections for the post of president within the prescribed timeline.
• The Sports Ministry has issued a direction that heads of national sports federations (NSFs) cannot hold office for more than 12 years.
• National Rifle Association of India (NRAI):
  • It was founded in 1951 to promote and popularize shooting sports in India.
  • Sh. G.V. Mavlankar was the founder and the first president of NRAI.

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

10. RBI will launch ‘PRAVAAH’ portal.

• PRAVAAH (Platform for Regulatory Application, Validation And AutHorisation) will be a secured web-based centralised portal.
• It will simplify and streamline application processes.
• The portal will provide time limits for making decisions on the applications/approvals requested.
• It will gradually be expanded to all types of applications made to RBI across all functions.
• This step has been taken to comply with the Union Budget 2023-24 announcement regarding the need for financial sector authorities to simplify, streamline, and minimise the cost of compliance.
• Currently, the application and approval processes are carried out in both online and offline ways.

Topic: Economy/Banking/Finance

11. Global trade growth is expected to slow down to 1.7% in 2023.

• On 5 April, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that global merchandise trade volume is expected to grow by 1.7% in 2023, compared to an earlier estimate of 1% in October.
• But it is lower from growth of 2.7% in 2022.
• The trade are expected to be 'subpar' due to a number of factors, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, extremely high inflation, tighter monetary policy and financial uncertainty.
• The trade growth is below than 12-year average of 2.6%. In 2024, Trade growth is expected to touch 3.2%.
• However, the estimate is uncertain as much will depend on how the conflict between Russia and Ukraine ends.
• As far as India is concerned, its share in global merchandise trade is 1.8 per cent, which ranks 18th.
• In the financial year 2022-23, India is expected to witness nearly 6% YoY growth in merchandise trade to $447 billion.
• In terms of imports, the share of India is 2.8% with the ninth rank.
• Among the world's leading exporters and importers of commercial services like transportation, travel, commercial services, computer services, among others, India's share was 4.4 per cent in exports and 4 per cent in imports.
• India ranked seventh in terms of exports and eighth in terms of imports of commercial services.
• Over recent years, China ranked as the largest tourism outbound market and spender.

Topic: Personality in News

12. Jharkhand Education Minister Jagarnath Mahato passed away at the age of 56.

• He has passed away during treatment in Chennai on 6 April.   
• He was a member of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the assembly representative for the Dumri constituency in the current Jharkhand assembly.
• From the Dumri constituency, he won four times in the assembly elections.