Daily Current Affairs and GK | 9 October 2021

Topic: Indian Economy

1. RBI has not changed the policy rates for the eighth time in a row.

• The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee has unanimously decided to maintain the status quo on interest rates for the eighth time in a row and maintain the monetary stance accommodative.
• MPC has decided to keep the Repo rate unchanged at 4 percent and Reverse Repo rate at 3.35 percent.
• Repo rate is the interest rate at which the RBI provides short-term money to banks against the collateral of government and other approved securities.
• Reverse Repo Rate is the interest rate at which the RBI absorbs liquidity from banks against the collateral of eligible government securities.
• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will continue with the accommodative stance till necessary.
• RBI has also kept the GDP growth target for FY22 at 9.5 percent.

Topic: Important Days

2. World Post Day is being celebrated on 9 October 2021 with the theme “Innovate to recover”.

• World Post Day is celebrated on 9 October every year.
• “Innovate to recover”! is the theme of the World Post Day 2021.
• It is celebrated on the occasion of the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in the Swiss Capital, Bern.
• The UPU Congress had declared the day as World Post Day in Tokyo, Japan in 1969.
• World Post Day is celebrated across the world with the aim of creating awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries.
• In India, National Post Day is celebrated every year on October 10.

Topic: Awards and Prizes

3. 2021 Nobel Peace Prize won by Ms Maria Ressa and Mr Dmitry Muratov.

• 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been won by Philippines journalist Ms Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Mr Dmitry Muratov.
• They have won the prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia.
• Mr Dmitry Muratov dedicated his award to six contributors to his Novaya Gazeta newspaper. These contributors had been murdered for their work exposing human rights violations and corruption.
• Ms Maria Ressa has faced years of legal cases in the Philippines over the work of her Rappler website.
• The prize is the first Nobel Peace Prize for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky in 1935. He had won the prize for revealing his country’s secret post-war rearmament programme.
• Mr Dmitry Muratov is the first Russian to win the peace prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990.
• Ms Maria Ressa is the first winner of a Nobel Prize in any field from the Philippines. She was named Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for fighting media intimidation.
• The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on December 10, which is the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Topic: Appointments

4. P L Haranadh assumed charge as chairman of Paradip Port Trust.

• P L Haranadh has assumed charge as chairman of Paradip Port Trust.
• He emphasized on making Paradip Port the number one major port in the country.
• He is an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer of the 1994 batch.
• He worked in the Indian Railways for 22 years and for five years in the Ministry of Shipping.

Topic: Reports and Indices

5. India’s rank on Henley Passport Index has fallen by six places.

• India’s rank has fallen by six places from 84 last year to 90 this year on Henley Passport Index.
• Its passport holders are allowed to travel visa-free to 58 countries. India shares the rank with Tajikistan and Burkina Faso.
• Japan and Singapore hold 1^st rank on this year’s index. Their passports holders are allowed to travel visa-free to 192 countries.
• South Korea and Germany hold the second rank. Japan has achieved the first position for the third consecutive year.
• The passports of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Yemen are among the least powerful passports.

Topic: Corporates/Companies

6. The bid for acquiring Air India won by Tata Sons group.

• The bid for acquiring Air India has been won by the Tata Sons group. It made a winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore for Air India.
• Talace Private Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons. It has emerged as a successful bidder for acquiring Air India.
• It has beaten a Consortium led by Ajay Singh whose bid was Rs 15,100 crore. Both the bidders had quoted above the reserve price of 12,906 crore rupees.
• Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said that the winning bid includes taking over of 15,300 crore rupees debt and paying the rest by cash.
• He also said that in addition to 100% stake in Air India and its low-cost arm, Air India Express, the winning bid comprises of a 50 % stake in ground-handling company Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS).
• The transaction is likely to be completed by December 2021.
• On 04 October, Inter- Ministerial Group comprising Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia approved the winning bid for Air India.
• Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said that no employee will be retrenched and Tata Sons will retain all the employees for one year and in 2nd year if someone is to be retrenched then a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) option will be given.
• The process for disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries started in June 2017. The process re-commenced on 27 January 2020.

Topic: Defence

7. 6^th edition of the ''Ajeya Warrior'' exercise between India and United Kingdom begins in Uttarakhand.

• The ''Ajeya Warrior'' exercise between armies of India and the United Kingdom has begun at Chaubatia in Uttarakhand.
• It will further strengthen bilateral defense cooperation between both countries.
• It has been started as part of an initiative to develop interoperability and sharing of expertise with friendly foreign nations.
• Both armies will get an opportunity to know each other's weapons, equipment, tactics, and procedures for carrying out joint military operations.
• A series of expert academic discussions will be organized on various subjects of mutual interest like combined arms concept, sharing of experiences in joint forces, operation logistics, etc.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

8. Ministry of Textiles inked MoU with German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

• The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has collaborated with the Ministry of Textiles of India as part of the Indo-German Development cooperation framework.
• Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Ministry of Textiles signed an MoU on Implementation Agreement of Indo German Technical Cooperation Project on ‘Sustainability and Value Added in the Cotton Economy’.
• The goal of the project is to add value to cotton production in India with a focus on maintaining the sustainability of cotton and strengthening the post-processing process.
• The Cotton producing states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu have been put at the center of the project.
• GIZ project is aiming to increase cotton production with the participation of 1.50 lakh cotton farmers.
• GIZ project will generate employment and provide training to women. It will also promote sustainable cotton growing practices.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: State News/ Telangana

9. Telangana develops India's first smartphone-based eVoting solution.

• Telangana has developed India's first smartphone-based eVoting solution. Its dry run has been conducted in the form of a dummy election in the Khammam district.
• This initiative has been launched by the Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) with the support of the Emerging Technologies Wing of the IT Department of the State and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
• Its development has been guided by an expert committee comprising professors from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi and Professor Rajat Moona.
• It has been developed by the Telangana State Election Commission for the people avoiding physical voting due to Covid-19.
• The ‘e-Voting’ facility will help senior citizens, citizens employed in notified essential services, sick people, polling personnel and IT professionals, etc.
• Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology will empower various government tech projects in the future.

Topic: National News

10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Indian Space Association on 11 October.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to launch the Indian Space Association (ISpA) on11 October.
• Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Nelco (Tata Group), OneWeb, Mapmyindia, Walchandnagar Industries, and Ananth Technology Limited will be its founding members.
• Many other companies like Godrej, Hughes India, Azista-BST Aerospace Private Limited, BEL, Centum Electronics, and Maxar India will be its core members.
• Jayant Patil will be the first chairman of the Indian Space Association (ISpA). Rahul Vatts will become the first vice-chairman of the Indian Space Association (ISpA).
• Indian Space Association (ISpA) will comprise companies with advanced capabilities in space and satellite technologies.
• It will facilitate a robust space technology eco-system for carrying out advanced scientific and research work in the country.

Topic: Indian Economy

11. Indian economy expected to grow by 8.3 percent in 2021-22: World Bank

• The World Bank in its latest report predicted that the Indian economy is expected to grow by 8.3 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22.
• As per the World Bank’s report titled “Shifting Gears: Digitization and Services-Led Development”, India’s economic recovery will be determined by its pace of vaccination against covid-19 and successful implementation of agriculture & labour reforms.
• The main focus of the latest World Bank report is to unleash the potential of the services sector of India.
• Public investment and incentives to boost manufacturing will be the drivers of Indian economic growth.
• In fiscal year 2021-22, Bangladesh’s economy will grow by 6.4 percent and Maldives’ economy is expected to grow by 22.3%.
• According to World Bank, South Asia’s economy will grow by 7.1 percent in 2021 and 2022.
• As per the world bank report, 48 to 59 million people to become or remain poor in 2021 in the South Asia region due to Covid.