DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: May 14, 2022

NITI Ayog launches National Data and Analytics Platform

Tags: National News

NITI Aayog launched the National Data and Analytics Platform on 13 May.

• The Platform was launched by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Suman Beri in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

• This public launch follows a beta release of the platform in August 2021 that provided access to a limited number of users for testing and feedback.

• The platform will help policymakers, academics and researchers to easily examine data without having to process it.

• The portal will have 200 datasets from more than 46 ministries.

• New datasets will be added up to the village level in the future.

• Aim of the platform 

• To democratise access to government data by making data accessible, interoperable and interactive for open public use.

• About NITI Aayog

• NITI Aayog is the premier policy think tank of the Government of India.

• The Government of India constituted the NITI Aayog in place of the Planning Commission, which was established in 1950.

• This step was taken to better meet the needs and aspirations of the people.

• On 18 September 2021, the Prime Minister approved the reconstitution of NITI Aayog, as under:

1. Chairperson : Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India 

2. Vice Chairperson: Dr Rajiv Kumar (currently Suman Beri)

3. Full-Time Members:

VK Saraswat

Prof. Ramesh Chand

Dr VK Paul 

4. Ex-Officio Members: 

Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence

Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation

Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs

Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurates India-UAE Economic Partnership Summit

Tags: Latest Summits

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Economy Minister Abdullah bin Touq Al Marie inaugurated the India-UAE Economic Partnership Summit in Mumbai on 13 May.

• The two leaders also launched the India-UAE Start-up Bridge to boost the economy.

• The summit was organised by Confederation of Indian Industry.

• India and UAE have immense potential to work together and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will open a lot of doors to markets across the world.

• Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)

• The Comprehensive Trade Agreement between India and the United Arab Emirates will help generate employment opportunities and boost the growth of the domestic economy.

• The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods to over US$100 billion and trade in services to over US$15 billion within five years.

• The agreement paves the way for several sectors, especially labour intensive sectors such as textiles, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.

• The agreement will open doors not only for Indian and UAE businesses but also for other countries as the UAE is a transit point for large parts of Africa, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries and the Gulf region.

• CIS countries include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, and Tajikistan.

• Indian pharma products will get immediate access to the UAE market.

• Bilateral trade will reach at least US$ 100 billion in the near future.

Indian Embassy in Ukraine to resume its operation in Kyiv from May 17

Tags: International Relations

India announced on 13 May that its embassy in Ukraine would resume its operations from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from 17 May.

• The embassy was temporarily operating from Warsaw in Poland since mid-March.

• Several Western countries have also decided to resume the operation of the embassy from Kyiv.

• India had decided to temporarily relocate the embassy to Poland in view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country.

• The Russian military was on offensive around Kyiv.

• India has moved the embassy after repatriating over 20,000 of its Indian nationals from across Ukraine as part of its mission 'Operation Ganga' launched on February 26 in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

• About embassy

• An embassy is the base for a country’s diplomatic mission abroad – meaning all of the political, cultural and social relationships between the states.

• There is only one embassy for one country in another, this is where the country's ambassador works.

• One of the roles of embassies and consulates is to provide assistance to their national citizens abroad.

• A consulate is where consular services are performed.

• Embassies generally have a consular section.

Ujjwala scheme : 90 lakh beneficiaries did not refill the cylinder

Tags: Government Schemes National News

In the last financial year, 90 lakh beneficiaries of flagship welfare scheme Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana did not refill their cylinders.

•  Along with this, there are about 1 crore beneficiaries who have filled the cylinder only once in a year after taking LPG connection.

• About the PM Ujjwala Yojana

• It is a central government scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.

• The aim of the scheme was to provide Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to five crore women of below poverty line (BPL) households in the first phase.

• In the second phase, a target has been set to provide LPG connections to eight crore women by March 2020.

• Under this scheme financial assistance of Rs 1600 is provided to BPL families for each LPG connection.

• The scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories (SC/ST, PMAY, AAY, Most backward classes, tea garden, forest dwellers, Islands).

• Nodal Ministry - Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG)

• Ujjwala Scheme 2.0

• It aims to provide maximum benefits to migrants who live in other states and find it difficult to furnish address proof.

• They only have to give "Self Declaration" to get the benefit.

• Under Ujjwala 2.0, an additional 10 million LPG connections will be provided to the beneficiaries.

India bans wheat exports with immediate effect

Tags: National Economics/Business

The central government has banned the export of wheat with immediate effect. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a notification in this regard.

• Why has the central government banned the export of wheat?

• The export policy of wheat has been amended to manage the overall food security of the country.

• The ban has been imposed to support the needs of neighbouring countries and other vulnerable countries.

• The decision to ban the export of all types of wheat with immediate effect will bring down the market prices of wheat immediately and bring it closer to the MSP of Rs 2,015 per quintal.

• India’s wheat exports

• India's wheat exports rose to 7 million tonnes worth USD 2.05 billion in 2021-22 due to strong global demand.

• In the last fiscal, about 50 per cent of the total wheat exports were exported to Bangladesh.

• The country exported around 963,000 tonnes of wheat this year against 130,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

• India was looking to export 10 million tonnes of wheat in 2022-23. 

• India would send trade delegations to nine countries – Thailand, Morocco, Turkey, Indonesia, Tunisia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Algeria and Lebanon to explore possibilities of boosting wheat shipments.

• India’s wheat purchases have also declined sharply by 44 per cent to 16.2 million tonnes as of May 1 in the current Rabi marketing season.

• The rabi marketing season runs from April to March.

Haryana launched 'Fodder-Sowing Scheme'

Tags: Government Schemes State News

The fodder sowing scheme has been started for the farmers of the state by Jai Prakash Dalal, Minister of Agriculture, Government of Haryana.

• IMPORTANT FACTS -

• This scheme has been launched with the objective of providing financial assistance of Rs.10,000 per acre to the farmers who provide and supply fodder to Gaushalas.

• Under Direct Benefit Transfer the subsidy will be deposited directly into the account of the farmer.

• The objective of this scheme is to cover the shortage of fodder and increasing stray cattle in the state.

• Under the scheme -

• Phosphate-rich organic manure (PROM) prepared from cow dung can be used as an alternative to synthetic fertilisers. PROM is also prepared from various Gaushalas in Pinjore, Hisar and Bhiwani districts of Haryana.

• The state government is taking many steps in the interest of the farmers and the 'Four Seeding Scheme' is another step in the same direction. In April, Rs 13.44 crore was distributed to buy fodder in 569 gaushalas in the state.

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

• Haryana Capital- Chandigarh

• Haryana Governor- Bandaru Dattatreya

• Haryana Chief Minister- Manohar Lal Khattar.

Campbell Wilson named as MD and CEO of Air India

Tags: Person in news National News

Tata Sons has announced the appointment of Campbell Wilson as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Air India.

• Wilson's appointment comes after Turkey's Ilkar IC decided not to take the role of Chief Executive of Air India.

• Wilson is currently the CEO of Scoot, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

• Wilson has 26 years of experience in both full service airlines and low cost airlines.

• Other appointments -

• Chief Commercial Officer of Air India - Nipun Aggarwal

• Chief Human Resource Officer of Air India - Suresh Dutt Tripathi

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

• Establishment of Air India - 1932

• Air India Headquarters- New Delhi

• Founder of Air India- Ratan Tata

• President of Air India- N Chandrasekaran

ISRO successfully test-fires 'Human-rated' solid rocket carrier (HS200) for Gaganyaan program

Tags: National Science and Technology

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully completed the static test of the 'Human-rated' solid rocket carrier (HS200) for the Gaganyaan program at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

• The HS200 satellite launch vehicle is a 'human-rated' version of the GSLV Mk III S200 rocket carrier, popularly known as LVM-3.

• The 'human-rated' version is the process of certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle to show that the vehicle is capable of carrying humans safely into space.

• The design and development of the HS200 carrier was completed at VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram and the propellant casting was completed at SDSC, Sriharikota.

• The S200 motor is the first stage of the LVM-3 launch vehicle, intended to launch a 4,000 kg class satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

• After the success of this test, ISRO has moved one more step towards the Gaganyaan program.

• Gaganyaan mission of india

• Gaganyaan is a mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

• Under this mission, three space missions will be sent into orbit, out of these three missions, 2 will be unmanned, while one will be a manned mission.

• In the first phase, Gaganyaan's unmanned mission will be G-1. After this a robot named Vyommitra will be sent at the end of 2022.

• Gaganyaan mission with crew will be launched for the first time in 2023.

• The human space flight programme, called the Orbital Module, will have three Indian astronauts, including a woman.

• The three-stage GSLV Mk III will be used for the launch of Gaganyaan, which is capable of launching heavy satellites. GSLV Mk III is also called Launch Vehicle Mark-3.

• With the launch of Gaganyaan mission, India will join the club of US, China and Russia.

Lionel Messi named Forbes highest-paid athlete 2022

Tags: Sports News

According to Forbes, football star Lionel Messi topped the list with a net worth of $130 million (Rs 1007 crore).

• Messi earned $75 million from sports and $55 million from sponsorship deals, out of a total of $130 million (Rs 1394 crore).

• Basketball player, LeBron James is at the second position with USD 121.2 million, while Cristiano Ronaldo is at the third position in the list with USD 115 million.

• Estimates are calculated by Forbes based on prize money, salary and bonuses and sponsorship deals.

• Virat Kohli is the only Indian player in this list who earned around Rs 262 crore last year, out of which Rs 22 crore has been earned from salary and the rest 240 crore from advertisements.

• Top 10 list -

• Lionel Messi (football): $130 million

• LeBron James (basketball): $121.2 million

• Cristiano Ronaldo (football): $115 million

• Neymar (football): $95 million

• Stephen Curry (basketball): $92.8 million

• Kevin Durant (basketball): $92.1 million

• Roger Federer (tennis): $90.7 million

• Canelo Alvarez (boxing): $90 million

• Tom Brady (football): $83.9 million

• Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball): $80.9 million

El Salvador released the design of the bitcoin city

Tags: International News

Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, released the design of a bitcoin city under construction.

• The city of Crypto will be built near the Conchagua volcano on the Gulf of Fonseca in the southeast of the Central American country.

• Bitcoin City was first announced during the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference.

• Releasing the layout of the bitcoin city, an investment of 30 thousand dollars has been made by the government.

• Countries adopting bitcoin

• El Salvador is the first country in the world to recognize bitcoin as an official currency last year.

• Recently, the Central African Republic became the second country in the world and the first in Africa to recognize bitcoin.

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

• About El Salvador -

• El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America.

• Capital - San Salvador

• President- Nayib Bukele

• currency - bitcoin

kinetic communication portal

Tags: National News

Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnav launched Gatishakti Sanchar Portal in New Delhi.

• IMPORTANT FACTS -

• The unified and centralised portal will facilitate the smooth expansion of digital communication infrastructure across the country.

• The portal was envisioned to streamline the process for transparency, accountability and effective monitoring of various digital based projects.

• This portal will be helpful in implementing a 5G network across the country.

• This portal will speed up the integration process for the Government's Broadband for All initiative.

Chhattisgarh state restored old pension scheme

Tags: State News

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in his budget statement announced the government's plan to roll back the old pension scheme (OPS) for state employees and quadruple the monthly MLA Local Area Development amount.

• More than three lakh people who started work after January 1, 2004 will benefit from this change.

• This change will not apply to members of All India Services like Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service.

• According to the new notification, the deduction of 10% monthly contribution from the salary of government servants under the New Contributory Pension Scheme will stop from April 1, 2022.

• According to the notification, a separate directorate will be created for all the operations related to account maintenance and pension of GPAF, which will be named Directorate, Pension and Provident Fund.-

• About Chhattisgarh State -

• Formation - 1 November 2000

• Capital- Raipur (Atal Nagar)

• Governor- Anusuiya Uikey

• Chief Minister- Bhupesh Baghel

• Assembly seats- 90

• Lok Sabha seats-11

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed passes away

Tags: Person in news International News

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (73 years), the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, passed away on May 13, 2022.

• Expressing his deepest condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Indian Prime Minister said that India-UAE relations have prospered under his guidance.

• The Government of India has declared a day of national mourning on his death. During this time no public festival will be celebrated in any government offices.

• The UAE government has declared 40 days of national mourning in the country on the death of Sheikh Khalifa. During this, the national flag will remain at half-mast. All government offices and private institutions including ministries will also remain closed for three days.

• The world's tallest building 'Dubai's Burj Khalifa' was also named after the late President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum to be Acting President : 

• According to the UAE's constitution, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the ruling Vice President and Premier of Dubai, will take over as acting president until the country's Federal Council meets within 30 days to elect a new president.

• Born in 1948, Sheikh Khalifa became the President of the UAE in 2004 after the death of his father. He was the country's second president and the 16th leader of Abu Dhabi.

• About UAE -

• Capital- Abu Dhabi

• Prime Minister- Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

• Currency- UAE Dirham