DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Feb. 16, 2022

Famous Bollywood music composer Bappi Lahiri passes away

Tags: Person in news

Legendary Bollywood music composer, singer and pioneer of disco, Bappi Lahiri passed away at Midnight on 15 February 2022 in a  Mumbai hospital. He was 69.

Bappi Lahiri was born on November 27, 1952 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal.

His first major hit film was Zakhmee. He was best known for his works in Wardat, Disco Dancer, Namak Halaal, Dance Dance, Commando, Saheb, Gang Leader, Sailaab, Sharaabi among others. He was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s for his music compositions.

His last Bollywood song Bankas was for the film Baaghi 3 released in  2020. 

His last on screen appearance was with Salman Khan on Big Boss 15, where he promoted grandson Swasti's new song Baccha Party.

Awards won by Bappi Lahiri 

• Filmfare Lifetime achievement award 2018. 

• Filmfare best Music Director Award  for the film Sharabi in 1985.

• Mirchi Music award 2012  for best Item song of the year:“Oh la la” for the film Dirty Picture.

Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay passes away

Tags: Person in news

Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay died in Kolkata on 15 February 2022 after a brief illness. She was 90 years old. .

• She trained under Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and was later associated with legends like Begum Akhtar.

• The unique feature of her career was that her songs were released during the Durga puja festival in Bengal.

• Sandhya Mukherjee’s first record was in 1945 and her first album of Durga Puja songs was released in 1948.

• Her first playback song was for the film Samapika released in 1948.

• In 1971, She won  the national  film award for best female playback singer for songs in the films Jai Jayanti (1970) and Nishi Padma (1970).

• Last month she declined the Padma Shri award by the Union government.

COVID -19 Global Action Meeting

Tags: Summits

The United States State Department (Foreign Ministry) organized Covid-19 Global Action meeting in a virtual mode on 14 February 2022.  

• United State Secretary of State Anthony Blinken hosted the meeting .
• Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla participated in the meeting. 
• He said that India has supplied over 162 million doses of corona vaccine to 97 countries and two United Nations organisations including Myanmar and Afghanistan. 
• India will also supply 1 billion vaccine doses to the Indo-Pacific region in 2022  under the QUAD vaccine programme.

Emergency declared in Canada

Tags: International News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 14 February 2022, declared an emergency in the country in an effort to end protests that have shut important trade routes with the United States and paralyzed parts of the capital, Ottawa.

• Protest started in Canada when a new rule was introduced last month that all truckers must be vaccinated to cross the US-Canada border.

• The truckers started protesting against that and started a convoy of trucks, cars and other vehicles to block the key Ambassador Bridge.

• It is a vital trade route between Canada and the United States. It carries  around 25% of the total merchandise trade between the two countries.

• The protest became popular as “Freedom Convoy”. It soon drew people who were opposed to Trudeau's policies on everything from pandemic restrictions to a carbon tax. Similar protests also emerged in New Zealand, Australia, Israel and France.

• The protest was broken up by the police on 13 February after the United States government expressed concern at the blockade which was affecting the auto industry in Detroit, US.

• The Canadian government accused the protesters of getting foreign funding and the protest was detrimental to the economy and public safety of Canada. Under the Emergency act the Canadian police and law enforcement agencies will have power to block foreign funding of the protesters.

Important for Exam 

Ambassador Bridge 

The Ambassador Bridge is an international suspension bridge on the river  Detroit. It connects the Detroit city of Michigan, United States with the Windsor city of Ontario, Canada.

It is the largest suspension bridge in the world.

Detroit 

It is known as the automobile capital of the world. It is also called Motor City.

• It is the home of the automobile giants of the United States , General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

• It is the birthplace of the modern automobile industry. For the first time an assembly line production technique was used by Henry Ford to mass produce cars for the people. It was the famous T model.

India’s Detroit : Chennai is considered to be India’s Detroit.

Fact Files Canada

• It is the second largest country in the world area wise after Russia.

• It shares 8,890-km ,the longest land boundary in the world with the United States.

• The British monarch is the head of the State of Canada.

• Prime Minister of Canada :  Justin Trudeau

• Capital “ Ottawa 

• Currency : Canadian Dollar .

Career counselling “Paramarsh 2022” launched in Bikaner

Tags: State News

The Minister of State for Culture & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal launched the online career counselling workshop 'Pramarsh 2022' on 15 February 2022 for the students of the Bikaner District region of Rajasthan.

• In this workshop one lakh students participated from more than thousands schools of Bikaner district mainly from rural area. 

• The Paramarsh 2022 was organised by the The National Institute of Career Services (NICS) which comes under the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment, educational start-up Edumilestones and the Directorate of Education, Rajasthan.

Yes Bank launches “Yes Bank Agri Infinity” for startup

Tags: Economics/Business

Yes Bank has launched a mentorship programme for the start-up which is in the business of digital financing of the food and agricultural sector.

It will co- develop digital financing solutions with the startup companies for the entire food  and agricultural sector.

Yes Bank will share its digital infrastructure with the Start ups and will train the start up under this programme 

Yes Bank  

It is a private sector scheduled commercial  bank in India founded in 2004 .

Its Headquarters : Mumbai 

Chairman : Sunil Kumar 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)and Managing Director (MD): Prashant Kumar 

Tagline : Experience our expertise.

Indian IT sector to grow to $227 billion in 2022: NASSCOM

Tags: Economics/Business National News

National Association of Software and  Services Companies(NASSCOM)  expects the Indian Information Technology(IT) sector to cross $ 200 billion revenue for the first time and is expected to touch $227 billion in 2021-22.

• The  expected growth rate of 15.5% in 2021-22 will be the highest growth rate since 2011 in the revenue of the IT sector .

• It has set a target of $ 350 billion revenue by 2026.

• The IT sector in India created 4.5 lakh new jobs in 2021-22 of which about 44% were women employees. Around 18 lakh women work in the sector . 

• Exports from India grew by 17.2% and it was $178 billion which is over 51 % of India’s total service sector exports.

• Ecommerce recorded a growth of 39 per cent to reach $79 billion in 2021-22.

• The new age digital service sector saw  a 25%  growth in revenue to reach $13 billion  and now contributes to around 32 per cent of  the total IT sector revenue .

• India has  emerged as a global hub for digital talent with over five million tech workers.

• Around  one out of three employees already digitally skilled, the digital tech talent pool is at 16 lakhs.

NASSCOM

• The National Association of Software and  Services Companies(NASSCOM) was set up in 1988

• It is a non profit organisation of IT  sector companies in India  

• It is a lobby group which works for the promotion of the IT sector and its companies in India and abroad.

Chairman of NASSCOM : U.B.Pravin Rao

President : Debjani Ghosh 

Important for Exam 

FULL FORM 

NASSCOM : The National Association of Software and  Services Companies

Highway Construction fell to a four year low in 2021-22

Tags: National News

• Highway construction fell to a four-year low of 22.2 km per day during the April-January period of the current financial year, mainly because multiple cyclones and heavy rains affected construction in the southern states in recent months.
• India built highways at a pace of 30.4 km/day in the same period in the last financial year, despite the pandemic.
• The government has also lowered the  target for highway construction for the year  to 33 km/day from 40 km/day set earlier.
• The government of India has set a target to construct 12,000 Km of National Highway in 2021-22.
• The target for construction of national highways  for 2022-23 is 25,000 km.

IMPORTANT FACTS :

• India has the second largest road network in the world after  the United States of America .

• The total road network in India at the end of 31 December 2021 was around  63.72 lakh Km.

• This comprises National Highways 1,40,995 km, State Highways 1,71,039 km, and  Expressway,District Roads and Village roads combining  60,59,813 km.

States Having Largest Network of National Highways as on 31 December 2021.

State which has the shortest National Highway (length wise) Goa. It has 293 Km of National Highways. 

Source of Data:  Annual Report 2020-21, Union  Ministry of  Road Transport and Highways 

Union Minister of  Road Transport and Highways : Nitin Gadkari

Argentina and Brazil to replay their World Cup qualifier football match

Tags: Sports News

FIFA has ordered Argentina and Brazil to replay their world cup qualifier match after the match in september 2021 was suspended just minutes after kickoff due to breach in covid protocol. 

The match at NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo was halted after five minutes when Brazilian health officials invaded the pitch to stop Argentina's England-based players from playing, saying they had breached the country's COVID-19 quarantine rules.

Facts 

• Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the international body which governs International football.

• It will organise the 22nd Men’s FIFA world cup 2022 in Qatar .

• The 21st Men’s FIFA world cup 2018 was held in Russia which was won by France .

• Headquarters of FIFA : Zurich, Switzerland 

• President of FIFA : Gianni Infantino 

Prime Minister Inaugurates TERI's World Sustainable Development Summit 2022

Tags: National News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) World Sustainable Development Summit on 16th February, 2022 through video conferencing.

• The theme for this year’s Summit is ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future’.

• The Summit will be held from 16 -18 February 2022.

• The summit was  also addressed by the President of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali, Environment minister Bhupendra Yadav.

TERI 

• TERI was set up as a Tata Energy Research Institute by the Tata group in 1974.
• It was renamed The Energy Research Institute in 2003.
• The Headquarters of TERI : New Delhi 
• Director -General of TERI: Vibha Dhawan.
• TERI  is engaged in research and development in  the field of energy, environment, climate change and sustainability.

Historic visit of the Saudi Land Force Commander

Tags: International News

The Commander of the Royal Saudi Land Forces, Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair visited India from 14 to 16 February 2022. 

This is the first time that the Army Chief of the Saudi Arabia Army has visited India.

In Saudi Arabia the Army Chief is called as Land Force Commander 

He met Indian Army chief Manoj Mukund Navarane.

In December 2020, the Indian Army chief M M Navarane visited Saudi Arabia. It was the first time that an Indian Army chief visited Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia 

It is a West Asian kingdom founded by the Ibn Saud of the Saud family in 1923. It is named after the Saud family.

•  It has two of the holiest shrine of Islam, Mecca and Medina masjid 

• The world's largest mosque Al-Haram or forbidden mosques is in Mecca.

• The world's second largest mosque, Mosque of the Prophet, or Masjid al-Nabawi is in Medina. 

• The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) headquarters is also in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

• The world’s largest sand area, the  Rub al-Khali (“Empty Quarter”) which is spread around 647,500 square km, is also in Saudi Arabia.

Capital of Saudi Arabia : Riyadh 

Currency : Saudi Riyal 

King of Saudi Arabia : King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud