Home » Current Affairs 13th March 2021| Current Affairs News

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CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS

World Kidney Day – Observed on Mar 11 (2nd Thursday in March)

World Kidney Day is a global health awareness campaign focusing on the importance of the kidneys and reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide.
World Kidney Day is observed annually on the 2nd Thursday in March.
The World Kidney Day Steering Committee has declared 2021 the year of “Living Well with Kidney Disease”.
This has been done in order to both increase education and awareness about effective symptom management and patient empowerment, with the ultimate goal of encouraging life participation.

World Sleep Day – Observed on Mar 13

World Sleep Day is an annual event observed on March 13 organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Sleep Society, formerly World Association of Sleep Medicine, since 2008.
The celebrations of World Sleep Day are based on some slogans and themes for annual celebrations. So, the theme or slogan for World Sleep Day 2021 is “Regular Sleep, Healthy Future.”
The World Sleep Day Committee of World Sleep Society organized the World Sleep Daywith an objective to minimize the burden of the problems related to sleep on the society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

Jal Jeevan Mission: Jal Shakti Minister to chair Conference of Ministers of States, UTs

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will be chairing a Conference of States and UTs Ministers on Jal Jeevan Mission and review the progress made under the Mission.
The conference is being organized to discuss planning, implementation and progress made so far as well as the way forward so that the remaining households in villages get tap water connections at the earliest.

About the scheme:

The Mission is a flagship programme of the Centre for providing tap water connection in every rural household by 2024.
Since the announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission on 15th August 2019, significant progress has been made across the country.
So far, more than 3.79 crore rural households have been provided with tap water connections.

I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar initiate Amrit Mahotsav exhibitions at six places

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar will inaugurate exhibitions at six places virtually.
The six places are Bangalore, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Moirang District in Manipur and Samba District in Jammu and Kashmir.
In addition,Shri Prakash Javadekar will also inaugurate an exhibition at the National Media Center in New Delhi.
The exhibitions are being organised in pursuance of the vision of the Prime Minister and to contribute to the festive fervor to the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav as part of India’s 75th Independence Day celebrations.
Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav commenced, 75 weeks prior to Independence Day 2022, and would continue till Independence Day 2023.

India Chair the First Meeting of BRICS CGETI

The first Meeting of the BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI) was held under India’s Chairship from 9th till 11th of this month.
The theme of BRICS this year is -“BRICS at 15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus”.
India presented the calendar of events for BRICS CGETI 2021, which included the priority areas for deliverables, schedule and scope of the MSME roundtable conference workshop on Services Statistics, and the BRICS Trade Fair.
Till September, inter sessional deliberations will be carried out to reach consensus amongst the BRICS countries.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Gulf of Oman: Indian Navy provides technical assistance to stranded merchant vessel

Indian Navy Ship (INS) Talwar, deployed in the Gulf of Oman, provided technical assistance to a stranded merchant vessel carrying seven Indian crew members.
According to an official statement, INS Talwar received a broadcast call from a stranded merchant cargo ship MV Nayan, requesting technical assistance.
The cargo ship, on transit from Oman to Iraq, was drifting at sea since March 9, owing to the failure of its propulsion, power generation machinery and navigational equipment.
An Indian Navy spokesperson mentioned, based on a preliminary aerial assessment about the distress of MV Nayan, the Indian Naval Ship dispatched its technical team by boat to offer assistance to the vessel that had seven Indians as crew.
The naval teams worked onboard MV Nayan to operationalise its equipment, thereby making the vessel seaworthy again.

Bangladesh: Five heads of state, govt to attend 10 day-long celebrations

Five heads of state and heads of government from the South Asian region will participate in the ten-day-long celebrations being organised on the occasion of the centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and 50 years of liberation of Bangladesh.
The 10-day long special programme will start on 17th March and conclude on 26 March.
Chief Coordinator of the Committee tasked with the planning of the celebrations in Bangladesh, Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury told the media in a press meet that the events will be held with a separate theme for each day.
Strict health guidelines will be observed during the programme.
Chowdhury mentioned that 500 invited guests from Bangladesh and abroad will be present during the functions to be held at the National parade ground on March 17,19,22, 24 and 26.
All the programmes will be telecast on television.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATE NEWS

J&K: Ramban District Administration develop mobile app named e-Suvidha

In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the District Administration, Ramban has developed a mobile application named e-Suvidha, which shall bring many public delivery services and departments on the digital platform.
The initiative has been taken on the directions of Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat.
Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Mussarat Islam, cleared the decks for the launch of the Mobile App which will be launched after a final trial run next week.
Pertinently, the e-Suvidha Mobile App will be available on the Google Play-store and will be a game changer as it will provide access to the people to all basic services like plumbing, electric works, mobile and laptop troubleshooting, masonry, carpentry and skilled jobs on a digital platform with a click on the mobile phones.
The application shall also link many important departments like Health, Community Service Centres, Food & Civil Supplies, Banks and other financial institutions.

India’s first dedicated express cargo terminal launched in Bengaluru airport

The Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru now has India’s first dedicated Express Cargo Terminal exclusively for export and import of international couriers.
A media release issued by Bangalore International Airport Limited that operates the Bengaluru airport says that the Chief Commissioner of Customs in Bengaluru zone Mr.M Srinivas inaugurated the Terminal.
The two lakh square feet built to suit facility will be operated by Express Industry Council of India.It has a dedicated space for customs offices with direct access to both Landside and Airside wing of the airport.
The Chief Commissioner M Sirinivas mentioned that the exclusive Terminal for express couriers at south India’s busiest Cargo Airport in Bengaluru will enable ease of doing business and reduce transaction time and cost for the shipper.
The new facility will enable Bengaluru Airport to process 150,000 Metric Tonnes annually, taking the Airport’s overall annual cargo capacity to 720,000 MT, from the existing 570,000 MT.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS NEWS

Govt to launch ‘Atmanirbhar Niveshak Mitra’ portal

Government will soon launch ‘Atma Nirbhar Niveshak Mitra’ portal for handholding and facilitation of domestic investors.
In order to further strengthen efforts to promote domestic investments, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is in the process of finalising the ‘Atmanirbhar Niveshak Mitra’ digital portal.
The portal is in testing phase and the final version will be ready for launch by 15th May this year.
The webpage will also be available in regional languages and mobile App in due course.
The Commerce Ministry has termed the development as one of the most significant digital initiatives being undertaken to target the specific investor interests and ensure swift clearances & approvals throughout the business journey of domestic investors.
Some of the special features of the Atma Nirbhar Niveshak Mitra portal include One-stop-shop to access all MSME portals; Information about the Approvals, Licenses, Clearances, Incentives & Schemes applicable to specific businesses across different sectors and Information on Manufacturing Clusters and Land Availability.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOUR

20 Persons to be conferred Sahitya Akademi awards

Politician-writer M Veerappa Moily, poets Arundhathi Subramaniam and Anamika are among the twenty writers who will be conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2020.
This annual Sahitya Akademi Award has been announced for India’s 20 regional languages including Hindi, Maithili, Urdu and others.
According to an official communication of the Akademi, the seven books of poetry, four books of novels, five books of short stories, two plays one each of Memoirs and Epic poetry have won the awards.
The official statement mentioned that awards in Malayalam, Nepali, Odia and Rajasthani will be announced at a later date by the Akademi.
Kamal Kant Jha of Darbhanga bagged the award for his short story titled ‘Gachha Roosal Achhi’ on the importance of plantation in Maithili, while Anamika from Muzaffarpur won in poetry in Hindi titled ‘Tokri Mein Digant Their Gatha’.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar congratulated Jha and Anamika for their outstanding literary creations that have brought laurel to the state.
Jha, addressing the media mentioned, “It is an honour for all who work with literary creation with patience.
Creativity never goes unacknowledged”.
Other winners are Harish Meenakshi (Gujarati), Anamika (Hindi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Irungbam Deven (Manipuri), Rupchand Hansda (Santali), and Nikhileswar (Telugu).
Nanda Khare (Marathi), Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam (Sanskrit), Imaiyam (Tamil) and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque were named as winners for their novels.Apurba Kumar Saikia (Assamese), (late) Dharanidhar Owari (Bodo), (late) Hiday Koul Bharti (Kashmiri) and Gurdev Singh Rupana (Punjab) have received the award for short stories.
The Akademi has named Gian Singh (Dogri) and Jetho Lalwani (Sindhi) the winners for their plays, while Shankar (Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay) in (Bengali) received the award for a memoir.

‘Digambara Kavi’ Nikhileshwar bags Sahitya Akademi Award

Renowned writer Nikhileswar, and one among the six ‘Digambara Kavulu’ has been chosen for the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award-2020 for his anthology of poems Agniswaasa penned in 2017.
A poet with a focus on social issues for almost six decades now, Nikhileswar also contributed to English and Hindi languages.
Speaking to TNIE, Nikhileswar mentioned, “Though, some Telangana poets are doing a good job, the latest trend is that a section of the poets have pledged fealty (udigam) to the rulers.
This is a dangerous trend.
All the democratic, human rights and Left forces should unite at this juncture.”

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENT NEWS

Sanjay Goel appointed as Executive Vice President and President American Tower’s India operations

American TowerCorporation announced that Sanjay Goel has been appointed Executive Vice President and President, Asia-Pacific succeeding Amit Sharma.
The appointment will be effective March 16.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: INSURANCE NEWS

Cabinet gives nod to amendments in Insurance Act to Increase FDI Limit to 74%

The Union Cabinet has approved to increase the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 74 percent.
Currently, the permissible FDI limit in life and general insurance stands at 49 percent with ownership and management control with Indian.
The Cabinet has approval for amendments in the Insurance Act, 1938
The decision regarding increasing the FDI was taken during Budget 2021 on February 1.
In 2015 the government hiked the FDI cap in the insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent.

Benefits :

The new structure allows a majority of directors on the board and management to be resident Indians.
Allow foreign ownership
Control with safeguards
Increase in FDI will help improve life insurance penetration in the country.

About FDI :

A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country
It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct control.
In India Foreign investment was introduced in 1991 under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), driven by then finance minister Manmohan Singh.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

DRDO Developed Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) System

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has Developed an important milestone in the development of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) System by proving the land-based prototype.
The plant was operated in endurance mode and max power mode as per the user requirements. The system is being developed by Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL) of DRDO.
The technology has been successfully developed with the support of industry partners L&T and Thermax.

About AIP System :

AIP stands for Air Independent propulsion test which allows any submarine to stay in water for longer hours and also makes the subsurface platform deadlier by decreasing the noise levels it makes while travelling making it hard to detect.

About DRDO :

Secretary & Chairman DRDO : G Satheesh Reddy
Founded : 1958
Headquarters : New Delhi
Founder : Avinash Chander
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is a defence R&D hub which develops defence technologies, systems/products that are required for Indian Armed Forces.

Joint Earth Observation Satellite Mission Radar Developed by ISRO with NASA

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed the development of a radar for the joint earth observation satellite mission with the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
This is a part of an agreement that was signed by NASA administrator Charles Bolden and the then ISRO chairman named K Radhakrishnan on September 30, 2014, in Toronto, Canada.
NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
ISRO has developed a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for the mission.
NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimeter across

About ISRO :

Founder: Vikram Sarabhai
Director: Kailasavadivoo Sivan
Founded: 15 August 1969
Headquarters : Bangalore, Karnataka

About NASA :

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
Founder: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Founded: 1 October 1958, United States
Administered by: Steve Jurczyk

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Indian Bank to divest stake in asset reconstruction JV ASREC India

State-owned Indian Bank will divest stake in joint venture entity ASREC (India) Ltd as part of asset monetisation exercise.
The bank holds a 26 percent stake in ASREC (India) Ltd.
The monetisation of the bank’s non-core assets, the board of directors of the bank in its meeting held on March 5, 2021

About ASREC :

ASREC is an asset reconstruction company in which Bank of India, Union Bank of India, LIC and Deutsche Bank are the shareholders.
The company was granted a certificate of registration by the Reserve Bank of India in October 2004 to carry out activities under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act 2002.
ASREC acquires non-performing assets (NPAs) from the banks/financial institutions at mutually agreed prices with the objective to maximise the returns through innovative resolution strategies.

About Indian Bank :

Headquarters: Chennai
CEO: Padmaja Chunduru
Establishment : 1907
MD & CEO : Padmaja Chunduru

CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOBILE APPS

Government launches ‘Mera Ration’ mobile app

On March 12, 2021, Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution launched “Mera Ration” Mobile App for those ration card holders who migrate to new places in search of livelihood.
This app will benefit especially those ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods.
The app is developed by the government in association with NIC “to facilitate various ONORC related services among National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, FPS dealers and other relevant stakeholders.

About Mera Ration App :

Mera Ration’ app identifies the nearest fair price shop and checks details of their entitlement and recent transactions.
The android-based mobile application has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
It is currently available in Hindi and English language.
Gradually, it will be made available in 14 languages.
The languages will be identified based on places where migrant people move mostly to.
Implementation of the One Nation-One Ration Card system ensures availability of ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially the migrant workers and their families, at any fair price shop (FPS) across the country.

About National Food Security Act :

Under the National Food Security Act, the centre provides highly subsidised food grains at Rs 1-3 per kg to over 81 crore people through public distribution system (PDS).
The act also offers ration card portability service ‘One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC)’ in 32 states and union territories.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BOOKS & AUTHORS

Ranjit Hoskote releases new poetry book- Hunchprose

The Indian Poet, cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote released a poetry collection titled, ‘Hunchprose’.
This is the poet’s 8th poetry

About the book :

The poems are about the turbulent times we live in and celebrate every aspect of humanity and being human.

About Ranjit Hoskote :

He is best known for ‘Vanishing Acts’, ‘Central Time’ ‘Jonah Whale’ and ‘I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded’.
He has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award, the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award and the S.H. Raza Literature Award.
Hoskote is known as a translator as well, for his translations of the legendary Urdu poets Mir and Ghalib.
His works have been translated into German, Hindi, Bengali, Irish, Marathi, Swedish and Spanish.

AS Panneerselvan authored a book titled Karunanidhi: A Life

The readers’ editor of The Hindu S. Panneerselvan authored a book titled Karunanidhi: A Life.
The book was published by Penguin viking.
The book was written by former editing chief of hindu Ram
S. Panneerselvan tells the story of the man who became a metaphor for modern Tamil Nadu, where language, empowerment, self-respect, art, literary forms and films coalesced to lend a unique vibrancy to politics.
This is the second biography of Karunanidhi to hit the stands in the last 12 months after Karunanidhi – The Definitve Biography” (Juggernaut) by noted Tamil journalist and author Vasanthi, who notes that in the rough and tumble of Tamil Nadu politics, Karunanidhi was a fighter to the end.

About Muthuvel Karunanidhi :

He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for over five decades.
He was ardent as a social reformer and unrelenting as an opposition leader.

About AS Panneerselvan :

S. Panneerselvan is currently the readers’ editor of The Hindu.
He has served as the newspaper’s independent, full-time internal ombudsman since 2012.
He is a regular columnist, and also an adjunct professor at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.
He had wide experience in both print and television journalism including extensive reporting on conflicts in Sri Lanka, Kashmir and India’s north-east region.
He has also served as the steering committee member and vice chair of the Global Forum for Media Development between 2005 and 2018.
He is a member of the governing board of the K.M. Adimoolam Foundation for Arts in Chennai and was a fellow of the Reuters Journalism Fellowship programme at the University of Oxford.
Panneerselvan has lectured widely on politics and the media in the US and Europe.

Baanjh: Incomplete Lives of Complete Women’ by Susmita Mukherjee

Actor, producer, director, writer Susmita Mukherjee’s new book of short stories ‘Baanjh: Incomplete Lives of Complete Women’ released in January 2021.
The book is a collection of 11 short stories written “over three decades