Gol approved renaming of three places in Madhya Pradesh
▪ The government of India (Gol) has approved the renaming of 3 places in Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad Nagar as “Narmadapuram”, Shivpuri as “Kundeshwar Dham” and Babai as “Makhan Nagar”.
• In 2021, the government of MP led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan has proposed the renaming of the 3 places in Madhya Pradesh. The approval for the renaming was granted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• The Hoshangabad Nagar named after Hoshang Shah, the first formally appointed Sultan of the Malwa Sultanate of Central India was renamed as Narmadapuram. Babal has been renamed after the renowned journalist and poet Makhanlal Chaturvedi.”
• Makhanlal Chaturvedi was born in Babai, MP. The government has named a national university of journalism and communication at Bhopal after Makhanlal in 1992.
BANKING SECTOR:
Exim Bank extends a $500 million credit line to Sri Lanka
▪ Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on behalf of the government of India, extended a line of credit of $500 million to the government of the socialist republic of Sri Lanka for financing the purchase of petroleum products.
• The fund will be used by the Island nation for the purchase of petroleum products. With the signing of this new LOC agreement, the total LOC extended by Exim Bank to Sri Lanka till date has reached 10, taking the total value of LOCS extended to USD 2.18 billion.
• With the signing of this LoC agreement, Exim Bank has now in place 276 lines of credit, covering 61 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with credit commitments of around $27.84 billion, available for financing exports from India.
• Besides promoting India’s exports, Exim Bank’s LoCs enable the demonstration of Indian expertise and project execution capabilities in emerging markets.
INDIAN ECONOMY:
RBI cancels the licence of Nashik’s Independence Co-operative Bank Limited
▪ The Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the license of Independence Co operative Bank Ltd., Nashik, Maharashtra w.e.f February 03, 2022.
• The major reason for the cancellation of the license by RBI is that bank does not have adequate capital and earning prospects.
. This means that does not comply with the provisions of Section 11(1) and Section 22 (3) (d) read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
INTERNAL SECURITY
Sea Trials of 1st Sea Sortie of 5th Scorpene Submarine ‘Vagir’ begins
▪ The Indian Navy’s brand-new submarine, the fifth of the six French-designed Scorpene-class submarines named “Vagir”, sailed out on its first sea sortie and will now undergo rigorous trials before it is delivered to the Navy later this year.
• The submarine-designated “Yard
11879″ during its construction by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in collaboration with the Naval Group of France will be named “Vagir” after it is commissioned into service.
NEW APPOINTMENTS:
Senior scientist GA Srinivasa Murthy appointed director of DRDL
▪ Senior scientist GA Srinivasa Murthy has been appointed director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Hyderabad.
• He joined DRDL In the year 1987 and made significant contributions in the area of structural dynamics, ground resonance testing, electrical integration and checkout for various projects of the missile complex.
• GA Srinivasa Murthy completed his BE in Electronics and Communication
Engineering from Andhra University in 1986 and pursued his ME in Digita Systems from Osmania University in Hyderabad.
AWARDS:
Telugu short film ‘Street Student’ wins NHRC’s Short Film Award Competition
▪ A Telugu short film ‘Street Student’ by Akula Sandeep depicting the story of a street urchin with a strong message on right to education has bagged the first prize in a competition organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
• Street Student by Akula Sandeep has been selected for the first prize worth Rs 2 lakh in the seventh Short Film Award Competition. It is in Telugu with subtitles in English.
• The film shows the story of a street urchin to send across a strong message on right to education and how society needs to support it.
• The second prize worth Rs 1.5 lakh goes to, ‘Karfew’ by Romi Meitel.
▪ The film, through the story of a child in Manipur, pitches in hope for a better world, wherein people’s right to life, liberty, dignity and equality can be protected against odds including stereotyped fear psychosis. It is in the Meiteilon language with subtitles in English.
Neeraj Chopra nominated for Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award
• Tokyo Olympics gold medallist, Neeraj Chopra has been nominated for the prestigious 2022 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award.
• The other 5 nominees are
Daniil Medvedev (Australian Open runner up), Emma Raducanu (British tennis star), Pedri (Barcelona and Spain footballer), Yulimar
Rojas Titmus (Australian swimmer). (Venezuelan athlete) and Ariarne
• The winners will be revealed in April following a vote by the Laureus World Sports Academy, made up of 71 sporting greats.
New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell named the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award 2021
▪ New Zealand cricketer, Daryl Mitchell has been named the winner of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Spirit of Cricket Award 2021.
• This award is given to him for his gesture of refusing to take a single in the high-pressure 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Semi-Finals against England as he felt he had “obstructed” the way of bowler Adil Rashid at the Shelkh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
• He has become the 4th New Zealand player to win the award after Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson.
NATIONAL:
“India, That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution’ authored by J Sai Deepak
▪ A Trilogy book series titled, ‘India, That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution is authored by J Sai Deepak and published by Bloomsbury India.
• The 1st part was released on 15th August 2021, is set to launch the 2nd part In June 2022. Whereas, the 3rd and last parts will be released in June 2023.
• It is the first part of a comprehensive trilogy, which examines the impact of European ‘colonial consciousness’ (or ‘coloniality’), on Bharat (India).
• It highlights how colonialism changes the socio-religious culture, history, education, language and racial patterns in India.
IUCN designates Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram 2022
▪ The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram, Haryana, has been declared as India’s first “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECM) site.
• This was informed by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change on the occasion of World Wetlands Day.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) gives OECM tag to those areas that are not protected but support rich biodiversity.
The tag designates the area as a biodiversity hotspot on the international map.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
IISc. commissions one of India’s most powerful supercomputers ‘Param Pravega’
▪ The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, has installed and commissioned Param Pravega, one of the most powerful supercomputers in India.
• It is also the largest supercomputer in an Indian academic Institution. Param Pravega has a total supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops (1 petaflop equals a quadrillion or 1015 operations per second).
• Who designed and developed Param Pravega?
• The supercomputer has been designed by the Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
• It has been developed under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a joint initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), and implemented by C-DAC and IISc.
