19th-20th April, 2023

1. Union Minister of State (IC) Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh has launched ‘Yuva’ portal for identifying potential young start-ups across the country.
2. Rajesh Subramaniam, Indian American CEO of global transportation giant FedEx, has been presented with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman 2023.
3. Ministry of Panchayati Raj will be celebrating National Panchayat Awards Week during 17th – 21st April 2023 ahead of the National Panchayati Raj Day (24th April 2023).
4. India has contributed USD 500,000 to the UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality and women empowerment for their core budget.
5. Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh launched ‘Sangathan Se Samriddhi’ campaign to empower marginalized rural households by bringing all eligible rural women into the fold of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
6. Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri has advanced its target to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.
7. Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched the Marketing and Logistics Development for Promotion of Tribal Products from the North-Eastern Region (PTP-NER).
8. National Health Authority is in the process of adding another feature to its Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) app, wherein a user can create his ABHA ID using face authentication service linked to her/his Aadhar number.
9. DRDO-Industry Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE) has been inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology –Hyderabad.
10. Indian Federation of Green Energy: Compressed Biogas (IFGE-CBG) will organize the two-day Global Conference on Compressed Biogas under theme of “Towards Progressive Policy Framework for a Robust CBG Foundation and Growth”.
11. NITI Aayog is planning a policy on electric vehicles (EVs) running on lithium-ion batteries since about 75% of the lithium-ion imports come from China.
12. Kerala has become the first state to adopt a water budget to tackle the water scarcity in certain regions there.
13. Union Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju has released the Dogri version of the Constitution of India.
14. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (KSIDC) has received the approval from Civil Aviation Ministry for developing the Sabarimala Greenfield Airport at Kottayam.
15. Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) has signed an MOU with Indian Bank to integrate its payment aggregator with the e-governance applications of government departments.
16. Indian Navy has conducted the “Prasthan” exercise in the offshore development area off Maharashtra’s Mumbai.
17. India is acquiring armaments worth over $300 million from the US to enhance the capabilities of the MH 60 ‘Romeo’ choppers (the most advanced multi role helicopters currently in service with the Indian Navy).
18. The first edition of the biannual Army Commanders conclave 2023 will be conducted in Hybrid format from April 21.
19. IIT-Roorkee has signed an MOU with the National Science and Technology Centre for Disaster Reduction (NCDR),
20. A US-based company, Biofire has launched the world’s first ‘smart guns’ that uses biometric identification, and only authorized persons are allowed to fire from the gun.
21. Germany has switched off its last three nuclear reactors recently. Now, the country has put an end to its atomic power.
22. UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has released the “State of World Population 2023” report.
23. Henley and Partners has released the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023.
24. Karnataka Bank has launched “KBL CENTENARY MAHOTSAV”- a special campaign for the Home loans.
25. AU Small Finance Bank (AU SFB) has integrated with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to launch bill payment services through video banking.
26. HDFC Bank has launched Regalia Gold Credit Card —a super-premium credit card in its Regalia range of credit cards.
27. Worldline, a global leader in payment services, has published the ‘India Digital Payments Annual Report’ for 2022.
28. State Bank of India (SBI) has approved long-term fundraising of up to $2 billion in debt during the financial year 2023-24.
29. Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has constituted a 4-member working group on asset reconstruction companies (ARCs).
30. RBL Bank has launched an innovative Digital Fixed Deposit (FD) scheme available to new-to-bank customers.
31. NTPC Ltd has signed an agreement with Chempolis India to explore the feasibility of setting up a bamboo-based bio-refinery at Bongaigaon in Assam.
32. Apple has launched its flagship retail stores in India.
33. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, also known as Vizag Steel, is a central public sector undertaking, under the complete ownership of Ministry of Steel, based in Visakhapatnam.
34. April 18 – International Day of Monuments and Sites / World Heritage Day; Theme – Heritage Changes
35. April 19 – World Liver Day; Theme – ‘Be Vigilant, Do Regular Liver Check-Up, Fatty Liver Can Affect Anyone.’
36. Utsa Patnaik, a renowned economist, has been selected for the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award 2023.
37. Tata Steel has been recognised as 2023 Steel Sustainability Champion by the World Steel Association for the 6th consecutive year.
38. Hurun Research Report has published the Global Unicorn Index 2023.
39. Andrey Rublev (Russian professional tennis player) has won his first Masters’ title at the Monte Carlo Masters’ Tournament held at Monte Carlo in Monaco.
40. Indian duo of Suryakumar Yadav (cricketer) and Harmanpreet Kaur (cricketer) have won the Wisden Almanack’s leading T20I cricketer and Cricketer of the Year award (1st woman to get this) respectively.

National News

1. Union Minister of State (IC) Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh has launched ‘Yuva’ portal for identifying potential young start-ups across the country.

 
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory –

• The Minister also launched the ‘One Week-One Lab’ campaign [see knowledge nugget A] of the Delhi-based CSIR-National Physical Laboratory.
• The lab also organized a three-days Start-up/MSME/Industry Meet to showcase various services extended by NPL to industries.
• As part of the Meet, the Metrology Conclave was also organised where a Handbook on Advances in Metrology at CSIR-NPL was released.
• R&D Conclave & Women in STEM and a one-day Skill Conclave were organized as part of the meet.

Indian Sign Language AstroLab –
 

• A new first of its kind ‘Astronomy Lab’ named as “Indian Sign Language AstroLab” has been inaugurated in Karnal, Haryana. The lab aims to create awareness about the astronomy among the Divyang-jans (persons-with-disability).
• The lab will enable hearing impaired students to learn about sun, moon and stars, apart from simple to complex concepts of space.
• The Indian Sign Language AstroLab has 65 pieces of equipment, 24X7 virtual access to stream over 90 videos and many other facilities.

2. Rajesh Subramaniam, Indian American CEO of global transportation giant FedEx, has been presented with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman 2023.
   • A total of 27 people won the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2023 (including Rajesh Subramaniam).
   • Subramanian was presented with the award by India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu at a ceremony at the India House.
   • The other awardee, Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, was also present at the event.

3. Ministry of Panchayati Raj will be celebrating National Panchayat Awards Week during 17th – 21st April 2023 ahead of the National Panchayati Raj Day (24th April 2023).
   • The Week will be celebrated on the theme of “Panchayaton ke Sankalpon ki Siddhi ka Utsav” (पंचायतों के संकल्पों की सिद्धि का उत्सव).
   • During the week, 5 conferences will be organized in Delhi on different themes.

• National Panchayat Awards–2023 categories –

• Shri Giriraj Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj has launched “GS NIRNAY” mobile application.
  • GS – Gram Sabha
  • NIRNAY – National Initiative for Rural India to Navigate, InnovAte and Resolve PanchaYat
• Purpose – to record and upload Gram Sabha proceedings open for public view
• The app will provide a means of verification of facts where necessary or in case of queries that may arise regarding the resolutions undertaken during the Gram Sabha.
  Source: PIB, NPA Guidelines and National Panchayat Awards 2023 list

4. India has contributed USD 500,000 to the UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality and women empowerment for their core budget.
   Source: ANI
5. Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh launched ‘Sangathan Se Samriddhi’ campaign to empower marginalized rural households by bringing all eligible rural women into the fold of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
   • The government is targeting to bring 10 crore women under the purview of SHGs from the existing 9 crore.
     Source: News on Air
6. Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri has advanced its target to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.
   • The government has increased the ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 10.17% in July 2022.
   • India has set an ambitious target to set up 5000 commercial plants of CBG by 2024- 25 and produce 15 MMT of Compressed Biogas (CBG) which would replace other gaseous fuels being used in the country.
     Source: Economic Times
7. Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched the Marketing and Logistics Development for Promotion of Tribal Products from the North-Eastern Region (PTP-NER).
   • Purpose – to strengthen livelihood opportunities for tribal artisans through increased efficiency in procurement, logistics and marketing of tribal products from North-Eastern States
   • The scheme will apply to the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
   • As a part of this scheme, it is planned to initiate empanelment of tribal artisans from North- Eastern Region by organizing 68 Tribal Artisan Melas (TAMs) w.e.f. 18.04.2023 onwards during the month of April –May 2023 at various districts of North-eastern Region.
     Source: PIB
8. National Health Authority is in the process of adding another feature to its Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) app, wherein a user can create his ABHA ID using face authentication service linked to her/his Aadhar number.
   • ABHA ID is an initiative under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)—country’s digital health ecosystem which enables a user to share and access health records digitally.
   • As of April 16, 2023, 378 million ABHA IDs have been created and 261.7 million health records have been linked.
     Source: LiveMint
9. DRDO-Industry Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE) has been inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology –Hyderabad.
   • The DIA-CoE-IITH is the largest centre among all 15 CoEs in the country.
   • DRDO Chairman – Dr Samir V KamatSource: News on Air
10. Indian Federation of Green Energy: Compressed Biogas (IFGE-CBG) will organize the two-day Global Conference on Compressed Biogas under theme of “Towards Progressive Policy Framework for a Robust CBG Foundation and Growth”.
    • Venue – Silver Oak, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi
    • TERI, Germany’s NAMA Facility, Germany’s GIZ GmbH and LCB Forum (Low Carbon Biofuel Forum) of Greece are the institutional partners of this organization.
    • Organizations like Indian Oil Corporation, Verbio India, Canara Bank, Indian Oil Adani Ventures Limited – IAV Biogas, SBI Capital, SIDBI, Praj Industries and Maschinenfabrik Bernard KRONE GmbH of Germany are also supporting this conference.
      Source: PIB
11. NITI Aayog is planning a policy on electric vehicles (EVs) running on lithium-ion batteries since about 75% of the lithium-ion imports come from China.
    • India’s total lithium-ion imports surged to $2.31 billion in April 2022-January 2023 from $1.83 billion in the entire 2021-22.
    • About 75% or $1.75 billions of these imports were from China, followed by 10% or $248 million from Hong Kong, 9.3% or $216 million from South Korea and miniscule quantities from Vietnam and Singapore.
      Source: Economic Times and List of countries with lithium reserves ET

State News

1. Kerala has become the first state to adopt a water budget to tackle the water scarcity in certain regions there.
   • The first phase of the project would cover 94-gram panchayats and 15 block panchayats.
   • Purpose – The budget gives data about the availability of water at a particular place and its consumption based on the population in the region.
     • It will create awareness among people regarding the proper use of water, avoiding its wastage.
   • The budget was prepared by the Centre for Water Resource Development Management and the state’s water department.
   • The Public Water Budget was released, along with the launch of the third phase of the Ini Njan Ozhukatte (Let me flow now) project, for the rehabilitation of irrigation networks in the Western Ghats.

     Source: Business Standard

2. Union Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju has released the Dogri version of the Constitution of India.
   • Dogri is spoken most in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is an officially recognized language of India.
     Source: News on Air
3. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (KSIDC) has received the approval from Civil Aviation Ministry for developing the Sabarimala Greenfield Airport at Kottayam.
   Source: Economic Times
4. Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) has signed an MOU with Indian Bank to integrate its payment aggregator with the e-governance applications of government departments.
   • This will integrate online payment like debit/credit cards, UPI payment wallets, net banking, e-challans and e-UPI with the government applications to make the payment easier.
     Source: Times of India

Defence News

1. Indian Navy has conducted the “Prasthan” exercise in the offshore development area off Maharashtra’s Mumbai.
   • Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, ONGC and Directorate General of Shipping participated in the exercise.
     Source: India Today
2. India is acquiring armaments worth over $300 million from the US to enhance the capabilities of the MH 60 ‘Romeo’ choppers (the most advanced multi role helicopters currently in service with the Indian Navy).

   Source: Economic Times

3. The first edition of the biannual Army Commanders conclave 2023 will be conducted in Hybrid format from April 21.
   • The physical meet will take place in Delhi.
   • ‘2023’ has been designated as the ‘Year of Transformation’ by Indian Army.
   • The forum will discuss progress on Agnipath Scheme and digitisation and automation initiatives.

Source: News on Air

Memorandum of Understand

1. IIT-Roorkee has signed an MOU with the National Science and Technology Centre for Disaster Reduction (NCDR),
   • Purpose – to increase between NCDR and the Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management (CoEDMM) of IIT Roorkee for developing technology solutions to natural hazards
   • The researchers from IIT Roorkee and NCDR aim to co-establish an early warning sensor network equipped with P-Alert sensors at selected locations in Uttarakhand.

Source: ANI

International News

1. A US-based company, Biofire has launched the world’s first ‘smart guns’ that uses biometric identification, and only authorized persons are allowed to fire from the gun.

   Source: LiveMint

2. Germany has switched off its last three nuclear reactors recently. Now, the country has put an end to its atomic power.
   • Reason – to make the country safe from the nuclear risks and waste

     Source: News on Air

Reports And Indices

1. UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has released the “State of World Population 2023” report.
   • In November 2022, the United Nations announced that the human population had surpassed 8 billion people, and two-thirds of people were living in places where fertility rates had fallen below the so-called “replacement level” of 2.1 births per woman.
   • India will become the world’s most populous country with a population of 142 crore by the end of 2023, surpassing China.
     Source: UNFPA’s official report
2. Henley and Partners has released the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023.
   • Total – 97 cities
   • World’s Top 10 –

• Top 5 in Asia-Pacific –

Source: Henley and Partners’ Index

Banking and Economy

1. Karnataka Bank has launched “KBL CENTENARY MAHOTSAV”- a special campaign for the Home loans.
   • Under the KBL Centenary Mahotsav campaign, customers can avail Home Loan with discount in upfront fee, attractive rate of interest starting from 8.75%, Nil processing charges for Home Loan and other benefits.
   • Karnataka Bank Limited was incorporated on February 18th 1924 at Mangaluru.
     Source: Karnataka Bank’s website

2. AU Small Finance Bank (AU SFB) has integrated with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to launch bill payment services through video banking.
   Source: The Hindu Business Line
3. HDFC Bank has launched Regalia Gold Credit Card —a super-premium credit card in its Regalia range of credit cards.
   Source: HDFC Bank’s website
4. Worldline, a global leader in payment services, has published the ‘India Digital Payments Annual Report’ for 2022.
   • In 2022, payment modes like UPI, Debit and Credit cards, Prepaid Payment Instruments – Mobile and Prepaid cards processed 87.92 billion transactions worth INR 149.5 trillion.
   • UPI Person-to-Merchant (P2M) and Person-to-Person (P2P) are the most preferred payment modes among consumers with a market share of 40% and 44% in terms of transactions volume (UPI was 84% in total).
   • In the year 2022, UPI clocked over 74.05 billion transactions in volume and INR 126 trillion in terms of value.
     Source: The Worldline

5. State Bank of India (SBI) has approved long-term fundraising of up to $2 billion in debt during the financial year 2023-24.
   • Earlier in February, SBI had raised $1 billion in syndicated social loans, making it the largest ESG loan raised by a commercial bank in the Asia Pacific market.

6. South Indian Bank has launched flexible saving products for NRI customers dubbed as SIB SEAFARER and SIB PULSE for mariners and healthcare professionals are just the instances for the same.

Source: Economic Times 

7. Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has constituted a 4-member working group on asset reconstruction companies (ARCs).
   • Members –
     • Hari Hara Mishra, CEO of Asset Reconstruction Companies Association,
     • Purshotam Agarwal, chief investment officer of National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL),
     • Mythili Balasubramanian of Edelweiss, and
     • Tarun Kumar, director of Encore Asset Reconstruction Company

8. RBL Bank has launched an innovative Digital Fixed Deposit (FD) scheme available to new-to-bank customers.
   • The digital FD offers investors an interest rate of up to 7.8% and a duration of 15 months to 725 days.
   • It will be accessible on the Bank’s MoBank App.
     Source: Economic Times
9. NTPC Ltd has signed an agreement with Chempolis India to explore the feasibility of setting up a bamboo-based bio-refinery at Bongaigaon in Assam.
   • The bio-refinery project shall utilize bamboo for production of 2G ethanol, bio-coal for thermal power plants and other value-added products.
     Source: The Print
10. Apple has launched its flagship retail stores in India.
    • The first two stores have been opened in Mumbai and Delhi (Saket) respectively.
      Source: Economic Times
11. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, also known as Vizag Steel, is a central public sector undertaking, under the complete ownership of Ministry of Steel, based in Visakhapatnam.
    • RINL’s Vizag steel plant is the country’s first shore-based plant where the company manufactures various special products.
    • The company owns a plant, having an annual capacity of about 7 million tonnes (MT).
    • In 2021, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its ‘in-principle’ approval for 100% disinvestment of the government stake in RINL.
      Source: Economic Times

Important Days

1. April 18 – International Day of Monuments and Sites / World Heritage Day; Theme – Heritage Changes
   • UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites lists consists of 40 heritage sites from India. Out of these, 32 are cultural, 7 are natural, and one, the Khangchendzonga National Park, is of mixed type. India has the sixth-largest number of sites in the world.
     Source: Business Standard, Indian Express, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ List
2. April 19 – World Liver Day; Theme – ‘Be Vigilant, Do Regular Liver Check-Up, Fatty Liver Can Affect Anyone’.

   Source: Hindustan Times

Awards

1. Utsa Patnaik, a renowned economist, has been selected for the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award 2023.

2. Tata Steel has been recognised as 2023 Steel Sustainability Champion by the World Steel Association for the 6th consecutive year.
   • The Sustainability Champions were announced at the World Steel Special General Meeting of the Board of Members held in Vienna, Austria.
   • CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel – T.V. Narendra.

3. Hurun Research Report has published the Global Unicorn Index 2023.
   • India retains 3rd place with 68 unicorns.
   • USA is at 1st position with 666 unicorns, China is at second with 316, and UK is at 4th with 49 unicorns, followed by Germany and Israel at 5th and 6th place.

Source: Hurun’s website

Sports

1. Andrey Rublev (Russian professional tennis player) has won his first Masters’ title at the Monte Carlo Masters’ Tournament held at Monte Carlo in Monaco.
   • He defeated Denmark’s Holger Rune.
     Source: Outlook India
2. Indian duo of Suryakumar Yadav (cricketer) and Harmanpreet Kaur (cricketer) have won the Wisden Almanack’s leading T20I cricketer and Cricketer of the Year award (1st woman to get this) respectively.
   • Harmanpreet is one of the five Cricketers of the Year announced in the 2023 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
     Source: ANI

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