General Knowledge(GK) (or) General Awareness

Correct Answer :   PGCIL

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Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.(PGCIL), a Maharatna CPSU of Ministry of Power, Government of India has been conferred Global Gold Award 2023 by The Green Organization.

* The recognition was given at the Green World Awards 2023 function held at Miami in the USA 24th April 2023. Dr. V. K. Singh, Director (Personnel), POWERGRID received the award on behalf of the organization.

* The award is a recognition of POWERGRID’s CSR work for improving Agriculture Productivity and Rural Livelihood through watershed management, community participation and better crop management practices in 10 villages of Jaipatna Block of Kalahandi District in Odisha.

* This is a 60-month farmer centric project started in late October 2019 with a withdrawal plan to ensure its sustainability. POWERGRID emphasizes been involved in a number of CSR programs for community and environment.

* With a well-defined and customized Exit Policy for its CSR projects, POWERGRID gives importance to Community Participation by way of effective Collaboration, Capacity Building and Sustainability aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals...

Source : PIB

Correct Answer :   Uttar Pradesh

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The Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Uttar Pradesh has been awarded the country’s prestigious HUDCO Award (2022-2023).

The award was presented by Manoj Joshi, secretary, ministry of housing and urban affairs, government of India, to Neha Sharma, state mission director, Uttar Pradesh, during a programme organised on the 53rd Foundation Day of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO), in New Delhi, on Tuesday (25th April 2023).

* This award has been given in the Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment 2022-23 category for cleanliness. An amount of ₹1 lakh was also given to the UP government as part of the award.

* This campaign was conducted by the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Uttar Pradesh from January 14 to 24. In this, 75 tourist and historical places of the state were included. Special cleanliness drives were conducted at these places.

* Through activities like Nukkad Natak, puppet show, plog run inside the site, the general public was involved in cleaning ghats, ponds, markets and other commercial areas. This 10-day campaign concluded with Gau Puja on January 24, the day of UP Foundation Day. More than 11 lakh people across the state participated in this campaign.

* Entries were received from across the country for the prestigious award. After several rounds of testing, the jury board selected the ‘Swachh Virasat’ campaign for field visits. A team of Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited, Lucknow Regional Office, also inspected several sites including Imambara, Residency in Lucknow on April 3...

Source : Hindustan Times

Correct Answer :   Rs 44 lakh

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The Reserve Bank has imposed penalties totalling Rs 44 lakh on four cooperative banks, including a Rs 16 lakh penalty on Chennai-based The Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank, for contravention of various norms.

* A penalty of Rs 13 lakh has been imposed on Bombay Mercantile Co-operative Bank as it failed to transfer eligible amount to Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF) within the prescribed period and transferred the same with delay, RBI said in a release on Monday (24th April 2023).

* In a separate release, the central bank said a penalty of Rs 13 crore has been imposed on Janata Sahakari Bank, Pune for non-compliance with directions on 'Interest Rate on Deposits'.

* Penalty has been imposed on The Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank as it failed to transfer eligible amounts to the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund within the prescribed period. It also failed to report a fraud to NABARD within the prescribed timeline and reported the same with delay.

* A monetary penalty of Rs 2 lakh has been imposed on Baran Nagrik Sahkari Bank, Baran, Rajasthan for contravention of certain norms.

* The penalties are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers...

Source : India Times

Correct Answer :   9.94%

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Axis Bank and HDFC Bank on Saturday (22nd April 2023) said that they would acquire up to a 9.94 per cent stake in insurtech startup Go Digit Life Insurance.

* HDFC Bank informed that it has executed definitive agreements to invest ₹69.90 crore in Go Digit-Life Insurance Ltd in two tranches.

* The bank has made the first tranche of payment of ₹10.93 crore for towards the acquisition.

* Axis Bank has also executed definitive agreements to invest ₹69.90 crore in Go Digit-Life Insurance Ltd in two tranches..

Source : Mint

Correct Answer :   Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

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Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will launch a gold-pegged digital currency and legalize them in the country, stated Cointelegraph. It is believed that the government took this step for stabilizing the local currency after its continuous devaluation in comparison to the U.S. Dollar.

According to a report by The Sunday (23rd April 2023) Mail, a local media platform, this initiative taken by Zimbabwe will allow the exchange of Zimbabwean dollars with digital gold tokens and secure Zimbabweans against currency volatility, Cointelegraph highlighted. Reportedly, this step also plans to “leave no one and no place behind,” John Mangudya, Governor, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, added further.

With insights from Bloomberg, a market research platform, Zimbabwe’s money trades at 1,001 ZWL against one dollar and in Harare it is exchanged for 1,750 ZWL, added Cointelegraph. It is expected that Zimbabwe’s annual consumer price inflation was about 87.6%, in March 2023..

Source : Financial Express

Correct Answer :   Ashish Kundra

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Author, IAS officer, and senior bureaucrat Ashish Kundra's new book on the history of Northeast India and its people, ‘A Resurgent Northeast: Narratives of Change’, was released on April 21, 2023, at an event in New Delhi.

* The book was launched in the presence of Kiren Rijiju - Union Minister of Law and Justice; Hardeep Singh Puri- Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and of Housing and Urban Affairs; Pema Khandu- Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh; Amitabh Kant- G20 Sherpa, Government of India; Puneet Chattwal- MD and CEO, IHCL; and Navika Kumar- Group Editor, Times Network, along with the author and his wife Ambreen Khan, who is the Corporate Communications head at The Indian Express.

* The event was embraced with the colours of Northeast as it began with an entertaining performance by the famous vocal quartet of Tetseo sisters, who traveled all the way from Nagaland for their performance.

* Senior bureaucrat-author Ashish Kundra served in the Northeast for eight years, which inspired him to write this book. In ‘A Resurgent Northeast: Narratives of Change’, he writes about the transformational changes that are happening in the remotest parts of the Northeast and about the stories of the people of the hills.

* The book launch was followed by a panel discussion between the author, the ministers, and G20 Sherpa, as they shared insights into the hills of Northeast, the region’s development, its people and culture, political history and development, and its resurgence. The discussion was moderated by Navika Kumar...

Source : Times of India

Correct Answer :   Kelvin Kiptum

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Kelvin Kiptum collapsed to the ground after winning the London Marathon on Sunday (23rd April 2023) and recording the second fastest time in history over the distance.

* The 23-year-old Kenyan runner set the course record with a time of 2 hours, 1 minute, 25 seconds, missing out on Eliud Kipchoge's world record by 16 seconds.

* He just missed out on Eliud Kipchoge's world record by 16 seconds.

* In the women's race, Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete, Sifan Hassan won her marathon debut in 2:18:34.

* Switzerland’s Marcel Hug won the elite men’s wheelchair race with a time of 1:23:44..

Source : Voa News

Correct Answer :   Mastercard

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Mastercard on Thursday (20th April 2023) announced its collaboration with M1xchange to offer a digital invoice discounting solution to farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), and agri-MSMEs through Farm Pass, its agritech platform.

* Along with enabling access to credit and working capital, the solution will allow farmers and FPOs to directly connect with buyers and negotiate prices for their produce. Farm Pass is part of Mastercard’s broader Community Pass platform.

* As part of the collaboration, M1xchange, an RBI-approved facilitator for discounting and sale of receivables to banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), will bring on board its network of agri-businesses and lenders.

* Sundeep Mohindru, CEO, M1xchange, said in a statement, “The network of financiers on M1xchange TReDS will enhance liquidity flow for buyers and sellers on the Farm Pass platform. TReDS offers a unique proposition that discounts invoices raised by FPOs for their end customers based on their credit profile.

* This makes FPO business scalable as their dependence on credit for working capital financing is removed through invoice discounting. All FPOs registered on Farm Pass will get access to a network of more than 55 banks and NBFCs via M1xchange.”

* Owing to the delays and follow-ups involved in directly engaging with buyers, famers and agri- MSMEs often sell their products to middlemen to avail instant payments. The FPOs also struggle with access to working capital, which prevents them from procuring effectively from farmers.

* By enabling credit via invoice discounting, the Mastercard-M1xchange solution aims to equip these FPOs with working capital to purchase goods from farmers and sell them to buyers at the best price with instant payment. This will help start a self-sustaining cycle for the FPOs, resulting in self-sufficiency over the medium to long term..

Source : India Times

Correct Answer :   6.2

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According to the Morgan Stanley report, India's GDP in FY24 would grow at 6.2 percent.

Inflation in India is likely to be below 5% in the second quarter of the calendar year 2024.

The headline consumer price index (CPI) for March was in line with expectations.

Morgan noted that the key to sustained domestic demand is a pickup in capex, which will help create more jobs, thus leading to a virtuous cycle of more jobs-to-higher income-higher savings-higher investment..

Source : Odisha TV

Correct Answer :   Nagastra

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Solar Industries Nagpur on Friday (21st April 2023) said it had bagged an order to supply the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ‘Nagastra’ to the Indian Army, beating competitors from Israel and Poland.

A Solar Industries official said that with the government’s initiative to bring Atmanirbharta into ammunition and defence systems, the first indigenous Loiter Munition, Nagastra-1, has been designed and developed by Economics Explosives Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Solar Industries Nagpur, in association with Z-Motion, Bangalore.

A model of ‘Nagastra -1’ loitering munition was recently displayed at the Army Commanders Conference held in New Delhi. The company said that Nagastra-1 with an indigenous content of more than 75%, has many world-class features.

It said that in ‘Kamikaze mode,’ it can neutralise any hostile threat with a GPS-enabled precision strike with an accuracy of 2 metres.

The fixed wing electric UAV has an endurance of 60 min with a man-in-loop range of 15 km and an autonomous mode range of 30 km.

In addition to day-and-night surveillance cameras, the loiter munition is equipped with a fragmenting warhead to defeat soft-skin targets. In case a target is not detected or if the mission is aborted, the loiter munition can be called back and made a soft landing with a parachute recovery mechanism, enabling it to be reused multiple times. It further said that the abort, recover, and reuse features of this loiter munition make this system superior to a similar class of systems developed by advanced countries.

Drone technology has proved to be a force multiplier in military operations, as evident from its application in various recent conflicts across the world, especially in the cases of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Syria, the strike on oilfields in Saudi Arabia, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“Even in our context, the recent incidents along the borders have seen a noticeable increase in drone-related incidents along the northern borders.” ‘Solar Industries have taken initiatives to develop a wide array of weaponised drones to neutralise various targets using gravity drop bombs, guided missiles or using them in a Kamikaze mode. This will go a long way to boost indigenous capability of using drones/ UAVs as war machinery,’ company official said..

Source : idrw