Brought to you by Adhyayan Academy, Bengal’s most trusted and loved onlined and offline training institution for WBCS and other competitive examinations. We offer offline training only in Siliguri.

• 23^rd April is celebrated as the World Book and Copyright Day worldwide. The UN has named Stasbourg of France as the World Book Capital for 2024.
  • On this significant day of world literature, two of the most prominent authors Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes had breathed their last.
  • This day is also observed as Shakespeare Day in commemoration of the birth and death anniversary of Shakespeare.
• 23^rd April is also celebrated as World Table Tennis Day.
  • Theme 2024: “Diversity and Inclusion”.
• 22^ND April is celebrated as the International Mother Earth Day by the UNGA since 2009, to recognize earth and its ecosystems as humanity’s common home and the need to protect her through people’s joint efforts, thus resist the climate change and the collapse of biodiversity.
  • 2024 Theme: “Planet v/s Plastics.”
• 21^st April is celebrated as the ‘National Civil Service Day’ commemorating the date on 1947 when Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel addressed the very first batch of the civil servants of independent India, and hailed them as ‘the steel frame of India’.
• 21^st April is also celebrated as World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID) since 2018 to raise awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation in problem solving in respect to the UN SDGs.
• On the tithi of Chaitra Shukla Trayodashi according to the Hindu calendar, which coincided with April 21 this year, was celebrated as Mahavir Jayanti.
  • Born in 599 BC in Kundagram, Mahavir is the 24^th Tirthankara of Jainism.
  • In Jain cosmology, the wheel of time is divided into two halves, Utsarpini – the ascending cycle and Avsarpini – the descending cycle.
  • The present cycle was started by Risabhnatha – the 1^st Tirthankara.

Books and Authors

• Goa governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai has launched his new book (221^st) “Heanenly Islands of Goa”. 

Appointments

• Replacing Daljit Singh Chaudhary (Chief of SSB) from additional charge, Senior IPS Officer Nalin Prabhat has been appointed as the Director-General of the National Security Guard (NSG).
  • NSG – colloquially known as ‘the black cats’ is a counter terrorism unit of the Government of India under the Home Ministry , and it came up in 16^th October, 1984, following ‘Operation Blue Star’.
• Sapna Tiwari has been appointed as the Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for two years.
• RBI has appointed Ajith Kumar KK as the Managing Director of Dhanalaxmi Bank.
• Santosh Vishwanath has been appointed as the India Region Head (MD) of Intel inc.
• After Deepak Parekh has stepped down from the Chairmanship of HDFC Life, Keki Mistry has been appointed as its new chairman.
• Pragya Mishra has been appointed as the first employee of OpenAI in India.
• French Automaker Citroen has engaged MS Dhoni as its Brand Ambassador in India.

Awards

• Kaushik Rajasekhara, an Indian Origin Professor in the University of Houston has been elected as an International Fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan.
• Reuters’ Mohammed Salem has won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year for his image of a Palestinian woman embracing the dead-body of her five-year-old niece in the Gaza Strip.
• Kannada Poet Mamta G. Sagar has been awarded the World Literary Prize by the World Organization of Writers (WOW) for her contributions to the world of literature.
• President Draupadi Murmu has conferred the Padma Awards 2024 to the awardees, whose names were announced on the eve of the Republic Day.

•  Padma Awards 2024 Announced by the President of India: Total 132 Padma awards were announced on 26^th January.
•  It is awarded to the common citizens of India since 1954 for their distinguished service for the Nation in various fields on the eve of Republic Day.
•  5 Padma Vibhusan Awards: Former VP M. Venkaiyah Naidu (Public Affairs, AP), Actors Chiranjeevi (Art, AP) and Vaijayantimala Bali (Art,TN), Bharatnatyam Dancer Padma Subhramanyam (Art, TN) and Bindeshwar Pathak founder of Sulabh International (Posthumous) (Social Work, Bihar).
• 17 Padma Bhusan Awards: 
  •  Most remarkable among them – Actor Mithun Chakraborty; Singer Usha Uthup; Hindi Music director Pyarelal Sharma (of Laxmikant Pyarelal duo) ; O. Rajagoal BJP Leader from Kerala; Tejas Madhusudan Patel , Cardiologist from Gujarat; Industrialist Sita Ram Jindal and Senior Journalist Kundan Vyas ; HN Cama – the editor of heritage newspaper Bombay Samachar.
  • 4 persons who were awarded posthumously – Late Actor Vijayakant, Former & first women  Justice of SC M Fathima Beevi, Former President of BJP in West Bengal Satyabrata Mukherjee and Ladakh Spiritual Leader Togdan Rinpoche.
  •  Young Liu, the chairman of Taiwan’s Foxconn Group has been conferred with Padma Bhusan under foreigner category.
• 110 Padma Shri Awards:

Get the latest WBCS Online course here

https://oecgd.on-app.in/app/oc/493463/oecgd?utm_source%3Dcopy-link%26utm_medium%3Dtutor-course-referral%26utm_campaign%3Dcourse-overview-app

Reports and Indices

• SIPRI Military Expenditure Report 2024:
  • Published by : Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
  • India is the 4^th largest military spender globally in 2023 with 483.6 billion, which is 4.2% higher than in 2022.
  • The global military expenditure went up by 6.8% in 2023 to $2443 billion.
  • Top 15 military spenders in the world: The United States (37%) > China (12%) > Russia (4.5%) > India (3.4%)> Saudi Arabia > United Kingdom> Germany > Ukraine > France > Japan > South Korea > Italy > Australia > Poland > Israel.
  • The Democratic Republic of Congo had seen the largest percentage increase in military spending by any country in 2023 (+105%), followed by South Sudan (+78%).
• According to the latest Congressional report, nearly 66,000 Indians officially became US citizens, making India the second largest source country for new citizens after Mexico.
• Nepal hosted the First International Rainbow Tourism Conference with an objective to position itself as an LGBTQ+  friendly tourism destination.

National

• InterGlobe Entreprises, the owner of the largest ariline services in India – IndiGo, is going to launch electric air-taxi service in India from Delhi’s Connaught Place to Haryana’s Gurugram by 2026.
• The scientists of IIT Roorke has unearthed a fossil vertebrae of one of the largest snake that has ever lived from a lignite mine in Kutch district of Gujarat.
  • It has been named after the Mythical figure of Vasuki, Vasuki indicus.
  • The snake is expected to have belonged to the Cenozoic era after the dinosaur age around 66 million years ago.
  • These snake belonging to Madtsoiidae snake family have spread from India to Southern Eurasia and North Africa 90 million years ago after the Asian plate collided with the Eurasian Plate.
• The PVTG tribe of Shompen of the Great Nicobar who are the only tribe having Mongoloid feature in the region, living in the dense Rainforests of the Archipelago, has casted their vote for the first time in history in the Andaman and Nicobar Lok Sabha Constituency. According to the census data of 2011 their population was 229.

Defence

• Under the commanding officer, Estern Naval Command, the Indian navy has successfully conducted Exercise ‘Poorvi Lehar’ with an aim to validate procedures and assess the Indian Navy’s preparedness to address the Indian Navyu’s preparedness to address maritime security challenges in the region.
• For the first time, the Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini has returned after completing a historic transoceanic expedition under two female captains Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa A. They sailed on from Goa to Port Louis, Mauritis and the back to Goa again in two months duration.

Sports

• India’s 17 year old chess prodigy D Gukesh has become the youngest ever chess player to compete at and win the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Toronto after his draw against Hiraku Nakamura in the final round.
  • Now D Gukesh will take on China’s Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship later this year.
  • D Gukesh became the only second person after the great Vishwanathan Anand to win the Candidates tournament.
• Balraj Panwar has secured the first quota of India in rowing for Paris Olympics.
• Indian women wrestlers- Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Reetika (76kg) has earned three Olympic quota for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
• Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won the Chinese Grand Prix, and that makes him winner of three among the four GPs in this Year – Bahrain GP, Saudi Arabia GP, Japan GP.
• Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh has bagged two Olympic quota for India in Marathon Race Walking Mixed Relay race for Paris Olympic 2024.

Science & Tech

• WHO has approved a new Oral Cholera Vaccine named Euvichol-S, produced by EuBiologicals Co. Ltd, Republic of Korea.

Banking & Finance

• According to a recent report by S&P Global, SBI, ICICI and HDFC Bank are the top banks in India that has secured their place in the top 50 Asian Banks list.

International News

• North Korea has test fired its new “super-large” cruise missile warhead Pyoljji-1-2 and a new anti-aircraft missile Hwasal-1 Ra-3 in its west coast.
• Due to the reported presence of carcinogenic ethylene oxide in its Spice Mix, Hong Kong and Singapore has recently banned numerous spice variants of MDH and the Fish Curry Masala of Everest Food Products.
  • The FSSAI has commissioned a quality check on MDH and Everest Products after the action.

Current Affairs               24^th & 25^th April, 2024

Day

• 24^TH April gets celebrated as the National Panchayati Raj Day since 2020 marking the day of enactment of the 73^rd Constitutional Amendment Act on 24^th April, 1993  by which a new Part IX was added to the Constitution of India titled ‘The Panchayats’.
  • Panchayati raj institutions (PRI) were constitutionalized through this act to build grass root level democracy.
  • The Panchayati Raj in India has a three tier system:
    • Gram panchayats (Village level)
    • Panchayat Samitis (Block Level)
    • Zila Parishad (District level).
• April 25 is observed as World Malaria Day globally to raise awareness about the spread and hazards of malaria.
  • Theme 2024: “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”.
  • Malaria is a mosquito borne life threatening disease caused by Plasmodium Vivax (more widespread) and Plasmodium falciparum (causes more deaths). It is mainly caused in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world.
  • Its vector is – infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
• 25^th April is also celebrated as World Penguin Day to mark the North oriented annual migration of the Adelie Penguins in Antarctica.

Obituaries

• Prominent Psychoanalyst of India, Sudhir Kakkar has passed away due to throat cancer.  Once his name was listed world’s 25 major thinkers by French Magazine Le Nouvel Observateur.
  • His famous works: The Inner World (1978), The Indians: Portrait of a people , The kipling File.

Appointments

• Naima Khatoon has been appointed as the first women and new vice chancellor of the Aligharh Muslim University.
• Nidhi S Jain has been appointed as the new CVO (Central vigilance Officer) of Cotton Corporation of India.
• Bolstering its defense co-operation with India, Papua New Guinea has appointed its first defence advisor to India – Edison Napyo.
• India’s Gita Sabhrwal has been appointed as UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia by UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres.

Awards

• Industrialist, Philanthropist and Chairman Emeritus of the TATA Group, Ratan Tata has been awarded with the prestigious KISS Humanitarian Award 2021 by the Kalinga Institute of Social Science.
  • Tata Group Chairman – N. Chandrasekaran.
• Dr. Pavuluri Subba Rao, founder, CEO & Chairman of Ananth Technologies  has received the ‘Aryabhatta Award’ by the Aeronautical Society of India (ASI) for his “tremendous lifetime contribution to the promotion of astronautics in India”.
  • He was a former ISRO Scientist who set up Ananth Technologies in 1992 to indigenously develop some of the country’s most sophisticated avionics for ISRO and the Defence sector of the nation.

Reports and Indices

• UNFPA – State of World Population Report -2024:
  • Published by : The United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA).
  • Theme: “Interwoven Lives, Threads of Hope: Ending Inequalities in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”.
  • According to this report India has a population of 144.17 Cr followed by China at 142.5 cr.
  • India’s population is estimated to double in 77 years.
  • The report also stated that an estimated 24% of India’s population is aged b/w 0-14 and 17% of the population is aged b/w 10 – 19.
  • The segment 10-24 has 26% strength and the 15-64 age group makes up 68%.
  • 7% of Indian population is aged 65 years and above.
  • The Child marriage percentage in India was at 23% in 2006-2023.
  • The maternal deaths in India had fallen considerably but the country continues to see dramatic inequalities in maternal death risk.
  • Improvements in healthcare has benefited mainly wealthier women of the country.
  • Globally still millions of women are falling far behind in the key indicators and showing minimal progress.
  • 800 women die every day while giving birth since 2016.
  • Nearly one in 10 women can’t make their own decisions about contraception.

National

• The Karnataka Milk Federation , a dairy cooperative that sells dairy products under the brand name ‘Nandini’ is going to sponsor Scotland and Ireland team jerseys in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup  2024 with an aim to have global recognition through sponsorship.
• “Sunflowers were the first ones to know” – a film by four students from the Film and television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, has been selected at the 77^th Cannes Film Festival ‘La Cinef’ Category. The film was directed by Chidanand S Naik.
  • ‘La Cinef’ is the official section for film schools across the world to encourage new talent.
  • Earlier “All We Imagine as Light” by Payal Kapadia was nominated in the main competition at the Cannes Film festival.
• IIT Guwahati has developed an innovative 3D Printed Dummy Ballot Unit with an objective of acquainting citizens, new voters and senior citizens with the intricacies of voting procedures.

State News

Meghalaya

• The people belonging to Khasi tribe in Meghalaya has celebrated the Seng Khihlang Festival in Meghalaya.
  • Khasi is a indigenous ethnic group and largest community of Meghalaya, residing in the Hills of Khasi and Jaintia.

Haryana

• The Chief Electoral Officer’s Office of Haryana has launched ‘Voters-In-Queue’ app for providing information on queues at the polling stations  of the state.

Sports

• Para Canoer and Arjuna Awardee belonging to Madhya Pradesh, Prachi Yadav has clinched two gold medals at the ACC Para-canoe Asian Championship 2024, Japan.
• Yuzuvendra Chahal becomes the first bowler in IPL to achieve 200 IPL Wickets.
• Casper Rudd  of Norway has won the Barcelona Open after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas.
• Elena Rybakina has defeated Marta Kostyuk to win the Stuttgart Open.
• Indian Table Tennis Player CWG Mixed Doubles Champion Sreeja Akula has become the top-ranked Indian TT Player with a career high 38^th rank in the latest ITTF Chart, replacing Manika Batra.
• Famous Indian Squash Player Saurav Ghosal has announced his retirement from Professional Squash. He is the only Indian male to enter the top 10 in the World Squash Rankings.. In his career he won 12 Professional Squash Association (PSA) titles and a number of medals at the CWG and the Asian Games. With Dipika Pallikal Karthik, he won the World Doules Championships Gold Medal in mixed category at the Glasgow Competition 2022.

International

• The first ASEAN Future Forum was organized in Ha Noi, Vietnam on 23^rd April 2024.
  • AFF 2024 theme: “Toward Fast and Sustainable Growth of a People-Centered ASEAN Community”.
  • ASEAN – Association of South-East Asian Nations – is a multinational bloc founded in 1967 through Bangkok declaration.
    • Member countries: Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
    • HQ: Jakarta, Indonesia.
• 6^th International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure has been held in New Delhi on 24^th-25^th April, 2024.

Banking and Finance

• PayU gets in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payments Aggregator (PA) under the Payments Settlements Act, 2007.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs, SBI Cards and Payment services Ltd. and other Telecommunication service companies are partnering up to create a solution for tackling OTP Frauds.
  • As per Government data, the registry has received 1.12 million complaints which amounted to Rs. 7488 cr fraud transfers in 2023.
• Tata Power Solar Systems Limited (TPSSL) has partnered with Indian Bank to promote adoption of solar rooftop systems in homes under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana scheme.
• Reliance Jio has emerged as the world’s largest mobile operator in data traffic consumption.
  • In the Jan-March quarter, its total data traffic has reached 40.9 exabytes.

Defense

• The Defence Materials and Stores Research and Development Establishment (DMSRDE), Kanpur of DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) has developed the lightest bulletproof jacket in the country.

Current Affairs               26^th& 27^thApril, 2024

Day

• 26^th April is celebrated as World Intellectual Property Day to promote the role of intellectual property in stimulating innovation and creativity.
  • Theme 2024: ‘IP and the SDGs: Building our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity’.
  • World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was formed in 1967 and it jointed the UN as one of its agencies in 1974. This organization brings out the Global Innovation Index in association with Cornell University and INSEAD. (India’s Rank in the last GII is 40 out of 132 nations)
  • DG: Daren Tang, Singapore.
• World Immunization Week was celebrated from April 24 to April 30.
  • Theme 2024: “Humanly Possible: Immunization for All”.
  • 16^th March is celebrated as the National Vaccine Day in India.
• This year World Veterinary Day was celebrated on 27^th April on the last Saturday of April.
  • Theme 2024: ‘Veterinarians are Essential Health Workers”.

Obituaries

• Famous Yakshagana exponent Subrahmanya Dhareshwar has passed away.
  • Yakshagana is a traditional folk dance drama of Karnataka, performed in open-air theatres having its origin as back as in the 16^th century.

Appointments

• RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar has got extension of one year of his tenure in the apex bank. Along with him there are other three Deputy Governors in the RBI – M.D. Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, J Swaminathan and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.
• Axis Bank has re-appointed Amitabh Chaudhry as its MD and CEO for three additional years.
  • Axis Bank HQ- Mumbai.
• Arjuna Awardee (2012) and Asian and CWG Gold Medalist former wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav has been elected as the Chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI’s) Athletes Commission.

Awards

• For the fifth time, top seeded Novak Djokovic has been awarded the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award and Spanish women footballer Aitana Bonmati has been awarded the Sportswoman of the Year award.
• ICC has named Usain Bolt and Yuvraj Singh as the brand-ambassadors of the upcoming T20 world cup to be held in USA and West Indies from June 1 to 29.
• Marcus Stoinis has set record for registering the highest individual score during run-chase in IPL History after his unbeaten 124* in 63 balls against Mumbai Indians. The record for highest individual score is in Chris Gayle’s name after his 175* runs in 66 ball for RCB against Pune Warriors in IPL 2013.
• Uganda has appointed former India A, India U19s and Indian Women’s Cricket coach Abhay Sharma as the Head Coach ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup.

State News

Manipur

• On 23^rd April, Manipur celebrated Khongjom Day to commemorate the sacrifice of the heroes who led by Paona Brajabashi, fought against the British at the kheba hills of the Khongjom during the Anglo-Manipuri war, 1891. After the war, Manipur lost its sovereignty to the Britishers.

National

• On the occasion of Earth Day celebrations, India’s biggest Climate clock was activated at the CSIR Headquarter, New Delhi, with an aim to spread awareness about the climate change and its ill effects and to make people energy literate.
  • It is a graphic demonstration of how quickly the planet is approaching 1.5 degree centigrade of global warming, given current emission trends along with the amount of CO2 emitted and the global warming to date.
• The Govt. starts the talks of Project ISHAN: One Nation, One Airspace’ – In order to streamline and enhance air traffic management (ATM), India has initiated the process of consolidating its all four airspace regions into a single entity spanning the entire nation : Indian Single Sky Harmonized Air Traffic Management (ISHAN) initiative, centred in Nagpur.
  • Indian air space is controlled through four flight info regions (FIRs) at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and a sub-flight region at Guwahati.
• SJVN Ltd has inaugurated the first multipurpose Green Hydrogen Pilot Project at SJVN’s 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station (NJHPS) in Jhakri, Himachal Pradesh.
• The Indian Historical Records Commission (IHRC) has adopted an all new logo and motto. Established in 1919 and under the Ministry of Culture, IHRC is the apex body of the nation ion archival matters, advising the GoI on record management and historical research.
  • The New logo designed by Shaurya Pratap Singh features lotus petals symbolizing resilience and a Sarnath pillar respresenting India’s rich past. The Brown color theme underscores the organization’s mission of preserving historical records.
    • The new motto is “Where history is preserved for the future”.
• C-DOT and IIT Jodhpur has announced their partnership to develop an automated service management system using AI to enhance the efficiency of 5G and beyond networks.
• Tamil Nadu and Kerala is going to conduct the first synchronized Nilgiri Tahr census from April 29.
  • Nilgiri Tahr is an endangered species listed in the Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protecttion) Act of India, 1972. They are endemic to the Nilgiri Hills in parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and it inhabits the montane grasslands and shola forests within the south Western Ghats.
  • The largest population of Nilgiri Tahr redsides in Eravikulam National Park (Kerala).
• A study of the Indian Ocean floor was undertaken by the Indian Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) titled ‘Impact of bathymetry on Indian Ocean circulation in a nested regional ocean model’. The study showed the coastal currents in Indian Ocean more accurately. It revealed, it was not just the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, even the Maldives islands have an influence on Indian Ocean currents. The study also highlighted the importance of bathymetry to understand ocean currents better.
  • Bathymetry: It is the study and mapping of the depth of water in oceans, rivers, lakes and streams. On bathymetric maps, the lines connects points of equal depth.

Banking and Finance

• Razorpay has announced its partnership with Airtel Payments Bank and they jointly launched ‘UPI Switch’ for faster and smoother transactions.
• The Reserve Bank of India has deterred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and issuing fresh credit cards because of the bank’s failure to have sufficient IT infrastructure to control and handle the load, leading to serious deficiencies and non-compliances with regulatory requirements.
• Axis Bank has surpassed Kotak Mahindra Bank to become the 4^th Largest bank in terms of Market Value after RBI imposed a ban on the latter’s online onboarding of new customers recently.
  • Top three banks in terms of market value: HDFC Bank (1^st) > SBI (2^nd) > ICICI Bank (3^rd).

Sports

• After their historic run-chase of 262 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Punjab Kings has set the world record for highest successful run chase  not only in IPL, but in T20 cricket history.
• Sunrisers Hyderabad has become the team with most number of IPL sixes in a single season . They achieved a landmark 100 sixes in just 8 match in this IPL Season.
• In the Olympic Selection Trials, Arjun Babuta has breached the Air Rifle World Record in men’s 10M Air Rifle event.
• Indian Para Shooter Mona Aggarwal has won a Gold Medal at the World Shooting Para Tournament in Changwon, Korea.

Science and Technology

• Scientists from Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) have developed a high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery that has fast charging abilities.
  • Sodium being 1000 times more abundant than lithium, and electrochemical energy source made from it would be a cheaper and potentially more feasible source of energy.
  • Sodium is the most common alkali metal and sixth most abundant material on earth.

International News

• Kuwait has started first ever Hindi Radio Broadcast in the nation for the large number of Indian community that is nearly 1 million (largest expatriate community in the nation) as a step towards strengthening socio-cultural ties between the two nations.
  • India, being a traditional trading partner of Kuwait, until 1961, the Indian rupee was the legal tender in Kuwait.
  • An oil rich country, Kuwait, is one of the richest countries in terms of per capita income.
  • PM: Seikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
• Global Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX) 2024 has been held at the Dubai World Trade Centre by the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), Dubai.
• 26^th World Energy Congress 2024 held in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  • Theme: ‘Redesigning Energy for People and Planet’.
  • It is the world’s oldest energy event that shaped the global energy agenda for nearly a century. India’s Pradip Kumar Das, CMD of IREDA has stressed the need for innovative financing solutions to facilitate the transition to renewable energy in India.
• The Opening Ceremony of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) Youth Games 2024 took place at Dubai Opera featuring 3500 athletes in 24 sports domains from the six participating nations – UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
  • Theme: “Our Gulf is One… Our Youth are Promising.”
• Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers’ meeting held in Kazakhstan’s Astana, where Defence Secretary Giridhar Armane has participated for India.
  • During the meeting, a protocol was signed by all the defense ministers developing the idea of One Earth, One Family, One Future, rooted in the Indian Philosophy of Vsudhaiva Kutumbakam.
    • SCO HQ- Shanghai, China.
    • Member Countries – China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

Current Affairs         28^th,29^th & 30^th April, 2024

Day

• 28^th April is observed as World Day for Safety and Health at work since 2003 by the ILO to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work.
  • Theme – Climate Change and safety and health at work.

Obituaries

• Former Publisher and Editor of the Hindi Dailly ‘Milap’, Journalist Vinay Vir has passed away.

Authors and Books

• Former Australian All-rounder Shane Watson has released his book titled “The Winner’s Mindset”, Published by HarperColllins that talks in detail about how being mentally stronger he transformed his career.
• External Affairs Minister S Jayshankar has released his new book titled “India’s Nuclear Titans”, edited by Soumya Awasthi and Shrabana Barua. The book retraces the evolution of India as a Nuclear Power by the contribution of stalwarts like Homi J Bhaba, Vikram Sarabhai, Abdul Kalam, K Subhramanyam, Indira Gandhi and others.

National News

• The Govt of India has given its nod of approval to Adani’s Vizhinjam Port of Kerala to operate as the country’s first transshipment port.
  • A transshipment port is where the cargo is transferred from one big vessel to several smaller vessels before they reach the final port for the ease of mobility of goods in land quickly.
  • Eroding the dependency of India’s 75% cargo transshipment in overseas ports of Colobo and Singapore, this development will bolster India’s ambition to become a manufacturing hub.
• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has got ‘Navratna’ status from the Government of India. IREDA is a NBFC under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) that promotes, develops and contributes to the financial assistance for renewable energy projects.
  • Other Navratna CPSEs: BEL, HAL, NALCO,ONGC V, NMDC etc.
• The Gem and Jewellery Sector has been granted the stautus of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) by the GoI. The AEO program, which has benefits like quicker clearance and enhanced security aligning with WTO trade facilitation agreements, aims to secure international supply chains where an entity engaged in international trade is approved by the customs as compliant with the supply chain security standards.
• The Bapatla Police Station of Andhra Pradesh has developed SAMARTH (Security Arrangement Mapping Analysis Response Tracking Hub) app for facilitating swift movement of forces during polls by clearly demarcating and mapping critical and common polling stations.
• The Embassy of Israel in India in collaboration with the Million Miyawaki Foundation has officially joined the ‘Million Miyawaki Project’ (named after Akira Miyawaki) – of planting two to four different types of indigenous trees within every square meter, thus planting a million trees in Delhi-NCR.
• Hindu Pilgrims in Pakistan participated in the country’s largest Hindu festival Hinglaj Yatra in the country’s Hingol National Park in Balochistan. The expected 1,00,00 Hindus participating will climb mud volcanoes as a part of the three day pilgrimage. The Hinglaj Mata Temple is one of the 51 Shaktipeethas of Hinduism.

Appointments

• Krishna Ella, Co-founder and EC of Bharat Biotech, has taken over as the President of the Indian Vaccine Manufacturers Association (IVMA)  replacing Adar Poonawala, CEO of the Serum Institute of India.

Awards

• Sana, the AI anchor of the India Today Group has bagged two awards at the International News Media Association Global Media Awards held in London in the categories of ‘Best use of AI in Customer-Facing Products’ and ‘Best in South Asia for AI-led Newsroom Transformation’.
• After the Miss Universe organization announced last year that it was doing away with the age limits for pageant contestants, Alejandra Marisa Rodriguez, 60 has won the feat of Miss Universe Buenos Aires.
• Power lifter and former CWG and World Championships Gold Medalist, Gaurav Sharma has been awarded the honorary doctorate by the US University for sports excellence.
• Gina Justus, originally from Kerala, currently residing in UAE has been named the regional winner for the Middle East and North Africa in the Cambridge Dictated Teacher Awards 2024.
  • The award honors exceptional primary and secondary school teachers.

Science and Tech

• China has launched a team of 3 astronauts in its Shenzhou-18 spacecraft on Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Northwest China for heading towards its Tiangong space station in the lower earth orbit.
• Scientists have discovered most distant sight of a giant flare – a surge of gamma rays that released an amount of energy equivalent to 10,000 years of sun’s output in just a tenth of a second – from a magnetar, a type of neutron star with immensely strong magnetic fields.
  • A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star.
  • The magnetar is in the Messier 82 (M82) galaxy a.k.a the “Cigar Galaxy”.
  • M82 is 12 million light-years far from the earth in the Ursa Major constellation.
• Microsoft has introduced Phi-3-mini, its latest ‘lightweight’ AI model which belongs to a family of open AI models that are the most capable and cost-effective small language models (SLMs) available.
• Moderna and Merck has announced the first personalized m-RNA vaccine for skin cancer treatment (Melanoma) is undergoing trials. The new vaccine is called m-RNA- 4157 (V940).
• The world’s first artificial intelligence beauty pageant has been launched by the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards (WAICAs) for a share of $20,000.
  • The pageant will crown a host of AI-generated images and influencers based on their looks, how the command online and the technical skills that went into creating them.

International News

• China has launched first of the 8 Hangor-class submarine built for Pakistan.
• For the consecration ceremony of ‘Sita Amma’ temple, in Sri Lanka, sacred water from Saryu River will be sent to Sri Lanka.

Banking and Finance

• Hitachi Payment Services has introduced upgradable ATMs in India that can be turned into a Cash Recycling Machine (CRM) at any time. It is the first upgradable ATM in India. This design has been done to support UPI based cash withdrawal and cash deposit as well.

Sports

• Saudi state owned oil and gas major Aramco has announced a four-year global partnership with FIFA , that gave Aramco the sponsorship rights at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
• 6 year old Takshvi Vaghani has set Guiness World Record in lowest Limbo Skating over 25 meters, achieving a height of just 16 centimeters.
• India has finished the Asian wrestling championship 2024, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with nine medals – four silvers and five bronze.