Top Current Affairs 03 and 04 April 2021

Top Current Affairs 03 and 04 April 2021

Top Current Affairs 03 and 04 April 2021: This post contains the latest current affairs for 03 & 04 April 2021 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.

National

Government declares birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar on April 14 as public holiday from 2021

• The government has declared Ambedkar Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar which falls on 14 April every year, as a public holiday with effect from 2021, under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.
• On 14 April 2021, India will celebrate the 130th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Fourth batch of three Rafale fighter jets land in India from France

• The fourth batch of three IAF Rafales landed in India on March 31, 2021, after a direct ferry from Istres Air Base in France.
• These Rafales were refuelled mid-air by UAE Air Force tankers. Five extra Rafale jets are scheduled to be ferried to India by the end of April 2021. 
• With this new arrival of the three jets, the total Rafale fleet with Indian Air Force has increased to 14. 

Shistura Hiranyakeshi in Sindhudurg Becomes Fifth Biological Heritage Site of Maharashtra

• The Maharashtra government has declared an area at Amboli in Western ghats in Sindhudurg district as a biodiversity heritage site, following the discovery of a rare freshwater fish species.
• The new freshwater fish species called ‘Schistura Hiranyakeshi’ was discovered in a pond at the Mahadev Temple at Amboli in Sawantwadi tehsil of Sindhudurg district by Tejas Thackeray (son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray), long with his team.
• The 2.11 hector area has been declared as ‘Shistura Hiranyakeshi Biological Heritage Site’, under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, making it the fifth area in Maharashtra. 

Banking & Economy

CRISIL projects India’s GDP rate at -7% for FY21 and 11% for FY22

• Rating Agency CRISIL has projected India’s GDP growth rate as under:
  • For FY21= -7%
  • For FY22= +11%
• CRISIL is a subsidiary of American company S&P Global.

UNESCAP Projects India’s Economic Growth Rate at 7% in 2021-22 

• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has estimated the GDP growth rate of India at 7% in 2021-22, in its latest report titled Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2021.
• For the previous fiscal 2020-21, UNESCAP estimated a contraction of 7.7% for India on account of the pandemic’s impact on normal business activity.

NPCI transfers Bharat Bill Payments business to its new subsidiary NBBL

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has transferred all its Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) transaction business to NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPCI.
• All licensed bill processors on the Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOU), i.e. the banks and payment aggregators, have been directed to start accounting their billing transactions under NBBL from April 1 2021.
• The decision to set up a separate subsidiary for bill payment business aims to scale growth of the interoperable bill platform by giving it increased autonomy in operations and onboarding of new billers.
• BBPS is an interoperable bill payments platform set up in 2013, for use by banks, fintech companies and biller merchants to automate bill collection and request solutions.

 

Business

Facebook and Google plans to launch 2 new undersea internet cables from US West Coast to Singapore and Indonesia

• Technology giant Facebook and Google have planned to lay two huge subsea cables, called Echo and Bifrost, to provide vital new connections between the Asia-Pacific region and North America.
• The Echo and Bifrost trans-Pacific cables will link the U.S. West Coast to Singapore and Indonesia, and increase the data capacity between the regions by 70% and improve internet reliability.
• Facebook will be investing in both cables, but Google will invest only in Echo.
• Google and Facebook have partnered with leading regional and global partners to implement the project, including Indonesian firms Telin and XL Axiata, and Singapore-based Keppel.
• The Echo project is to be completed by late 2023, while Bifrost is set to be finished by late 2024.

PhonePe becomes first player to cross billion-transaction mark on UPI

• Bengaluru-based digital payments and financial services company, PhonePe has become the first company to cross one billion transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure.
• The company achieved the feat in March 2021, when the total transactions clocked around 1.3 billion on its platform, across the payment instruments offering of wallet, cards as well as UPI.

 

Appointment

Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel Names as Additional Director of Britannia

• The Board of Britannia Industries has appointed former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel as the Additional Director of the company.
• He has been appointed for a period of five years with effect from March 31, 2021, in the category of Non-Executive and Independent Director.
• Mr Patel served as the Governor of RBI from September 2016-December 2018.

Cabinet Appoints Mallika Srinivasan as Chief of PESB

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Mallika Srinivasan as the Chairperson of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).
• Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE) Limited has been appointed as the chairperson of PESB, for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge, or until the attainment of the age of 65 years.
• This is for the first time that a specialist from private sector has been appointed as the head of the PESB.
• PESB is responsible for the appointment of top management posts in the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).

Books & Author

New Book ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’ by Nitin Gokhale

• A new book titled ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’ authored by Nitin Gokhale was released on March 31, 2021.
• The book is a tribute to Parrikar, India’s former defence minister and four-time chief minister of Goa, the first IIT-ian to become a chief minister
• The book is published by Bloomsbury.  It is an attempt to capture Parrikar’s persona — the man, the politician and the patriot.
• Through this book, the author presents the journey of the contribution of Parrikar to nation-building and his service to the Goan society, from being an IIT student to a social worker and to India’s defence minister.
• Gokhale is a renowned author, media trainer and founder of a specialised defence related website BharatShakti.in. and StratNewsGlobal.com.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu releases book titled ‘Suparipalana’ by Dr Shailendra Joshi

• Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu released a book titled ‘Suparipalana’, written by retired civil servant Dr Shailendra Kumar Joshi.
• Suparipalana is the Telugu translation of “Echo T Calling: Towards People-Centric Governance”, written by former Telangana Chief Secretary, Shri S K Joshi.
• The book has been translated into Telugu by Shri Annavarapu Brahmaiah and published by Shri Maruthi.
• The book is all about administration, public policy, and Governance in India and covers a wide array of topics ranging from “laughter is the best medicine” to “the relevance of swadeshi in the modern perspective”.

 

Sports

Kerala-based Aniyan Midhun Wins Gold at South Asian Wushu Championship

• Aniyan Midhun of Kerala has won the gold medal in the 70-kg category at the South Asian Wushu Championship 2021, held in Nepal on March 30 and 31, 2021.
• The 28-year-old youth is the first Wushu player from southern India in the ten-member Indian team.
• Midhum belongs to Nattika village in Thrissur district of Kerala.

 

Days

International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action: 04 April

• The United Nations’ International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is celebrated on April 4 each year.
• 2021 Theme – “Perseverance, Partnership, and Progress”
• The day was declared by the UNGA on 8 December 2005, to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication.

Obituary

Japanese Nobel laureate Isamu Akasaki, inventor of first efficient blue LED, passes away at 92

• Japanese Physicist Isamu Akasaki, a co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, has passed away following pneumonia. He was 92.
• In 2014, Akasaki, a professor at Meijo University, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with physicist Hiroshi Amano, a professor at the University of Nagoya, and Japan-born American Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.