Top Current Affairs 14 April 2021

Top Current Affairs 14 April 2021

Top Current Affairs 14 April 2021: This post contains the latest current affairs for 14 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

India gets 3rd Coronavirus Vaccine as DCGI approves Russia’s “Sputnik V”

• India’s drug regulator, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved Russian Covid-19 vaccine “Sputnik V” on April 13, 2021, for use in the country under ‘restricted use in emergency situations’.
• Sputnik V will be the third Covid-19 vaccine in India.
• Besides this, the other two vaccines approved in India are Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), and Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL). These vaccines are approved under “emergency-use authorisation (EUA)” by the regulator.
• India is the 60th country to approve the use of Sputnik V against coronavirus.
• Over 850 million doses of the vaccine are proposed to be produced in India annually.

Conference

PM Modi Inaugurates 6th Raisina Dialogue, Organised in Fully Digital Format

• Prime MInister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 2021 “Raisina Dialogue”, through video-conferencing on April 13, 2021.
• Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, organised annually since 2016.
• The Raisina Dialogue 2021 is the sixth edition of the annual dialogue, organised from April 13 to 16, 2021, in fully digital form for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• The theme for the 2021 conference is “#ViralWorld: Outbreaks, Outliers and Out of Control”.
• The four-day dialogue is jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the think-tank Observer Research Foundation.
• President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen joined the Inaugural Session as Chief Guests.
• The event will have a total of 50 sessions. Around 150 speakers from 50 countries and multilateral organisations are participating in the dialogue.
• The Raisina Dialogue is one of the leading global conference on international affairs. It brings together leading minds from the global strategic and policy-making community to discuss broader foreign policy and strategic issues facing the world.

Apps

India Unveils first-ever app to learn Sanskrit called “Little Guru”

• The Government of India has launched a mobile application called “Little Guru” to enable the user learn Sanskrit, the ancient language of the country, often called the ‘Language of the Gods’.
• The app Little Guru has been developed by the Indian council for cultural relations (ICCR) and produced by Bengaluru-based Gamapp SportsWizz. It is available on Google Play Store.
• The app has been developed in such a way that makes learning Sanskrit easy and entertaining by “gamifying” it.

Banking & Economy

Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation Issues India’s First Green Bonds

• The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) has issued India’s first Green Municipal bond.
• The green bond was listed on the BSE bond platform on April 08, 2021. It opened for a subscription on March 31, 2021.
• GMC has raised Rs. 150 crore at a cost of 8.1 percent through the issuance of green bonds.
• The money will be used to clean up dirty water by setting up a tertiary water treatment plant to benefit industries in Ghaziabad and supply piped water through water-meters to places like Sahibabad.

Axis Bank acquires 12.99% stake in Max Life Insurance to become co-promoter

• The private sector lender Axis Bank, along with its subsidiaries, Axis Capital and Axis Securities, have completed the acquisition of 12.99 percent stake in the Max Life Insurance Company on April 13, 2021.
• With this acquisition, Axis Entities have collectively become co-promoters of the life insurance company.
• Apart from this, the Axis Entities have a right to acquire an additional stake of up to 7 percent in Max Life, in one or more tranches, subject to regulatory approvals. 

Appointment

NCAER appoints Poonam Gupta as new Director General

• World bank economist Poonam Gupta has been appointed as the new Director General of the policy think tank “National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)”.
• Gupta is the first woman director general of NCAER.
• She would succeed Shekhar Shah who was appointed in 2011 and will complete his second five year term in early May 2021.
• Gupta is currently working as a lead economist at the Washington DC-based World Bank.
• President of NCAER – Nandan Nilekani.

Awards

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ presents AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020 to Six Institutions

• The Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ presented the AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020 on April 11, 2021 in New Delhi. Women Empowerment is the theme of the award.
• Six higher education institutions have been awarded the AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020.
• The winners were chosen from a total of 456 entries who competed across 6 sub themes, that were Women’s Health, Self-Defense, Sanitation and Hygiene, Literacy, Women Entrepreneurship and Legal Awareness.
• List of Winners
  1. Women’s Health – WIT Women Health Coalition from Walchand Institute of Technology, Maharashtra
  2. Self Defense – Paritrana from St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu
  3. Sanitation & Hygiene – Smt. Kishoritai Bhoyar College of Pharmacy, Nagpur, Maharashtra
  4. Literacy – Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development, Pune
  5. Women Entrepreneurship – SWEAT (Sona Women Entrepreneurship and Training) from Sona College of Technology, Tamil Nadu
  6. Legal Awareness – Radiant Seetha from Thiagarajar Polytechnic College won the contest in the 

Obituary

Legendary Dronacharya awardee shooting coach Sanjay Chakravarty passes away at 79

• The Dronacharya awardee renowned rifle shooting coach Sanjay Chakravarty, has passed away due to Covid-related complications. He was 79.
• Chakravarty is credited for mentoring 2012 London Olympic Games bronze medallist Gagan Narang, and Olympians such as Joydeep Karmakar, Suma Shirur and Anjali Bhagwat in his career spanning more than four decades.
• Chakravarty was honoured with the Dronacharya Award in 2017 for his contribution to the discipline.

Days

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 102nd Anniversary: 13 April 2021

• In 2021, April 13 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, that took place on April 13, 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab’s Amritsar.
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre refers to the incident in which the troops of the British Indian Army, under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed protesters and pilgrims, who had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh , to mark the occasion of Baisakhi.
• The incident is seen as a major turning point in the national freedom movement of India.
• According to British government records, 379 people including men, women, and children were killed while 1,200 were wounded in the firing. However, other sources reports the number of dead at well over 1,000.

International Turban Day: April 13

• The International Turban Day is celebrated every year on April 13 since 2004 to bring awareness of the strict requirement on Sikhs to put the turban as a mandatory part of their religion.
• The 2021 Turban Day marks the 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev and the festival of Baisakhi.
• The turban, also known as “dastar” or “pagri” or “pag” refer to the garment worn by both men and some women to cover their heads. 

Ambedkar Jayanti : 14 April

• Ambedkar Jayanti ( also known as Bhim Jayanti) is an annual festival observed on 14 April to commemorate the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar who was born on 14 April 1891.
• The Day has been observed as an official public holiday throughout India since 2015.
• In 2021, we are marking the 130th birth anniversary of Babasaheb.
• Dr. Ambedkar is known as the Father (chief architect) of the Indian Constitution.
• He was the first Law and Justice Minister of the country after the independence.
• Dr. Bhim has been bestowed with the country’s highest civilian honor, Bharat Ratna in 1990 posthumously.

World Chagas Disease Day : 14 April 

• The World Chagas Disease Day is observed on 14 April to raise the public awareness and visibility among people about Chagas Disease (also called American trypanosomiasis) and the resources needed for the prevention, control or elimination of the disease.
• The WHO approved the designation of Chagas Disease Day on May 24, 2019 at the 72nd World Health Assembly.  It is one of 11 official global public health campaigns marked by WHO.
• The first World Chagas Disease Day was observed on 14 April 2020.
• The day has been named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, the Brazilian doctor who diagnosed the first case on 14 April 1909.