VISION

1)  International Nurses Day observed globally on 12 May

•International Nurse Day is observed globally on 12 May every year. This day is observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. She was also known as Lady with the Lamp. She was the founder of modern nursing and was a British social reformer and statistician.

•The theme of 2021 International Nurses Day is ‘Nurses: A Voice to Lead – A vision for future healthcare’.

2)  Indian and Indonesian navies conduct exercise in Arabian sea

•The Indian and Indonesian Navies conducted Passage Exercise (PASSEX) in the southern Arabian Sea with a focus on further improving their interoperability. The exercise was aimed at improving interoperability and understanding between both the friendly navies.

•From the Indian Navy, INS Sharda, an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) with a Chetak helicopter participated in the exercise. From the Indonesian Navy, KRI Sultan Hasanudin, a 90m Corvette took part in the exercise.

3)  Padmakumar Nair Appointed As CEO Of National Asset Reconstruction Company

•Padmakumar M Nair has been appointed as the CEO of the proposed National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. Presently Padmakumar is the Chief General Manager of Stressed Assets Resolution Group at SBI.

4)  Nomura Revises GDP Growth Estimate of India in FY22 to 10.8%

•Nomura has cut the GDP growth estimate of India for the current 2021-22 fiscal (FY22) to 10.8 per cent from the earlier projection of 12.6 per cent. The cut in the GDP rate is due to the impact of the second wave-induced lockdowns. Nomura is a Japanese brokerage having its headquarter in Tokyo.

5)  Moody’s Projects India’s GDP Forecast for FY22 to 9.3%

•The rating agency Moody’s has cut the gross domestic product (GDP) forecast of India for FY22 (01 April 2021-31 March 2022) to 9.3 per cent. Earlier this rate was projected at 13.7 per cent.  The downward revision in GDP estimates is due to the second wave of Covid infections across the country, which have triggered localised lockdowns and mobility curbs.

6)  United Nations: India Projected To Grow At 10.1% In 2022

•The United Nations has projected that the Indian economy would grow at 10.1 per cent in the calendar year 2022, nearly double the 5.9 per cent growth forecast for the country in the January report. But cautioned that the growth outlook of 2021 was “highly fragile” as the country was the “new hotbed of the pandemic.”

•The mid-year update said that India will register a 7.5-per cent growth rate in the calendar year 2021, after an estimated contraction of 6.8 per cent in 2020.

7)  IREDA conferred with Green Urja Award

•Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) has been conferred with the “Green Urja Award” for being the Leading Public Institution in the Financing Institution for Renewable Energy this year by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). IREDA gets the award for the pivotal and developmental role it plays in Green Energy Financing.

•Despite the pandemic time, IREDA has ended the year 2020-21 ended on a strong note and disbursed the second-highest (from the date of inception) amount of loan amounting to Rs. 8827 crore, which indicates that IREDA has the ability to translate this problem into an opportunity.

8)  Puducherry becomes ‘Har Ghar Jal’ UT

•Puducherry has achieved the target of 100% piped water connection in rural areas under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Earlier, Goa, Telangana and Andaman & Nicobar Islands have provided tap water supply to every rural home under Jal Jeevan Mission. So, Puducherry is the fourth State/UT to provide assured tap water supply to every rural home under Jal Jeevan Mission.

•Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in partnership with States/ UTs to provide safe tap water to every rural home by 2024. The State of Punjab and the UTs of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have covered over 75% of rural homes with assured tap water supply.

9)  Mayflower 400: World’s First Unmanned Vessel To Navigate Across Atlantic

•World’s First Unmanned Vessel named “Mayflower 400” is set to Navigate Across the Atlantic. It has been built by the marine research organization ProMare in collaboration with IBM. It will begin its transatlantic voyage on May 15, 2021, to track aquatic mammals, analyze plastic in the water, and study marine pollution.

📰 Questions remain on DRDO’s COVID drug

Insights IAS Prelims 2021 Government Schemes PDF

 Shankar IAS Target 2021 Environment & Geography I PDF

1)  India celebrates National Technology Day on 11th May

•National Technology Day is celebrated on 11 May across India. This day marks the successfully tested Shakti-I nuclear missile at the Indian Army’s Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. This day will be focusing on rebooting the economy through Science and Technology. It also highlights the achievements of our scientists and engineers in the field of science and technology and encourages students to embrace Science as a career option.

2)  ISRO develops 3 cost-effective ventilators, oxygen concentrator

•The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), has developed three different types of ventilators and an oxygen concentrator at a time when a shortage of this critical medical equipment resulted in the deaths of many Covid-19 patients across the country. Based on designs, features and specifications, we have named them, Prana, VaU and Svasta. All three are user-friendly, fully automated and with touch-screen specifications, meeting all safety standards.

•Technology transfer will be done for the commercial production of these three ventilators and the one oxygen concentrator by this month itself. Likely to be priced around ₹1 lakh, the ventilators developed by the ISRO were cost-effective and easy to handle compared to the mini conventional ventilators that are currently priced around ₹5 lakh.

3)  NITI Aayog, Mastercard release report on Connected Commerce

•The NITI Aayog has released a report titled ‘Connected Commerce: Creating a Roadmap for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat’. NITI Aayog has released the report in collaboration with Mastercard. The report identifies the various challenges faced in accelerating digital financial inclusion in India and also provides recommendations for making digital services accessible to its 1.3 billion citizens.

4)  SpaceX to launch ‘DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon’

•Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is set to launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon”, the first-ever commercial lunar payload, paid entirely in the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2022 onboard the Falcon 9 rocket. The dogecoin-funded mission is led by the Canadian company Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC).

5)  Ujjwala Singhania takes over as 38th National President FICCI FLO

•Ujjwala Singhania has been appointed as the National President of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO), the oldest women-led & women-centric business chamber of Southeast Asia. As the 38th National President of FLO Singhania will focus on empowering women by facilitating an enabling environment that promotes entrepreneurship, industry participation and economic development of women.

•Under her leadership, FLO will carry out many interventions towards fostering larger contributions of women in India’s Industrial and economic growth story.

6)  Indian-origin expert Sankar Ghosh elected to National Academy of Sciences

•Sankar Ghosh, an award-winning Indian-origin immunologist, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. He was among the 120 newly elected members announced by the Academy.

7)  CBSE launches ‘Dost for Life’ mobile app

•Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has launched a new mobile app for students and parents. The new app ‘Dost for Life’ is an exclusive psychological counselling app for students and parents of CBSE-affiliated schools. The new App will simultaneously cater to students and parents from CBSE-affiliated schools in different geographies across the world.

8)  Dr Tahera Qutbuddin 1st Indian To Win Arab World Nobel Prize

•Mumbai born, Dr Tahera Qutbuddin, a professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, recently became the first person of Indian-origin to win the 15th Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of the Arab world. She won the award for her latest book, “Arabic Oration – Art and Function” published by Brill Academic Publishers of Leiden in 2019.

•In the book, she puts forth a comprehensive theory of Arabic literature in its foundational oral period dating the seventh and eighth centuries AD. She discusses its influence on modern-day sermons and lectures as well.

9)  Tripura Launches Auro Scholarship Programme of Sri Aurobindo Society

•Education Minister of Tripura, Ratan Lal Nath launched the ‘Auro Scholarship Programme’ of Sri Aurobindo Society for all the students of the state. Auro Scholarship Programme provides the monthly micro-scholarship to the students in order to motivate them towards achieving better learning outcomes once students achieve benchmark performance in 10-min curriculum-aligned Quizzes.

10)  Pakistan’s Babar Azam Wins ICC Players of the Month for April 2021

•Pakistani skipper Babar Azam has been named the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for April 2021 for his consistent and stellar performances across all formats in the recently concluded series against South Africa. The ICC Player of the Month Awards recognise and celebrate the best performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year.

•Along with Babar, Australian women’s team wicketkeeper-batsman Alyssa Healy also bagged the ICC Women’s Player of The Month accolade for her incredible performances during the month of April. Healy’s consistency with the bat has played a significant role in Australia’s dominance. Healy has shown her class in all conditions and against all types of bowling in the recent series against New Zealand.

GS SCORE FACT FILE- Major Economic Committees PDF

 What is the issue?

• The Group of Seven (G7) countries held its ministerial meeting in London recently.
• This comes as a signal that the West is rebuilding its unity and strength, as against the perception of a declining west.

What led to the notion of a declining west?

📰 One lakh tonnes of free food grain distributed so far under PMGKAY