VISION

1)  Coal Miners’ Day: 4 May

•Coal Miners’ Day is celebrated on May 4 to recognize the hard work of some of the great unsung heroes of the Industrial Revolution. The day is celebrated to show appreciation for the coal miners and honour their accomplishments. Coal miners spend most of the days digging, tunnelling and extracting coal from the mines. They dig deep into the Earth to bring out the riches that help to sustain our life. Coal mining is one of the toughest professions.

2)  International Firefighters’ Day: 04 May

•The International Firefighters’ Day (IFFD) is observed on May 4 every year since 1999. The day is celebrated to recognise and honour the sacrifices that firefighters make to ensure that their communities and environment are as safe as possible. The day was instituted, after the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances in a bushfire in Australia on 2 December 1998.

3)  World Asthma Day 2021: 04 May

•World Asthma Day is observed every year on the 1st Tuesday of May. This year, World Asthma Day is observed on May 4, 2021. The day spread awareness about asthma disease and care around the world. Whilst the primary focus is supporting the person with asthma, support may also extend to family, friends and caregivers. The theme for 2021 World Asthma Day is “Uncovering Asthma Misconceptions“.

4)  Barclays Projects India’s GDP Growth Forecast to 10% in FY22

•UK-based global brokerage firm Barclays has cut India’s GDP growth estimate for 2021-22 (FY22) to 10 per cent from its earlier estimate of 11 per cent. Apart from this, Barclays has estimated the economy to contract by 7.6 per cent in FY21.

5)  Kotak Mahindra Life appoints Mahesh Balasubramanian as MD

•Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited (KLI) on 1st May announced it has appointed Mahesh Balasubramanian as managing director of the company. He has been appointed following the retirement of G Murlidhar.

•The company is in receipt of approval from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India for the appointment of Balasubramanian. The appointment is for a period of three years. Suresh Agarwal has been elevated to MD & CEO of Kotak General Insurance.

6)  Justice Pant appointed NHRC acting chairperson

•The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Justice (retired) Prafulla Chandra Pant had been appointed as the acting chairperson of the Commission with effect from April 25. A former Supreme Court judge, Justice Pant was appointed member of the NHRC on April 22, 2019.  The post of a chairperson has been vacant since Justice H.L. Dattu, a former Chief Justice of India, completed his tenure on December 2, 2020.

•Previously, he was appointed the first Chief Justice of the newly established Meghalaya High Court at Shillong on 20th September 2013 and continued till 12th August 2014.

7)  Facebook to introduces vaccine finder tool on mobile app in India

•Facebook has partnered with the Indian government to roll out a vaccine finder tool on its mobile app in India, which will help people identify places nearby to get inoculated. The social media giant had, earlier this week, announced a USD 10 million grant for emergency response efforts for the COVID-19 situation in the country.

8)  RBI imposes ₹3 crore penalty on ICICI Bank

•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a monetary penalty of ₹3 crores on ICICI Bank for non-compliance with its directions in the matter of shifting of securities from one category to another. The monetary penalty has been imposed on the Bank for contravention of certain directions contained in its Master Circular on ‘Prudential Norms for Classification, Valuation and Operation of Investment Portfolio by Banks.’

•This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (the Act). RBI observed that an examination of correspondence in the matter of shifting of securities from one category to another revealed, inter alia, contravention of the aforesaid directions issued by it. This action is based on the deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

9)  Sindhu, Michelle Li appointed ambassadors for IOC’s ‘Believe in Sport’ campaign

•The Badminton World Federation announced that India shuttler PV Sindhu and Canada’s Michelle Li have been nominated as athlete ambassadors for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ‘Believe in Sport’ campaign aimed at preventing competition manipulation.

•Sindhu and Li will be working alongside other athlete ambassadors from around the world to raise awareness on the topic of competition manipulation amongst athletes and encourage. The pair have been global ambassadors for BWF’s ‘i am badminton’ campaign since April 2020. The IOC’s ‘Believe in Sport’ campaign was launched in 2018 to raise awareness among athletes, coaches and officials of the threat of competition manipulation.

GS SCORE Current Affairs May 2021 Week 1 PDF

📰 Manipur HC allows 7 Myanmar refugees to approach UNHCR

Vision IAS PT 365 Social Issues in Hindi Prelims 2021 PDF

Vision IAS PT 365 Environment in Hindi Prelims 2021 PDF

Vision IAS PT 365 Science & Technology in Hindi Prelims 2021 PDF

Vision IAS PT 365 Art & Culture in Hindi Prelims 2021 PDF

1)  World Laughter Day 2021: 02 May

•World Laughter Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year. It is a day to raise awareness about laughter and its many healing benefits. In 2021, the day falls on 02 May 2021. World Laughter Day was first celebrated on May 10, 1998, in Mumbai upon the initiation of Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement.

2)  World Press Freedom Day observed globally on 3 May

•World Press Freedom Day is observed globally on 3 May every year. It is also known as World Press Day. The day also pays tribute to journalists who have lost their lives. They risk their lives at times or may even have to face tough situations in order to bring the news from different corners of the world in front of the public.

•This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme “Information as a Public Good”. The theme is of urgent relevance to all countries across the world. It recognizes the changing communications system that is impacting our health, our human rights, democracies and sustainable development.

3)  India, Russia to establish a ‘2+2 ministerial dialogue’

•India and Russia have agreed to establish a ‘2+2 Ministerial Dialogue’ at the Foreign & Defence Minister level between the two countries. Russia is the 4th country and 1st Non-Quad member country with which India has established the ‘2+2 Ministerial dialogue’ mechanism. India has such a mechanism with the US, Japan and Australia. It is expected to boost the bilateral strategic partnership between India & Russia.

4)  Indian Navy launches Operation Samudra Setu-II

•The Indian Navy has launched Operation Samudra Setu-II to help in faster transportation of medical oxygen and other requirements from other countries to India, amid its worsening COVID-19 pandemic. As a part of operation ‘Samudra Setu II’, seven Indian Naval ships have been deployed for shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries. These warships are Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat.

•In 2020, the Indian Navy launched Operation Samudra Setu, as part of the Vande Bharat Mission, to repatriate approximately 4,000 stranded and distressed Indian citizens from the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Iran.

5)  Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun honour to Shyamala Ganesh

•The Japanese Government recently awarded the “Order of Rising Sun” to a Bengaluru based Japanese teacher, Shyamala Ganesh. She is a Japanese teacher at the Septuagenarian institution and also at the Ohara School of Ikebana in RT Nagar, Bengaluru. She has tutored more than hundreds of students since its inception 38 years ago. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

6)  T Rabi Sankar named RBI deputy governor

•Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive director T Rabi Sankar has been named as the fourth Deputy Governor of the central bank. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment. He is in charge of the payments system, fintech, information technology and risk management at the RBI. He succeeds BP Kanungo as the deputy governor, who retired on April 2 after getting a one-year extension in his position.

•Sankar has long experience across a wide spectrum of central banking functions, particularly, exchange rate management, reserves portfolio management, public debt management, monetary operations, development, regulation and surveillance of financial markets and of payment systems, and managing the Bank’s IT infrastructure.

7)  GST revenues touch all-time high of ₹1.41 lakh crore in April

•Gross revenues from the Goods and Services Tax hit a record high of ₹1.41 lakh crore in April 2021 in India, suggesting economic activity may not yet be as badly affected amidst the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as last year.

•April’s GST collections surpassed the previous highest collections of ₹1.24 lakh crore in March 2021 by 14%, and mark the seventh month in a row since October that GST revenues have crossed ₹1 lakh crore.

8)  Wipro overtakes HCL Tech to become third most-valued Indian IT firm

•Wipro regained its position as the 3rd largest Indian IT services company by market capitalization of ₹ 2.65 trillion by suppressing HCL Technologies’ ₹ 2.62 trillion market cap. TCS remains at the top of the list with a market cap of ₹ 11.51 trillion followed by Infosys.

•Wipro has also announced its commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040, in line with the objective of the Paris Agreement to cap temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius. The country’s third-largest largest software services company has set an intermediate target of 55 per cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 in absolute emission levels compared to its base year of 2016-17 (April-March).

9)  Lewis Hamilton wins Portuguese Grand Prix

•Lewis Hamilton overtook title rival Max Verstappen and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to win the Portuguese Grand Prix. Verstappen finished second, while Bottas, who started from pole, came in a disappointing third place. Sergio Perez took the flag in fourth, with Lando Norris fifth for McLaren.

•The reigning Formula One champion dropped to third in the opening laps but made two impressive moves in nine race-winning laps to claim his second victory of the season.

📰 Centre faces questions over how it plans to use foreign aid