Daily Current Affairs Today MCQ : 23 February 2023 Quiz

Poet V Madhusoodanan Nair has been selected for the Jnanappana Award – 2023 instituted by the Guruvayur Devaswom.

It will be presented to the poet by Minister for Higher Education R Bindu at a cultural meet to be held at Melpathur Auditorium, Guruvayur.

Madhusoodanan was selected for the prestigious award considering the overall contribution he made to the field of literature.

The award consists of a Rs 50,001 cash prize, 10 gram gold locket with an image of Sree Guruvayoorappan, a citation and a memento.

V Madhusoodanan Nair -

V Madhusoodanan Nair is an Indian poet and critic of Malayalam literature, who is credited with contributions in popularizing poetry through recitation.

He is best known for Naranathu Bhranthan, the poem with the most editions in Malayalam literature as well as his music albums featuring recitations of his own poems and poems of other major poets.

Kerala Sahitya Akademi honoured him with their annual award for poetry in 1993.

He is also a recipient many other honours including Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram, Padmaprabha Literary Award, Kunju Pillai Award, Souparnikatheeram Prathibhapuraskaram and Janmashtami Puraskaram.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed Vikramaditya Singh Khichi to a panel to advise the administrator of debt-ridden Reliance Capital (RCap), the apex bank said in a release.

Vikramaditya Singh, former executive director of Bank of Baroda, has been appointed to Reliance Capital’s advisory committee following the resignation of Srinivasan Varadarajan from the panel.

The RBI on December 7, 2021, constituted an advisory committee to advise the administrator in the operations of the financial service providers during the corporate insolvency resolution process of RCap.

The Advisory Committee comprise of following members -

Shri Sanjeev Nautiyal, ex-DMD, State Bank of India

Shri Praveen P Kadle, ex-MD & CEO, Tata Capital Limited

Shri Vikramaditya Singh Khichi, ex-ED, Bank of Baroda

The Advisory Committee shall advise the Administrator in the operations of Reliance Capital Ltd during the corporate insolvency resolution process.

Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has emerged as the top performer among state-owned lenders in terms of loan growth percentage during the third quarter of 2022-23, an analysis of the latest financial results of public sector banks showed.

The Pune-based lender recorded a 21.67 per cent increase in gross advances on a year-on-year basis, according to the latest quarterly numbers of the public sector bank (PSB).

The bank has maintained the top slot in credit growth in percentage terms consistently for the past 10 quarters despite COVID-19 pressures.

In terms of Retail-Agriculture-MSME (RAM) loans, BoM has recorded the highest growth of 19.18 per cent, followed by Punjab & Sind Bank with 19.07 per cent and Bank of Baroda with 18.85 per cent on an annual basis.

The seven-day 49th Khajuraho Dance Festival has begun with Bharatnatyam and kathak at the temple declared as UNESCO heritage.

The annual event of the Khajuraho Dance Festival is being organized by Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Evam Kala Akademi and the directorate of culture in association with the tourism department and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Bharatanatyam dance has presented by Janki Rangarajan, whereas Kathak-Bharatnatyam has presented by Dhirendra Tiwari, Aprajita Sharma and Kathak by Prachi Shah respectively.

Key Points -

The performance of Srilakshmi Govardhanan (Kuchipudi), Maithil Devika and troupe (Mohiniattam) and Vaibhav Aarekar and troupe (Bharatnatyam), Pratisha Suresh (Satriya dance), Himanshi Katragadda and Aarti Nair (Kuchipudi -Bharatanatyam Jugalbandi) and Kadamba Centre for Dance (Kathak dance) will be held on 21st and 22nd February 2023.

Odissi dance by Ramli Ibrahim and troupe, kathak by Sanjukta Sinha and Tejaswani Sathe and troupe, kathakali by Akash Malik and Rudra Prasad Rai.

Odissi by Shashwati Garai Ghosh and Kathak-Bharatnatyam by Bala Vishwanath and Praful Singh Gehlot will be presented on the 23rd and 24th of February.

Janani Murali’s Bharatanatyam, Vyjayanthi Kashi, and Sathi’s Kuchipudi group dance, Nivedita Pandya and Soumya Bose’s Kathak Odissi Jugalbandi and Gajendra Kumar Panda-Tridhara’s Odissi group dance will be held on 24th February 2023.

The festival will end with Mohiniyattam by Gopika Verma, Arupa Lahiri and troupe with Bharatnatyam, Bharatnatyam and Odissi dance by Pushpita Mishra and troupe.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba will head a top panel comprising a senior official from the Prime Minister’s Office, seven secretaries, among others to monitor the implementation of the government’s ambitious Mission Karmayogi programme for training of government employees.

The government has recently approved setting up a Cabinet Secretariat Coordination Unit or CSCU as part of the institutional framework under the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) or Mission Karmayogi.

Members of This Committee -

The CSCU will have as members a nominee of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), secretary (Coordination), cabinet secretariat, DoPT secretary, home secretary, expenditure secretary, Environment, Forest & Climate Change secretary, Higher Education secretary and revenue secretary.

Ministry of Rural Development signed an MoU between the ministry and Meesho an e-commerce platform owned by Bengaluru-based Fashnear Technologies Private Limited.

As per the agreement, the e-commerce platform will help in the marketing of products made by the Self-Help Groups under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission.

There were 2.35 crore SHG members when PM Narendra Modi takes charge but in the last 9 years, the number of SHG members has expanded to more than 9 crores and will touch 10 crores by 2024.

The minister informed that the cumulative loan to SHGs was about Rs 80,000 crore before 2014 and now the bank linkage has crossed over 6.25 lakh crore in the last 9 years, with an NPA of just 2.08 percent.

Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated the 33rd Police-Public Mela at Gulshan Ground, Jammu.

LG Manoj Sinha informed that the Police-Public Mela has emerged as a powerful platform for police officers and the public to interact and celebrate the shared heritage.

He commended the Jammu and Kashmir Police Wives Welfare Association (JKPWWA) for carrying out numerous initiatives around the year to address the concerns of the families of martyrs and serving personnel.

About Jammu and Kashmir Police -

The Jammu and Kashmir Police or JKP is the law enforcement agency of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory).

JKP was established in 1873 and has primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within Jammu and Kashmir in India.

The first specific Jammu & Kashmir police force came into existence in the year 1873 with one police officer known as Kotwal and 14 Thanedars for Srinagar City.

This police force would control crime and take care of law-and-order situations with help of Chowkidars and Harkars, who were paid mandatorily by the residents of Imperial Kashmir Union.

The Asian Development Bank in order to help India fulfil its most pressing development requirements pledged up to 25 Billion Dollar over the course of the next five years to support social development, climate change and infrastructure development in India under the PM Gati Shakti project.

Key Points -

ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa informed PM Narendra Modi during their discussion that ADB intended to provide 20–25 billion dollar in resources over a five-year period to help the nation achieve its goals of rapid, inclusive, and environmentally friendly growth.

ADB will prioritise assisting in the transition to a circular economy and the decarbonization of transportation as well as the clean energy transition as part of its green growth plan.

Asakawa discussed ADB attempts to attain yearly regular financing of 4 billion dollar from its sovereign operations in the following few years during his discussion with Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

At ELECRAMA 2023, the largest solo electrical exhibition in the world held at the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida, the Ministry of Power, Government of India displayed a number of advances in the energy sector.

In front of Vivek Kumar Dewangan, Chairman & Managing Director, REC Limited and other REC representatives, the Hon’ble Cabinet Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy R K Singh officially inaugurated the Power Pavilion, ELECRAMA 2023.

Key Points -

"Re-imagining the Future: Metamorphosis of the Power Sector in India" is the focus theme of the Power Pavilion, ELECRAMA 2023.

It is created as a metaphorical butterfly to demonstrate how India’s power sector has changed.

It is a tribute to the people, the policies, and the technology that fuel transformation and offers a glimpse of the thriving and dynamic Indian Power Sector that is accelerating the development of the nation with an aim to attain net zero economic leadership in green energy.

According to Gross Domestic Climate Risk ranking by Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI), India has nine states in the 50 high risk states including Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Assam.

XDI is a global organisation specialising in climate risk analysis for regions, banks and companies.

The index calculated the "Physical climate risk" to built environments such as buildings and properties across 2,600 States and provinces globally in 2050.

The index assigned an Aggregated Damage Ratio (ADR) to each region, which signifies the total amount of damage a region’s built environment would sustain in 2050. A high ADR signifies more peril.

Global Findings -

According to report the vast majority (80%) of 50 provinces facing the highest climate risk to their physical infrastructure by 2050 are in China, the US, and India.

Two of China’s largest sub-national economies – Jiangsu and Shandong – top the global ranking; followed by the U.S. which has 18 regions in the top 100 list.

Asia dominates the list with 114 of the top 200 regions falling in the continent, including Pakistan, Indonesia and most South East Asian countries.