Daily Current Affairs 27th May, 2021

Daily Current Affairs 27 May 2021 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Cabinet approves opening of new Consulate General of India in Addu City of Maldives
The Union Cabinet has approved the opening of a new Consulate General of India in Addu City, Maldives in 2021. India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity.

• Maldives occupies an important place in the Neighbourhood First Policy and the SAGAR- Security and Growth for All in the Region- vision of the Government of India.

Cabinet approves MoUs entered into by ICoAl & ICSI with foreign countries
The Union Cabinet has granted ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) entered into by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India with various foreign countries and Organisations.

• The two Institutes have signed MoUs with foreign organizations including the Institute of Public Accountants, Australia, Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, UK, Institute of Certified Management Accountants, Sri Lanka and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK.
• The various memoranda seek to facilitate mutual recognition of qualifications and a range of collaborative activities for the exchange of knowledge, experience sharing, and technical cooperation by way of participation in annual conferences, training programmes and joint research projects.

Three common incubation facility centres sanctioned for J&K
In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, establishment of three Common Incubation Facility Centres worth Rs. 7.81 crore at Anantnag, Baramulla and Jammu has been sanctioned by the Government of India.

• These three Incubation Facility Centres will be completed in one year’s time and will be helpful in processing and marketing of Agricultural, Horticulture, Dairy and Fish products in Jammu & Kashmir.

Govt to set up National Mission on use of Biomass in coal based thermal power plants
The Power Ministry has decided to set up a National Mission on the use of Biomass in coal based thermal power plants.

•  It is intended to address the issue of air pollution due to farm stubble-burning and to reduce the carbon footprints of thermal power generation.  It will also further support the energy transition in the country and its targets to move towards cleaner energy sources.
• The Mission will increase the level of co-firing from the present five percent to higher levels to have a larger share of carbon-neutral power generation from the thermal power plants.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BANKING & FINANCE

PFRDA crosses Rs 6 lakh crore AUM
The pension Assets Under Management (AUM), under Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, PFRDA has crossed six lakh crore rupees.

• Subscribers’ contribution to National Pension Scheme and Atal Pension Yojana has built up six lakh crore rupees of pension assets after 13 years. 
• The Assets under Management, AUM growth of last one trillion rupees has been achieved in just 7 months.

NPCI partners PayCore to help merchants accept contactless payments
The National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) announced it has onboarded Turkey’s global payment solutions company PayCore as one of the certified partners for RuPay SoftPOS to drive cashless payments across the country.

• RuPay SoftPOS enables merchants to accept payments securely from contactless cards, mobile wallets, and wearables just with their mobile phones.
• Millions of merchants now can convert their near filed communication-enabled (NFC) smartphones into a POS machine to accept contactless payments through RuPay SoftPOS.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India’s GDP to Grow at Better-Than-Expected Rate of 1.3% in Q4: SBI Report
The country’s GDP is likely to grow at 1.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020-21 and may see a contraction of around 7.3 per cent for the full financial year, according to an SBI research report ‘Ecowrap’.

• Based on our ‘nowcasting model’, the forecasted GDP growth for Q4 would be around 1.3 per cent (with downward bias) as against NSO (National Statistical Office) projection of a negative (-)1 per cent,” the research report said.
• The report said that going by the estimate of 1.3 per cent GDP growth, India would still be the fifth-fastest-growing country among 25 nations that have released their GDP numbers so far.

IIM-A, BITS Grads Launch One Million USD Fund to Support & Invest in Student Startups
Abhishek Sethi and Prateek Behera, graduates from IIM-A and BITS Pilani, respectively, have launched a USD one million fund to support and invest in startups founded by college students. 

• Their venture, gradCapital, based, said it would invest USD 25,000 in each of the 20 start-ups they select over the next year.
• gradCapital, also being supported by’CIIE.CO – The Innovation Continuum’, based out of IIM Ahmedabad, would host an eight-week, intensive programme for companies founded and run by college students.

Barclays pegs India’s FY22 GDP growth at 7.7%
Barclays has pegged India’s economic growth for fiscal 2021-22 (FY22) – as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) – at 7.7 per cent in the bear-case scenario, if the country is hit by the third wave of the Covid pandemic going ahead.

• The economic cost, it believes, could rise by at least a further $42.6 billion, assuming another round of similar stringent lockdowns are imposed across the country for eight weeks later this year.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS 

Amazon buys James Bond owner MGM for 8.45 billion dollars
Amazon.com Inc said that it is buying MGM, the fabled US movie studio home to the James Bond franchise, for 8.45 billion US Dollars.

• The deal will give Amazon a huge library of films and TV shows and ramp up competition with streaming rivals led by Netflix and Disney.

APPOINTMENTS

Maharashtra IPS Officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal Takes Charge as CBI Director
IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal took charge as director of the CBI, officials said.

• Jaiswal is a 1985-batch officer of the Maharashtra cadre. He was till now serving as the chief of the CISF. He has also served as Maharashtra’s director general of police in the past.
• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was working without a regular chief for over three months after Rishi Kumar Shukla completed his two-year tenure on February 3.

Mali’s President, PM resign after arrests by military
Mali’s interim President and Prime Minister resigned, two days after they were arrested by the military.

• Soldiers led by interim Vice President Assimi Goita, had arrested President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and taken them to a military base after a cabinet reshuffle in which the two officers lost their posts.
• The resignations came during a visit by a delegation from the Economic Community of West African State, ECOWAS, which is pressing to resolve the stand-off.

AWARDS

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen Conferred with Spain’s Top Award in Social Sciences
Indian economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Kumar Sen has been conferred with Spain’s top Princess of Asturias Award in the social sciences category, the Spanish prize foundation announced.

• Sen, 87, was selected out of the 41 candidatures from 20 nationalities put forward for the Social Sciences Award, the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
• The award comprises a Joan Miro sculpture representing and symbolising the Award, a diploma, an insignia and a cash prize of 50,000 Euros.

SpiceHealth wins Gold Stevie Award 2021
SpiceHealth, a healthcare company founded by the promoters of SpiceJet, has won the Gold Award at the 2021 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards for ‘Most Valuable Medical Innovation’ under coronavirus disease (Covid-19) response category.

• The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only business awards program to recognise innovation in the workplace in all 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region.
• The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in programs such as The International Business Awards for 19 years.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Cyclone Yaas hits West Bengal, Odisha
Cyclone ‘Yaas’, packing winds of up to 130-145 kmph, whiplashed the country’s eastern coasts, dumping heavy rain, damaging houses and farmlands, and leaving at least four persons dead – three in Odisha and one in West Bengal — officials said.

• Thick sheets of rain blurred the vast coastline, as the cyclone made landfall Dhamra port in Odisha, with surging waters swamping the mud-and-thatch houses in the low-lying areas, where a massive evacuation drive has been undertaken to move more than 20 lakh people to safety.

India Set to Get Four Heron Long-endurance Drones from Israel
India is expected to acquire four Heron long-endurance drones from Israel on lease in the next few months to primarily crank up its surveillance capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

• The medium-altitude Heron drones are being procured by the Indian Army for three years and the first two of them are expected to be delivered by August.
• The drones are capable of operating for nearly 45 hours at an altitude of up to 35,000 feet. The Heron TP drones are equipped with automatic taxi-takeoff and landing (ATOL) and satellite communication (SATCOM) systems for an extended range. The drones will be fitted with ultra-long-range surveillance cameras and other state-of-the-art gadgets.

Karnataka: Yediyurappa launches comprehensive online portal on CSR activities ‘Akanksha’
A portal that provides comprehensive details on all the CSR activities in Karnataka was launched by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in Bengaluru.

• Named as Akanksha, the portal will help the corporate sector, government and the donors to utilise CSR funds for Government programmes.
• The portal will usher in transparency in the utilisation of CSR funds. CM Yediyurappa informed that 175 crore rupees of CSR funds are utilised in the state for the health sector to mitigate the pandemic.

OBITUARIES

Lee Evans, record-setting U.S. Olympic sprinter, passes away 
Lee Evans, the record-setting sprinter who wore a black beret in a sign of protest at the 1968 Olympics then went onto a life of humanitarian work in support of social justice, died. He was 74.

• Evans became the first man to crack 44 seconds in the 400 meters, winning the gold medal at the Mexico City Games in 43.86. His victory came shortly after his teammates, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were sent home from the Olympics for raising their fists on the medals stand.
• Evans also won five U.S. titles at 400 meters and is a member of both the USATF and U.S. Olympic halls of fame. Many remember him just as much for his post-retirement career as for his achievements on the track.

HS Doreswamy, 103-Year-Old Freedom Fighter and Activist, passes away
Freedom fighter and activist HS Doreswamy, who was 103 years old, passed away in Bengaluru.

• Harohalli Srinivasaiah Doreswamy took a plunge into the freedom struggle by taking part in the Quit India movement and was jailed for 14 months from 1943 to 1944.
• The Gandhian had also participated in the Mysuru Chalo movement to compel the Mysuru Maharaja to accede to the Indian State post-Independence.
• Doreswamy was into the teaching profession and tried his hands at journalism by bringing out a newspaper called Pauravani.

Former Formula One boss Max Mosley passes away 
Max Mosley, the former head of Formula 1’s governing body who went on to become a high-profile privacy campaigner, has died aged 81 from cancer.

• The youngest son of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascist movement in the 1930s, Mosley was a racing driver, team owner and lawyer before becoming president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in 1993.
• He won a high-profile privacy case against the News of the World newspaper in 2008 after it said he had taken part in a “sick Nazi orgy”.

BOOKS & AUTHORS

‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’ book by Shivshankar Menon
A book has titled ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’ is authored by Shivshankar Menon.

• He was the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, is exploring these phases in their historical context to tell the story of how India weathered the many geopolitical storms of the past in his latest book.

 “Nehru, Tibet and China” book by Avtar Singh Bhasin
A book has titled “Nehru, Tibet and China” authored by Avtar Singh Bhasin. 

• The book based on years of meticulous archival research, this book in fascinating detail, analyses the events from 1949 to the Indo-China war in 1962 and its aftermath to explore the answers to these burning questions.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Vesak Day 2021
Vesak Day 2021 is observed globally on 26 May. Vesak, the Day of Full Moon is the most sacred day to Buddhists all over the world.

•  On this day, Lord Gautham Buddha attained enlightenment. The Day is commemorated by the United Nations every year.

Click here to read Daily Current Affairs