Daily GK Update: 10th March 2021

State Affairs

India’s first-of-its-kind ‘Forest Healing Centre’ has been inaugurated at Kalika, Ranikhet in Uttarakhand
About Forest Healing Centre:
- It is based on the concept of making people healthy by bringing them into direct contact with nature over 13 acres land
- It is a pine-dominated forest, developed by research wing of Uttarakhand Forest Dept
- It has various activities for visitors like hug trees, walk barefoot on the grass, lie on their back and gaze at the swaying trees

Schemes

J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has launched ‘Super-75’ scholarship schemes for meritorious girls
Aim: To facilitate the education and entrepreneurship of women
The scheme will support the education of meritorious girls from poor families, so that they can excel in streams like medicine, engineering, ITI and humanity and contribute to nation-building.
‘Tejaswini’ scheme was also announced providing financial assistance of Rs 5 lakhs to the girls between 18 to 35 years.

Banking & Finance

HDFC Bank has launched dedicated mentoring programme named as ‘SmartUp Unnati’ to support women entrepreneurs.
Under this SmartUp Unnati programme, senior women leaders from HDFC Bank having expertise in various domains will mentor women entrepreneurs, over the next one year, to help them achieve their goals.
It is available only to existing HDFC customers and will initially target more than 3,000 women entrepreneurs associated with the bank’s SmartUp programme.

Books & Authors

Book titled ‘Dynasty to Democracy: The Untold Story of Smriti Irani’s Triumph’ has been scheduled to release on March 15
The book traces the journey of Smriti Irani from her defeat in 2014 to her victory over Amethi, UP in 2019 LS election
Amethi is ‘karmabhoomi’ of Nehru–Gandhi, since its inception as LS constituency in 1967
It is the English version of ‘Amethi Sangram: Aitihasik Jeet Ankahi Dastan’ written by journalist-author Anant Vijay
It is published by Westland

National & International Appointments

Chairman of NABARD, G.R. Chintala has been sworn in as the Chairman of APRACA (Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association)
He succeeded DPK Gunasekera.
APRACA:
- Established: 1977 by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- Aim: to promote the development of rural finance in Asia Pacific.
- It is a non- government international organization, representing 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Headquarters: Bangkok, Thailand.

Sports

India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu has won silver medal in BWF Swiss Open Online Classroom Program 300 in final of women’s singles event held at Basel
She lost to World No. 3 and reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
Other Winners:
- Men’s Singles: Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) beat Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand)
- Women’s Singles: Carolina Marin (Spain) beat PV Sindhu (India)
- Men’s Doubles: Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Denmark)
- Mixed Doubles: Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue (France)

Books & Authors

Autobiography of freedom fighter ‘Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’, titled ‘The Frontier Gandhi: My Life and Struggle’ has been released
It is English translation of Abdul Khan’s autobiography, which was first published in Iranian language Pashto in 1983
English translation of the book is done by former Pakistani author Imitiaz Ahmad Sahibzada
It is published by Roli Book publishing house
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Afghan independence activist against British colonial rule in India

National & International Organizations

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WRAP has released Food Waste Index Report 2021 to cut food waste to half by 2030
Key findings:
- It estimates that around 931 million tonnes of food waste was generated in 2019
- Out of which, 61% came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail
- Around 17% of total global food production was wasted
- About 690 million people went hungry in 2019
- In India, household food waste is about 68.7 million tonnes a year

National & International Appointments

Tirath Singh Rawat (56 years) will take over as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, after the resignation of Trivendra Singh Rawat.
He is a BJP MP from the Pauri constituency.
He was the chief of BJP in Uttarakhand in 2013-15 and also an MLA from the state in the past.
BJP was faced with challenge of balancing two groups: old-time BJP players were pitching for their candidate and imports from Congress, like Harak Singh Rawat and Satpal Maharaj, were pushing for theirs.

National Affairs

NITI Aayog, along with Dept of Economic Affairs (DEA) has organized national-level virtual workshop on asset monetization.
Workshop elaborated on the strategic context of core and non-core asset monetization, along with detailed discussions on the need for and modality of such monetization.
He also highlighted the potential monetization opportunities for States and the pre-requisites for being successful in this regard.
NITI Aayog CEO: Amitabh Kant.

Science & Technology

Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Anshu Prakash has inaugurated an online certification course on 5G Technology for Government Officers
It is being conducted by National Telecommunications Institute for Policy Research, Innovation and Training (NTIPRIT)
It is the first of its kind 36-hour (12 week) online 5G Certification Course to train and certify Officers of Government of India.
It will act as a capsule programme for learning overall 5G technology.

Agreement

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has signed MoU with Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) to develop Paradip Plastic Park
Govt has initiated the cluster development of the Industry through its Plastic Park scheme, keeping the enterprise and employment generation potential of the plastic sector in mind
Currently, six such parks have been approved by Government of India, with Paradip Plastic Park being one of them.