Daily GK Update: 22nd April 2020

 Important Dates

1. Earth Day being observed today

• Earth Day or International Mother Earth Day is observed every year on 22 April to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
• The first Earth Day was marked in the US on 22 April 1970 as peaceful call for environmental reform, following a massive oil spill in California.
• The theme of World Earth Day 2020 is “Climate Action”.
• The 50th annual call for environmental reform falls at a time when the health of people and nature has never been more urgent.

 State Affairs

2. Pune Municipal Corporation develops ‘Saiyam’ app

• The Pune Municipal Corporation under Smart Cities Mission has developed a mobile application named “Saiyam” to effectively track the home-quarantine citizens.
• The Mobile Application constitutes GPS tracking facility which alerts the City Administration whenever the quarantined citizens leave their homes.
• All the Home Quarantined citizens are given the mandate to download the app and install it.

 National Affairs

3. MoHFW launches COVID INDIA SEVA for handling queries

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched an interactive platform, 'COVID INDIA SEVA' aimed at providing real time solutions to Covid-19 related queries.
• People can post their queries to the COVID INDIA SEVA twitter handle for getting swift replies from the team of trained experts.
• This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery at large scales especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 Banking & Finance

4. Mastercard Debit Cards now available with Paytm Payments Bank

• Paytm Payments Bank has partnered with Mastercard for the issuance of virtual and physical debit cards for secure online transactions.
• Customers will also be able to request a physical card to perform contactless in-store transactions.
• Along with this, customer will also be able to withdraw cash at more than 1 m million ATM terminals.
• With this latest addition to the suite of services, the Bank can bring more than 500 million Indians into the mainstream economy.

 Summits & Conferences

5. Virtual meeting of G-20 Agriculture Ministers being held

• The G-20 Extraordinary Agriculture Ministers Meeting was held through Video Conferencing on the issue of COVID-19 as well as its impact on food security, safety, and nutrition.
• Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar participated in the Extraordinary virtual meeting of G-20 Agriculture Ministers
• It was organized under the presidency of Saudi Arabia.
• G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. 

 National & International Appointments

6. Huawei India appoints David Li as CEO

• David Li is appointed by Huawei Telecommunications India as its Chief Executive Officer.
• He replaced Jay Chen who has been promoted to handle Asia Pacific level business role.
• Li joined Huawei in 2002 and has experience of working in the India market, including in roles like Vice President of sales and HR during different phases of his career.
• He was serving as CEO of Huawei Cambodia before returning to India to take on his new role.

 National & International Appointments

7. N Kamakodi reappointed as MD & CEO of City Union Bank

• The Reserve Bank of India has given its approval for the re-appointment of N Kamakodi as MD & CEO of City Union Bank (CUB) for three years.
• Kamakodi joined the bank as Deputy General Manager in 2003 and was later elevated as General Manager in 2005.
• In 2006, he was appointed as Executive Director and since 2011, he was serving the bank as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

 State Affairs

8. BRO constructed Daporijo bridge over Subansiri river amid lockdown

• Daporijo bridge over Subansiri river, Arunachal Pradesh has been constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) amid the nationwide lockdown.
• The bridge was constructed in less than a month while adhering to the safety norms required to keep away covid-19 infections.
• Bridge on Daporijo River is a strategic link towards the LAC between India and China. Old Bridge developed cracks which could lead to a major catastrophe.
• New bridge has allowed heavier vehicles to pass.

 Obituaries

9. Former Fiji PM Laisenia Qarase passes away

• Former Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase (79 years) passes away.
• He was the founder of the Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua Party, who served as Fiji’s sixth prime minister from 2000 to 2006.
• Prior to becoming PM, he was a civil servant.
• Qarase was a champion of indigenous Fijians and won two elections without gaining any significant support from the Indo-Fijian population.
• In 2006, he was removed from power in military coup by Frank Bainimarama and later imprisoned.

 Sports

10. SAI & BAI hold online badminton coaching development programme

• In accordance with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Badminton Association of India (BAI) held the 1st session of its Online Coach Development Programme.
• The highly enriching session saw an overwhelming response from over 800 participants from making it one of the highest-participated online coach development conferences ever held.
• The online programme will be held 5 days a week for three weeks.
• The entire course has been divided into 39 topics.

 State Affairs

11. Rajasthan launches Aayu & Sehat Sathi app

• Rajasthan government has launched integrated solution ‘Aayu & Sehat Sathi app’.
• It has been developed with exclusively partnered with healthcare startup MedCords to provide 24x7 online consultation and medicine delivery to the people of Rajasthan as the State battles to control cases of Coronavirus.
• The app is currently helping 10,000+ patients free of cost per day with consultations and is providing home delivery of medicines through its Sehat Sathi network.

 International Affairs

12. WhatsApp partners WHO to create 'Together at Home' sticker pack

• WhatsApp partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create a new sticker pack titled ''Together At Home” designed to reflect the moments and emotions people are going through in the coronavirus pandemic.
• The sticker pack is available within WhatsApp, including with text localized for 10 languages - Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

 Science & Technology

13. CeNS develops TriboE masks to protect healthy individuals from COVID-19

• A team of researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bangalore have come up face masks, termed as TriboE Mask.
• It can hold electric charges to restrict the entry of infections without any external power and relies on electrostatics.
• TriboE mask comprises of three-layer: nylon cloth sandwiched between polypropylene layers made from used non-woven grocery bags. In place of nylon, silk fabric from an old saree or shawl may also be cut and used.

 Banking & Finance

14. Paytm Payments Bank launches DBT scheme

• Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. (PPBL) now implemented the option to avail benefits of Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), which is Government of India scheme to transfer the subsidies of various social welfare schemes like LPG gas subsidy, MNREGA payments, Old Age Pension, Scholarships directly into the beneficiary’s bank account.
• Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. (PPBL) has crossed Rs1,000 crore in deposits and has total of 57 million savings account holders at present during covid-19.