Daily GK Update: 22nd March 2021

Important Dates

World Water Day (WWD) is observed every year on 22^nd March to highlight the importance and sustainable management of fresh water.
UN-Water is the convener for World Water Day.
The vision for World Water Day was put forward at Rio de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.
Theme of WWD 2021: Valuing Water.
UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) is released every year around World Water Day.

Schemes

PM Narendra Modi has launched ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign on World Water Day (22nd March)
Campaign will run till 30th Nov, 2021
It will be undertaken across the country, in 734 districts covering 600,000 villages with theme ‘catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls’
It will be launched as Jan Andolan to take water conservation at grass-root level through people’s participation
During this, geotagging of all water bodies will be carried out

National & International Appointments

President has appointed Narendra Kumar Vyas and Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi as the Additional Judges of Chhattisgarh High Court under clause (l) of Article 224 of Constitution of India
They have been appointed for 2 years
Narendra Kumar Vyas has over 23 years of experience and has practiced in Labour Court, Industrial Court, District Court, Central Government Industrial Tribunal during 1996 to 2002 and after that has been practicing in Chhattisgarh High Court

Sports

Indian athlete Avinash Sable (26 years) set a new national record in men’s 3000m steeplechase event in ongoing Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships in Patiala with 8:20.20 timing
He broke his own record of 8:21.37 which he set in 2019, after finishing 13th in the final of the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
He has secured berth in Tokyo Olympics 2020 in men’s 3000m steeplechase during 2019 World Athletics Championships

Sports

Indian shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar (18 years) has won bronze in men’s 10m Air Rifle event at International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2021 in New Delhi.
Indian team bagged air rifle men’s team event, followed by USA and South Korea
ISSF World Cup 2021 is being held from March 18 to 29 March 2021
It is the 1st international event of 2021 by ISSF in shotgun, rifle, and pistol.
More than 300 shooters from 43 countries are participating

Schemes

Union Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar has launched new Nagar Van Scheme for creation of Urban forests in the cities on the occasion of International Day of Forests
It will also fill the gap between the cities and villages in terms of having their own forest cover.
Under Nagar Van Scheme , Urban forests will be developed in 200 cities in its first phase.
Drone mapping water conservation and tree plantation were also taken into consideration.

National Affairs

Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan has inaugurated Advanced High Resolution Microscopy Facility at National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) and Unveiled the 4 Star GRIHA Certification of Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB) Lab and Admin Building at Mohali, Punjab
NABI & CIAB are autonomous institutes under Dept. of Biotechnology, Ministry of S&T
NABI: first Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, established in India.

National Affairs

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has brought 80 plus medicines under Price Regulation.
NPPA has fixed price of 81 medicines including off-patent anti-diabetic drugs allowing due benefits of patent expiry to the patients.
With this price regulation, NPPA has re-assured availability of medicines at fair prices to public at large.
NPPA also fixed retail price of 76 new drugs in the meeting dated 10th of this month to be launched by existing manufacturers

Banking & Finance

Moody's Analytics has projected India's GDP to grow by 12% in 2021.
Moody’s in an earlier estimate last November, India’s GDP will grow at 9% in the calendar year.
Indian economy is officially projected to contract 8% in FY21, in its worst show in more than four decades.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projected Indian economy is expected to grow 12.6% in FY22.
Moody’s Analytics had projected the Indian economy to grow 13.7% in FY22.

Sports

Indian para-athlete Singhraj won gold medal in 2021 Para Shooting World Cup at Al Ain in UAE, after defeating Uzbekistan's Server Ibragimov to get the top honour in the P1 - Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1 final.
He won by a thin margin of 2.8 points
Singhraj won Rio 2016 bronze medal
Turkey's former Paralympic champion Muharrem Korhan Yamaç took the bronze with 214.4 points.
With this, India has moved to third place in the medals table with one gold and one bronze.