Daily GK Update: 23rd April 2023

National & International Appointments

In the exercise of the power conferred by Article 223 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Justice Sarasa Venkatanarayana Bhatti as Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court with effect from April 24, 2023.
He would replace the current Chief Justice S Manikumar, who will retire on the aforementioned date.
He served as a Judge from the Andhra Pradesh High Court and is presently working as the senior-most judge of the Kerala High Court.

State Affairs

In a meeting with the Wildlife Advisory Board, Madhya Pradesh CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan instructed the development of the Gandhisagar Sanctuary as a habitat for cheetahs in the next six months.
It will be developed as a second home for cheetahs to retain the tag of cheetah state.
Reason: The experts suggested that Kuno National Park in Sheopur does not have enough space for all cheetahs, hence it is necessary to relocate a few

National & International Appointments

Oliver Dowden has been named the new deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom.
He has replaced current Dy PM and Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, who has resigned.
Before this role, he had been serving as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office secretary, under the present UK government.
He will continue in the roles alongside his new responsibilities.
While Alex Chalk becomes the 10th justice secretary in 10 years.

Books & Authors

World Book Day is celebrated annually on April 23 to promote the love for reading, writing, publishing, and copyright.
This day is also known as World Book and Copyright Day.
The theme for World Book Day 2023 is 'Indigenous Languages.'
This theme focuses on promoting the diversity in native languages of a country.
It is the date on which several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.

Honours & Awards

Wing Commander Deepika Misra was conferred the Vayu Sena medal by Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Marshal VR Chaudhari.
She becomes the first woman Air Force officer to receive a gallantry award.
She is a trained helicopter pilot, a qualified flying instructor, and an instrument-rated instructor and examiner.
She was among 58 personnel who received the gallantry award during the investiture ceremony held in New Delhi.

Banking & Finance

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given HDFC Bank three years to comply with the priority sector lending norms (PSL), after its merger with HDFC Ltd (HDFC).
No relaxation is allowed for abiding by the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) rules.
As per the RBI norms, commercial banks need to extend 40% of the adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) of the previous year towards the priority sector.

Banking & Finance

Mastercard has joined hands with M1xchange to offer a digital invoice discounting solution to farmers, farmer-producer organizations (FPOs), and agri-MSMEs through Farm Pass.
This platform will enable easy access to credit and working capital.
This solution will also allow farmers and FPOs to directly connect with buyers, negotiate the best price for their produce, and get paid faster.
Farm Pass is part of Mastercard’s broader Community Pass platform.

Banking & Finance

According to the Morgan Stanley report, India's GDP in FY24 would grow at 6.2 percent.
Inflation in India is likely to be below 5% in the second quarter of the calendar year 2024.
The headline consumer price index (CPI) for March was in line with expectations.
Morgan noted that the key to sustained domestic demand is a pickup in capex, which will help create more jobs, thus leading to a virtuous cycle of more jobs-to-higher income-higher savings-higher investment.

Honours & Awards

The National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme of the Union Health Ministry received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2022 under the innovation category.
The award was received by Rajesh Bhushan (Secretary, Ministry of Health) from PM Narendra Modi.
PM Gati Shakti national master plan initiative received an award for excellence in public administration 2022 in the 'Innovation (Central)' category.

Obituaries

The co-founder and former CEO of Webchutney, Sidharth Rao passed away due to a fatal cardiac arrest.
In 1999, he founded India’s first and top digital agency WebChutney.
In July 2021, Rao was chosen to serve as the global CEO of Dentsu McGarrybowen.
In 2022, he stepped down as group CEO of dentsuMB India and joined hands and launched a new venture in the marketing technology (MarTech) space, called Punt Partners along with serial entrepreneur Madhu Sudan.