Daily GK Update: 23rd August 2021

National & International Organizations

India has ranked 2nd in Global cryptocurrency adoption index, according to 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
India also ranked highly on P2P exchange trade volumes.
The index is released by Chainalysis.
The index ranked 154 countries, showed that worldwide crypto adoption grew over 881% in the last year.
Vietnam topped the index, followed by India, Pakistan and Ukraine.
US and China were ranked as eighth and thirteenth.

National & International Appointments

T M Bhasin has re-appointed as the Chairman of Advisory Board for Banking and Financial Frauds (ABBFF) by Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) with effect from August 21, 2021.
The board was constituted to examine bank frauds of over Rs 50 crore and recommend action.
His tenure will be of 2 years.
Other members of ABBFF are:
- Madhusudan Prasad (former secretary of Ministry of Urban Development)
- D K Pathak (former DG of BSF)
- David Rasquinha (former MD of EXIM Bank)

National & International Organizations

World Bank has launched new ‘Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund’ to roll-out cybersecurity development agenda in a systematic manner.
It has been developed as an associated trust fund under broader Digital Development Partnership (DDP) umbrella program.
For this, World Bank has partnered with four countries, namely Estonia, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands
Aim: enhance cyber and digital security capability and capacity in World Bank member countries

State Affairs

India’s highest altitude herbal park has been inaugurated at Mana village in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand.
It has been developed in 3 years under central government's Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme.
This herbal park is situated at a height of 11,000 feet was and is close to the Indo-China border.
Mana: Last Indian village in Chamoli bordering China and is adjacent to Badrinath temple.

State Affairs

Madhya Pradesh Govt has launched comprehensive Talent Search Campaign in the field of sports to search for new talented players and train them in 18 sports academies of state
CM has appealed to the youth interested in sports to register themselves in the Talent Search Campaign of the state.
So far, more than 50,000 players have applied for talent search.
On the basis of physical strength and proficiency, sportspersons will be groomed through coaching and training.

Sports

Long jumper Shaili Singh won silver medal at the U-20 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi with 6.59 metre jump.
She missed Gold medal by a mere 1 centimetre.
European junior champion Maja Askag managed 6.60 metre jump for the top spot on the final day of the championships.
Apart from her, India’s Amit Khatri has won silver medal in the men’s 10,000 m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi.

Banking & Finance

HDFC Life has released the 'Life Freedom Index 2021' report, along with NielsenIQ across 14 cities.
Life Freedom Index is made up of 4 indices: Financial Awareness Index, Financial Planning Index, Financial Sufficiency and Adequacy Index, and Financial Liberty Index.
The scores are based on responses in 6 metros (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai), four Tier-I cities (Kochi, Indore, Ludhiana, Bhubaneshwar) and four Tier-II cities.

Important Dates

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is observed every year on August 23 to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade
It is a UNESCO designated day
On 22 and 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (Haiti and Dominican Republic) that saw the beginning of the uprising for the abolition of transatlantic slave trade
It was first celebrated in many countries, in particular in Haiti (23 August 1998) and Goree in Senegal (23 August 1999).

Obituaries

Senior BJP leader and former Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh (89 years) passed away at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Lucknow.
He was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992.
He was considered an icon of Hindu nationalism and of the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
He also served as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

National Affairs

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will launch National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in New Delhi.
NMP will list out Centre’s infrastructure assets which will be sold over the next 4 years.
It consists of a 4-year pipeline of the Centre’s brownfield infrastructure assets.
It will also serve as a medium-term road map for the Centre’s asset monetisation initiative.
National Monetisation Pipeline book will also be released on the occasion.

Honours & Awards

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards (IFFM) 2021 has been announced virtually.
Full list of winners:
- Best Feature Film: Soorarai Pottru
- Best Performance Male (Feature): Suriya Sivakumar (Soorarai Pottru)
- Best Performance Female (Feature): Vidya Balan (Sherni) & Nimisha Sajayan (The Great Indian Kitchen)
- Best Series: Mirzapur Season 2
- Best Actress in a Series: Samantha Akkineni (The Family Man 2)
- Best Actor in a Series: Manoj Bajpayee (The Family Man 2)

International Affairs

Amitabh Bachchan has become India’s First Celebrity to lend his voice for Amazon’s Alexa.
His voice will be available both in English as well as Hindi language.
Cost of adding Amitabh Bachchan’s voice to Alexa will be Rs 149 per year.
Alexa users can now connect Amitabh Bachchan to any speaker or Echo Display and take advantage of this feature.
However, this feature will only work on Android for now.