Daily GK Update: 24th October 2021

National & International Appointments

Ramnath Krishnan has been appointed as the Managing Director (MD) and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of credit rating agency ICRA.
Prior to this, he was serving as the President for ratings and as chief ratings officer at ICRA.
He joined ICRA in July 2020.
He replaced N Sivaraman, who resigned with immediate effect due to personal reasons.
Gurgaon based ICRA is a unit owned by global rating agency Moody’s Corporation.
HQs of ICRA: Gurugram

Arts & Culture

Tamil-language drama film Koozhangal (internationally translated as Pebbles) has been selected as India’s official entry for 94th Academy Awards (Oscars 2022)
Koozhangal has been directed by filmmaker Vinothraj PS and produced by Vignesh Shivan and Nayanthara
It is related to alcoholic abusive husband who, after his long-suffering wife runs off, sets out with his young son.
94th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, on March 27, 2022.

Books & Authors

Venkataraghavan Subha Srinivasan has out with a new book titled as ‘The Origin Story of India’s States’.
It has been published by Penguin Random House India.
The book narrates the fascinating political and historical circumstances of the birth of India’s states and union territories.
Venkataraghavan Subha Srinivasan is a writer, actor and strategy consultant from Bengaluru, India and this is his first non-fiction book.

Important Dates

World Polio Day (WPD) is observed annually on October 24 to raise awareness for polio vaccination and eradication of polio.
WPD was established by Rotary International to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
Theme for World Polio Day 2021: One Day. One Focus: Ending Polio – delivering on our promise of a polio-free world!

Important Dates

United Nation Day is observed every year on 24th October since 1948 to marks the anniversary of adoption of Charter of United Nation in 1945.
UN Day 2021 theme: Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.
With the ratification of UN Charter by the majority of its signatories, including 5 permanent members of the Security Council, United Nations officially came into being.
It was declared to be an international observance in 1971 by UNGA.

Schemes

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel has launched ‘Shri Dhanwantri Generic Medical Store’ scheme to provide medicines at low and affordable rates to consumers.
Under this scheme, generic medicines will be 50 to 71% cheaper at these medical stores.
It will be run by Urban Administration and Development Department.
It is proposed to set up 188 medical stores in 169 urban bodies of the state.
These medical stores will sell 251 types of generic medicines and 27 surgical products.

Science & Technology

Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully flight-tested the High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) titled as ‘ABHYAS’, from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Bay of Bengal in Odisha.
ABHYAS is designed & developed by DRDO lab, Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru, for the Indian Armed Forces.
It can be used as an aerial target for evaluation of various missile systems.

Banking & Finance

RBI has introduced revised regulatory framework for NBFCs which is a Scale Based Regulation (SBR).
It will be effective from 1st October 2022.
Now for regulation of NBFCs under new SBR, RBI has categorized NBFCs into 4 scales based on their size, activity, and perceived riskiness: NBFC-Base Layer, NBFC-Middle Layer, NBFC-Upper Layer and NBFC-Top Layer
Regulatory minimum NOF for NBFC-ICC, NBFC-MFI and NBFC-Factors will be increased to Rs. 10 crore

National & International Organizations

India has been ranked at 79th position in the World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2021, among 139 countries
WJP index is world’s leading source for original and independent data on the rule of law
Top performer: Denmark, followed by Norway and Finland
Worst performer: Venezuela (139th spot)
It is prepared by Washington DC based World Justice Project to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived across the world.

National Affairs

Dept of Telecom (DoT) has notified Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2021 by amending Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016.
New rules have been introduced to ease the Right of Way (RoW) related permission and procedures for establishment and augmentation of Digital Communications Infrastructure
One-time compensation for establishment of overground telegraph line has been fixed at maximum Rs 1000 per km.

Important Dates

International Day of Diplomats is observed every year on 24 October to commemorate the contributions made by diplomats in shaping the world since ancient times and in making our planet a better place.
It also aims to bridge the gap in perception and reality of diplomats’ lives among the general public.
It was first observed in Brasília on 24 October 2017.
The day was proposed by Indian poet-diplomat Abhay K.