Daily GK Update: 31st March 2021

National Affairs

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has virtually inaugurated Ānandam: The Center for Happiness in Indian Institute of Management, Jammu
Centre will be divided into 5 categories: counselling, holistic wellness, elective courses on happiness development, Research-Leadership and faculty development
Centre will have advisory board of experts from academics, research, and industry
It acquires its name from Indian wisdom tradition where it means pure consciousness

Honours & Awards

The 66th Filmfare Awards for 2021 has been announced to honour artistic and technical excellence in Hindi cinema for 2020
Anubhav Sinha directed ‘Thappad’ won seven awards
Winners:
- Best Film: Thappad
- Best Director: Om Raut (Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior)
- Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male): Irrfan Khan (Angrezi Medium)
- Best Actor (Critics): Amitabh Bachchan (Gulabo Sitabo)
- Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female): Taapsee Pannu (Thappad)
- Best Lyrics: Gulzar (Chhapaak)

Defense

Indian Navy will participate in France-led naval drill named as ‘La Perouse’ in the Bay of Bengal.
The exercise will be held from April 5 to 7, 2021.
Participating nations also include Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) member countries: Australia, Japan and United States of America (USA).
Indian Navy will take part in ‘La Perouse’ for the first time. Until now, India was not invited for the French naval exercise.

International Affairs

New Zealand Parliament has recently passed legislation to provide leave for miscarriage and for stillbirth.
This Bill allows mothers and their partners the right to get paid leave following a miscarriage or still birth, without having to tap into sick leave.
Employees will get 3 days leave when a pregnancy ends with stillbirth
With this, New Zealand become second country in the world to do so.
India is the only other country in the world with similar legislation.

State Affairs

Nagaland Health Minister, S Pangnyu Phom has launched i-Learn, which is a capacity building and performance tracking application for Community Health Officers in Kohima
It has been launched in partnership with USAID-NISHTHA/Jgpiego which will cater across 189 Health & wellness centres in Nagaland
i-Learn: learning management system for CHOs with self-facilitated learning for improving, learning new skills in clinical and non-clinical areas
Nagaland CM: Neiphiu Rio

Sports

Sri Lankan all-rounder batsman, Thisara Perera has become the first cricketer from the island nation to hit six sixes from one over.
He achieved the feat during a domestic match in Colombo while playing for Army Sports Cricket Club in List A match against Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club.
He scored an unbeaten 52 runs from 13 balls and thus smashing the second-fastest half-century in List A cricket.

Important Dates

World Backup Day is observed every year on 31st March to protect our precious digital documents as we have become more reliant on technology.
It is a day for people to learn about the increasing role of data in our lives and the importance of regular backups.
World Backup Day began as World Backup Month, by a hard drive company named Maxtor which was later acquired by Seagate Technology.

Important Dates

International Transgender Day of Visibility is observed every year on March 31 to raise awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide, as well as a celebrate their contributions to society.
The day also focuses on homophobic, biphobic and transphobic
This day was founded by US-based transgender activist Rachel Crandall of Michigan in 2009
It has since been spearheaded by U.S.-based youth advocacy organization Trans Student Educational Resources

Science & Technology

Bengaluru-based women-led startup, Astrome has developed an innovative wireless product ‘Giga Mesh’ to provide reliable low-cost internet services in suburban and rural areas.
It is a wireless product with the ability to provide quality, high-speed rural telecom infrastructure at 5 times lower cost.
It will give fibre like bandwidth at much lower cost
Astrome is a deep tech startup incubated at IISc, Bangalore
Team was led by Dr. Neha Satak (co-founder, CEO at Astrome)

Banking & Finance

HDFC Bank has been conferred as ‘India’s Best Bank for SMEs’ at Asiamoney Best Bank Awards 2021.
HDFC Bank has been honoured for its transformation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) business over the past few years.
Asiamoney Best Bank Awards is based upon Annual Best Banks survey by a financial magazine based in Hong Kong, to identify excellent banks a range of core banking activities over the past 12 months.
HQs: Mumbai
CEO: Sashidhar Jagdishan

National Affairs

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed to enhance surveillance pertaining to COVID-19 protocols at the Airports
DGCA further asked all airport operators to ensure that the instructions on Covid-19 protocol from standpoint of wearing face masks properly, covering nose and mouth, maintaining social distance norms within airport are followed scrupulously
Airport operators will have to explore possibility of taking punitive action, such as levying fines

National Affairs

Govt has operationalised 22 new routes in the last three days under UDAN scheme as a part of endeavour to connect the unconnected regions.
Out of these new routes, six routes have been operationalised in North-East India.
Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN): flagship Regional Connectivity scheme of Ministry of Civil Aviation envisaged to make air travel affordable and widespread in the country. Till date, 347 routes have been operationalised under the UDAN scheme.