Daily GK Update: 3rd October 2023

Honours & Awards

Renowned author and philanthropist Sudha Murty Became the First Woman to honored with the Global Indian Award by the Canada India Foundation.
The Global Indian Award, worth $50,000, is given annually to prominent Indians who have excelled in their respective fields.
He was conferred by the Canada India Foundation at the Toronto gala event where she was accompanied by the parents of her son-in-law and British PM Rishi Sunak to the event.

Sports

Indian women's Heeral Sadhu, Kartika Jagadeeswaran and Aarathy Kasturi Raj skating teams secured bronze medals in the speed skating 3000m relay competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Other Winners
Indian boxer Preeti Pawar won bronze medal
India’s men's team of Aryan Pal, Anand Kumar, Siddhant, and Vikram won bronze medals in the speed skating 3000m relay
India bagged total of 62 medals at the 2023 Asian Games, consisting of 13 gold, 24 silver, and 25 bronze

Honours & Awards

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The award has been given to Katalin Kariko, and Drew Weissman for their discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.
Six Nobel Prizes are awarded each year, recognizing an individual’s or group’s contribution to a specific field.
There are 351 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

International Affairs

President of Indonesia Joko Widodo inaugurated the first “Whoosh” high-speed railway in Southeast Asia, a key project under the Road Infrastructure initiative of China.
It is a collaborative venture between an Indonesian consortium of four state-owned companies and China Railway International Co. Ltd
He has championed the 142 km railway
Largely funded by China, USD 7.3 billion project was constructed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, known as PT KCIC

National & International Appointments

Saugata Gupta has been appointed as the chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
It is the leading self-regulatory organization in India and deals with communication guidelines in both offline and online advertising.
It recently launched the ‘ASCI Academy’ to boost self-regulation during the creative process.
His association with ASCI spans many yrs, including 2 yrs on the Board of Governors and 2 yrs as a special invitee on the Board of Governors

Banking & Finance

The Asian Development Bank approved capital management reforms that unlock $100 billion in new funding capacity over the next decade to address the region’s overlapping, crises.
The expansion of available funds will be further leveraged through mobilizing private and domestic capital to move from the billions to trillions to tackle the climate crisis.
They expand the bank’s annual new commitments capacity to more than $36 billion an increase of approx $10 billion.

Honours & Awards

Ruixiang Zhang, Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA awarded with the 2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for his outstanding contributions to mathematics.
The annual cash prize of USD 10,000 will be given at an international conference in Number Theory on December 20 and December 22 at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam
He has made contributions to the Generalization of Vinogradov’s Mean Value Theorem and Breakthroughs in Restriction Theory

State Affairs

Tripura CM Manik Saha launched an e-cabinet system at Agartala to promote digital infrastructure development and digitization of government services and information.
Tripura has thus become the fourth state—and second in the Northeast—after Uttarakhand, UP, and Arunachal Pradesh, to have introduced an e-cabinet system.
All future cabinet meetings in the state will be paperless, reducing the carbon footprint and environmental degradation in the process

Defense

The Indian Air Force made significant strides to enhance its air defense capabilities with the impending induction of indigenous Astra Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air-to-Air Missiles.
The IAF has entered into contracts with Bharat Dynamics Limited for these advanced missiles, marking a crucial step towards reducing import dependency and bolstering national security.
The first batch of Astra-MK1 missiles, developed by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory.

Sports

In Football, India won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under-19 Championship after defeating Pakistan in the finals at the Dashrath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu.
Most Valuable Player was Manglenthang Kipgen (IND)
Top Scorers of the Tournament (all 3 goals)