Daily GK Update: 8th November 2021

Sports

Nagpur based teenager Sankalp Gupta has become India's 71st Grandmaster by finishing second in the GM Ask 3 round-robin event in Serbia.
He secured the 3 required GM norms by playing three tournaments on the trot.
To achieve the GM title, a player has to secure three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points.
He won five games, drew three and lost one to Rudik Makrarian (Russia) to take the second place with 6.5 points in the GM tournament.

Honours & Awards

President Ram Nath Kovind presents the Padma Awards in the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day.
The Awards are given in 3categories: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri (distinguished service).
119 Padma Awards will be presented by President this year.
The list comprises 7 Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri Awards.

International Affairs

Iran’s military began its annual war games “Zolfaghar-1400” in the Gulf of Oman.
Navy and air force units as well as ground forces were participating in a more than 1 million square-kilometer area east of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The war games are aimed at “improving readiness in confronting foreign threats and any possible invasion.
Nearly 20% of all oil shipping passes through the strait to the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean.

Sports

Indian pair of Manika Batra and Archana Girish Kamath clinched the women's doubles title in the WTT Contender tournament in Lasko, Slovenia.
The Indian duo defeated the Puerto Rican team of Melanie Diaz and Adriana Diaz in straight sets by 11-3, 11-8, 12-10.
Manika Batra and Archana Girish Kamath entered the finals of the women's doubles event of the WTT Contender tournament after defeating the team of Wang Yidi and Liu Weishan.

Honours & Awards

Maharashtra-based mountaineer Priyanka Mohite will be bestowed with the'Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2020' for her outstanding contribution in the field of adventure.
She will receive the award from President at a function in the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
She started out by trekking in Sahyadri ranges in Maharashtra and rock-climbing, began summiting mountains from 2010.
She has scaled the world's highest peak Mt Everest besides Mt Lhotse and Mt Makalu.

International Affairs

Australian Space Agency announced plans to send a rover to the moon as early as 2026, under a deal with NASA.
The rover will harvest lunar soil containing oxygen, which could eventually be used to support human life in space.
It will be the 1st rover with Australian-made components to reach the moon.
The ten-kilogram rover, measuring 60x60x50cm, will be launched aboard the Hakuto lander built by ispace, a Japanese-based robotic lunar exploration company.

Banking & Finance

ESAF Small Finance Bank has joined hands with NABARD for local economic development.
K Rajan, the State Revenue Minister inaugurated the state-level Local Sustainable Economic Development Training Program organized by the bank in this regard.
ESAF Small Finance Bank's state wide initiative on Local Sustainable Economic Development Training Program in collaboration with NABARD is a step towards building financial literacy at grass root levels.

Important Dates

Every year 8^th November is observed as World Radiography Day to commemorate the discovery of X-radiation, or X-rays.
In 1895 on this date German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovered X-rays who, in 1901, became the inaugural winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The first World Radiography Day was celebrated in 2012.
Globally, various organisations celebrate this day, including the UK's Society of Radiographers and the Association of Radiographers in Nigeria

Honours & Awards

Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar will be posthumously conferred the Basavashree award 2021 by the Bruhanmutt.
The award honours people for services to society in their respective fields by following the principles of Lord Basaveshwar.
It is presented by Chitradurga Bruhanmutt since 1997.
The award includes a Rs 5 lakh cash and a memento.
PT Usha (2009), Malala Yousufzai (2014), P Sainath (2016), Dr K Kasturirangan (2020) are some to win the award in recent times.

Sports

India's pistol ace Manu Bhaker and Iran's Javad Foroughi won the 10m air pistol mixed team gold at the inaugural ISSF President's Cup.
The Indo-Iranian pair got the better of the French-Russian duo of Mathilde Lamolle and Artem Chernousov 16-8 in the gold medal match.
India's Abhishek Verma paired up with Ukranian Olena Kostevych to finish 6th while Saurabh Chaudhary paired with Swiss Heidi Gerber Diethelm made it among the top eight semi-finalists to finish 7th.

Banking & Finance

IBM Corp. launched a client innovation centre in Mysuru with support from the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM)
Aim: to attract companies to set up operations in cities beyond Bengaluru.
This initiative aims at supporting the rapid, high-tech driven economic growth in tier-2 and -3 regions while providing comprehensive hybrid cloud and AI technology consulting capabilities.
The centre specialises in design, software engineering and analytics.

International Affairs

Astronaut Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to walk in space.
Her team completed a 6-hour stint outside the Tiangong space station as part of its ongoing construction.
Wang and her colleague Zhai Zhigang stepped out of the module waving to the camera while tethered to the outside of the station and installed a suspension device and transfer connectors.
Tiangong-meaning "heavenly palace" is the latest achievement in China's drive to become a major space power