Daily Current Affairs 11 September 2021 – Gkseries

Current Affairs is the most important area in all competitive exams. But the difficulty level is very high. That’s why; many aspirants get confused, how to select Current Affairs for Preparation of Competitive Examination? In this Post, Daily Current Affairs 11 September 2021, we have tried to cover each and every point and also included all important facts from National/ International news that are useful for upcoming competitive examinations such as UPSC, SSC, Railway, State Govt. etc.

Daily Current Affairs 11 September 2021

India’s first high ash coal gasification based methanol production plant inaugurated

India’s first indigenously Designed High Ash Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) Research and Development Centre, Hyderabad was inaugurated on Wednesday. Member of NITI Aayog Dr V K Saraswat, Chairman of BHEL Nalin Shinghal along with BHEL’s Coal Gasification team were present to witness India’s first demonstration plant of its kind, designed entirely in-house to work on high-ash Indian coal, as per a press release.

About the plant:

• The facility can create 0.25 ton per day (TPD) Methanol from high ash Indian coal using a 1.2 TPD Fluidized bed gasifier.
• The purity of the crude methanol produced is between 98 and 99.5 per cent.

World EV Day: September 9

World EV Day is observed on September 9 every year. The day marks the celebration of e-mobility. Special awareness campaigns are organized globally to educate people about the benefits of electric vehicles. World EV Day was an initiative created by the sustainability media company GreenTV.

Electric vehicles (EV), it seems, have truly caught the imagination of Indians, like in the rest of the world. On World Electric Vehicle Day 2021, a number of prominent voices declared through their messages on social media that EVs were the key to a greener world and thus, the future of humanity. 

The first World EV day was observed in 2020. China is the largest EV market in the world. It was largely a social media campaign that encouraged drivers to recognize the benefits of electric vehicles and make a commitment that the next car they drive will be electric and not run on conventional fuels.

Uttarakhand, Punjab, Tamil Nadu get new governors

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, who retired as the deputy chief of Army, governor of Uttarakhand, a post which fell vacant after Baby Rani Maurya tendered her resignation. According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Maurya and appointed Singh as the governor of the state.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, who retired as the deputy chief of Army, governor of Uttarakhand, a post which fell vacant after Baby Rani Maurya tendered her resignation.

The President also ordered shuffling of governors of some states that included shifting Banwarilal Purohit from Tamil Nadu to Punjab. He was holding an additional charge of Punjab.

Nirlep Singh Rai is the new CMD of National Fertilizers Ltd

Nirlep Singh Rai is the new Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), a Minisratna PSU under the Department of Fertilizers. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for the appointment of the Director to the post on Saturday. According to the Personnel Ministry order, he has been appointed to the post for a period with effect from the date of his assumption of charge of the post till the date of his superannuation, i.e. August 31, 2022, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

State-owned fertilizer firm National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) has Nirlep Singh Rai has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of the company. In a regulatory filing, NFL informed that Nirlep Singh Rai, Director (Technical), has been appointed as Chairman & Managing Director, on the Board of the company with effect from the date of his assumption of charge.

About the Nirlep Singh Rai:

Rai, who was born in August 1962, is a B.E (Instrumentation & Control) from Thapar University. Prior to his appointment as Chairman & Managing Director, he was holding the position of Director (Technical) in NFL. Rai had also held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd and he had also headed the Nangal Unit of NFL as Chief General Manager.

Trichy Golden Rock Workshop bags best Energy Efficient Unit Award

The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (GOC), Tiruchchirappalli has bagged 22nd National Award for Excellence in Energy Management from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for having adopted and implemented various energy conservation measures. GOC Workshop is the o­nly workshop of Indian Railways to have received the award this year.

The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (GOC), Tiruchchirappalli has bagged 22^nd National Award for Excellence in Energy Management from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for having adopted and implemented various energy conservation measures. 

GOC Workshop is the o­nly workshop of Indian Railways to have received the award this year.  The workshop has bagged the prestigious award twice so far. 

About the awards:

The National Awards for Excellence in Energy Management is instituted by CII, to catalyze significant and innovative practices in the energy efficiency sector. CII conducts this annual event to recognize and award excellence in energy management among the industrial sector and railway workshops across the country and facilitate sharing of information o­n best practices & technologies.

PM Narendra Modi chaired 13th BRICS Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday host the 13th summit of the BRICS bloc which, besides India, comprises Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa. Just like last year’s event, the current edition, too, will take place virtually due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, making it the second straight BRICS meeting to be held via videoconferencing.

Narendra Modi has chaired the 13th BRICS Summit, through video conferencing. The theme of the India-led Summit was “BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus.” The theme chosen by India reflects the fifteenth anniversary of BRICS, being observed in 2021. PM Modi called for enhanced BRICS cooperation under the motto of ‘Build-back Resiliently, Innovatively, Credibly and sustainably’.

The Summit concluded with the adoption of the ‘New Delhi Declaration. This was the third time that India hosted the BRICS Summit. Prior to this India held the Presidency of the BRICS in 2012 and 2016. Also, this is the second time that Prime Minister Modi has chaired the BRICS Summit. He had previously chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.

Apart from this, as the President of BRICS in 2021, India has highlighted four priority areas for this year’s BRICS Summit, which were:

• reform of the multilateral system,
• counter-terrorism cooperation,
• using digital and technological tools to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),
• enhancing people-to-people exchanges

All BRICS Leaders took part virtually in the Summit, including Brazil President-Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping of China, and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. BRICS is an association of five major emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

MoHUA and MeitY launch ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ campaign

Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs( MoHUA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched the pilot drive ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0′ – A special Campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training for street vendors under PM SVANidhi scheme across 223 cities in the country today. The pilot derive was jointly by Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and in a virtual event. The drive is in line with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of  “SabkaSaathSabkaVikas”.The BharatPe, Mswipe, PhonePe, Paytm, Aceware are participating in this drive to issue UPI IDs, QR code and provide digital training. 

World’s largest Plant to capture Carbon Dioxide from Air commissioned in Iceland

The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into rock started running on Wednesday, the companies behind the plant said.

The plant, named Orca, after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes, similar in appearance to the containers used for maritime transport.

Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air every year, according to the companies.

The carbon dioxide captured directly from the air will be deposited underground at a depth of 1,000 meters, where it would be turned into rock.

The facility has been developed by Icelandic carbon storage firm Carbfix, in partnership with Swiss start-up Climeworks AG, which specializes in capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air.

The technology launched may become a major tool in the fight against climate change.

China successfully launches new Earth observation satellite “Gaofen-5 02”

China successfully launched a new Earth observation satellite, Gaofen-5 02, into space, aboard a Long March-4C rocket on September 07, 2021, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China’s Shanxi Province.

Gaofen-5 02 is a hyperspectral satellite that will be used for comprehensive environmental monitoring, to improve the country’s hyperspectral observation capacity of the atmosphere, water, and land.

The Gaofen-5 02 satellite is the 24th in the series of Gaofen Earth-observation satellites of China, to monitor environmental protection efforts and boost its natural resources surveillance.

The satellite was launched aboard a Long March-4C rocket and entered its planned orbit successfully.

NPCI launches RuPay credit card stack, ‘nFiNi’ to enable fintech to co-create bank-sponsored credit cards

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fiserv, Inc., provider of payments and financial services technology, have entered into an understanding that will enable the launch of plug and play RuPay credit card stack, ‘nFiNi’. 
• nFiNi is a ready stack of services required for fintechs and banks to issue RuPay credit cards and will enable fintech to co-create bank-sponsored credit cards.
• It is a BaaS (banking-as-a-service) programme. The nFiNi platform will power RuPay cards (including National Common Mobility Card) by offering access to needed services through the NPCI network combined with FirstVisionTM cloud-based open API integrations from Fiserv.

ICICI Lombard ceases to be a subsidiary of ICICI Bank post-merger with Bharti AXA

ICICI Bank mentioned General Insurance has ceased to be its subsidiary, as shareholding of the financial institution has come down to 48 percent after the merger of Bharti AXA with the insurer. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company (ICICI Lombard) had on September 8, 2021, allotted fairness shares of the corporation to the eligible shareholders of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company (Bharti AXA), as per the scheme of association between the 2 insurers. The scheme of association between Bharti AXA and ICICI Lombard got here on September 8, 2021.

For being a subsidiary, the parent company must own at least 50% of the equity in the subsidiary company.

Income Tax Returns filing deadline for FY21(AY 2021-22) extended till December 31

• In a major relief to thousands of taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Thursday has extended the income tax return (ITR) filing deadline for the financial year 2020-21 to December 31, 2021 from September 30.
• The decision to extend the deadline for filing Income Tax returns has been taken keeping in view the coronavirus pandemic and persistent technical problems with its website.

Co-WIN develops a new API called KYC-VS: Know Your Customer’s/Client’s Vaccination Status

Over 72 crore vaccine doses have been administered since the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 was flagged off on January 16 this year by Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. To provide proof of vaccination for each of these individuals, Co-WIN is already issuing a digitally verifiable certificate. This certificate can be saved on a digital device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.) or stored in Digi Locker from where it can be digitally shared as and when required as proof of vaccination. Similarly, at entry points where such certificate is required (e.g., in malls, office complexes, public events, etc.), it may be shown in both the digital and physical forms.

• This new application programming interface (API) has been developed by CoWin. It is called ‘Know Your Customer’s or Client’s Vaccination Status’ or KYC-VS.
• The API was developed as an extra security layer in order to protect personal data before sharing it with any third-party verifying entity as and when required.

How vaccination status can be accessed?

In order to access the vaccination status of the person, his registered mobile number and name must be entered by the verifying entity in order to generate a one-time password or OTP. This two-layer authentication will enable CoWin to quickly respond to the vaccination status.

• It will show 0, if the person is not vaccinated
• 1 if the person is partially vaccinated and
• 2 if the person is fully vaccinated.

Report on vaccination will be digitally signed and can be shared instantly by the verifying entity.

CoWin Portal

CoWIN is dubbed as “Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network”. This web portal was developed by the Indian government for COVID-19 vaccination registration. It is owned and operated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The portal displays booking slots of COVID-19 vaccine in the nearby areas and can be booked through it. This portal has also been integrated with the Aarogya Setu and UMANG Apps. It also provides a digitally verifiable certificate, which can be saved on a device or on Digi Locker, digitally.

Defence Minister held a bilateral meeting with Australian counterpart in New Delhi

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday held wide-ranging talks with his Australian counterpart Peter Dutton to boost overall bilateral strategic ties.

The talks took place a day ahead of the inaugural “two-plus-two” dialogue between foreign and defense ministers of India and Australia.

• Peter Dutton is on his first official visit to India along with a high-level delegation for a 2+2 ministerial dialogue.
• Both the countries are keen to work jointly in order to realize the full potential of India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
• Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is based on the shared vision of a free, open, inclusive and rule-based Indo-Pacific region.
• Australia and India have several stakes in peace, development, rules-based order, free flow of trade and economic growth in the region.
• Discussion between both sides was focused on:

1. Bilateral defense cooperation
2. Expansion of military engagements across the services,
3. Enhancing defense information sharing,
4. Cooperation in emerging defense technologies and
5. Mutual logistics support.

Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

India and Australia share their bilateral relation as a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” because both the countries were the part of British Empire. Both of them are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. They share political, security, economic, lingual, and sporting ties. Cricket and the English language have emerged as a strong cultural connection between both. Military of both the countries meet for a regular joint naval exercise called AUSINDEX.