Important Current Affairs 12th May 2021

INTERNATIONAL

First Sikh elected in Scottish Parliament: Pam Gosal

•Fifty-three-year-old businesswoman Pam Gosal created history by becoming the first Sikh to be elected to the Scottish Parliament. Gosal was elected as a Conservative Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) via the West of Scotland list.

•After joining her office on May 8, Gosal Tweeted: It’s a privilege to be the first female MSP elected to the Scottish Parliament from an Indian background.

NATIONAL

ISRO developed ventilators, oxygen concentrator

•The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), has developed three different types of ventilators and an oxygen concentrator at a time when a shortage of this critical medical equipment resulted in the deaths of many C-19 patients across the country. Based on designs, features and specifications, we have named them, Prana, VaU and Svasta. All three are user-friendly, fully automated and with touch-screen specifications, meeting all safety standards.

•Technology transfer will be done for the commercial production of these three ventilators and the one oxygen concentrator by this month itself. Likely to be priced around ₹1 lakh, the ventilators developed by the ISRO were cost-effective and easy to handle compared to the mini conventional ventilators that are currently priced around ₹5 lakh.

OBITUARY

Malayalam actor Madampu Kunjukuttan Passed Away

•The death of screenwriter-actor Madampu Kunjukuttan on Tuesday (May 11). A National-Award winning screenwriter, Madampu developed a high fever and was admitted to a private hospital in Thrissur. Later, he was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and breathed his last on Tuesday. He was 81.

Kerala’s Oldest Serving MLA Gouri Amma Passes Away at 102

•The senior-most communist leader of Kerala, KR Gouri Amma, who was the first Revenue Minister in the first communist ministry of the state in 1957, has passed away due to age-related ailments. She was 102. She was the second longest-serving MLA in Kerala Legislative Assembly and also the last surviving member of the first Kerala government.

•After the split of the Communist Party in 1964, K. R. Gouri joined the newly formed Communist Party of India (Marxist). She formed and headed the political party Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS) in 1994 after her ouster from CPI (M). She was the driving force behind the historic Land Reforms Bill in Kerala. She had won 13 assembly elections, out of the total 17 contested.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

First woman Executive editor of Washington post

•The Washington Post has named longtime journalist Sally Buzbee of the Associated Press as its executive editor, marking the first time a woman has been appointed to lead the 143-year-old news organization.

•Buzbee, AP’s executive editor and senior vice president, will take over leadership of The Post’s nearly 1,000-person newsroom next month, said publisher Fred Ryan, who made the announcement to the newspaper’s staff on Tuesday.

•She succeeds Martin Baron, who retired at the end of February after serving as editor since 2013. Her appointment ended a search that began 10 weeks ago, following Baron’s retirement.

Reserve Bank of India has appointed Jose J Kattoor as Executive Director

•The Reserve Bank of India has appointed Jose J Kattoor as Executive Director (ED). Prior to being promoted as ED, Mr Kattoor was heading Bengaluru Regional Office of the Reserve Bank as Regional Director for Karnataka. He will look after Human Resource Management Department, Corporate Strategy and Budget Department and Rajbhasha Department.

•Mr Kattoor has, over a span of three decades, served in communication, human resource management, financial inclusion, supervision, currency management and other areas in the Reserve Bank.

Padmakumar Nair Appointed As CEO Of National Asset Reconstruction Company

•Padmakumar M Nair has been appointed as the CEO of the proposed National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. Presently Padmakumar is the Chief General Manager of Stressed Assets Resolution Group at SBI.

•National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. is a proposed bad bank for taking over stressed assets of lenders and was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget for 2021-22 to consolidate and take over existing stressed assets of lenders and undertake their resolution.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Nurses Day 2021 : 12 May

•International Nurse Day is observed globally on 12 May every year. This day is observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. She was also known as Lady with the Lamp. She was the founder of modern nursing and was a British social reformer and statistician.

•The theme of 2021 International Nurses Day is ‘Nurses: A Voice to Lead – A vision for future healthcare’.

•Florence Nightingale was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers in Turkey during the Crimean War. She is renowned for setting up the Nightingale School of Nursing, at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London (opened 1860) in order to formalize nursing education. She was the first woman awarded the Order of Merit (1907).

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Shakuntala Haraksingh won World Food Prize 2021

•Dr Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, a global nutrition expert of Indian descent has won the prestigious 2021 World Food Prize for her groundbreaking research in developing holistic, nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquaculture and food systems.

•Thilsted’s trailblazing research on small native fish species in Bangladesh led to the development of nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquatic food systems at all levels, from the farm to food processing to final consumers, resulting in improved diets for millions of the most vulnerable people in Asia and Africa, the World Food Prize said on its website.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

‘Life in the Clock Tower Valley’ authored by Shakoor Rather

•“Life in the Clock Tower Valley” is the debut book of Press Trust of India (PTI) journalist Shakoor Rather. The book is published by Speaking Tiger, it talks about Kashmir’s pristine past, its grievous present and always-uncertain future. It also includes historical and political information about Kashmir as well as environmental issues that are seldom talked about.

•Besides talking about various aspect of life in the Valley, the author also describes in detail how different characters pop up in its streets during different seasons: “life-size scarecrows during summers to frighten the unrelenting birds hovering over the paddy fields, and the ceremonial snowmen that delight the neighbourhood children celebrating the much-awaited snowfall”.