Important Current Affairs 13th December 2021

NATIONAL

3rd edition of manohar parrikar vigyan mahotsav being held from 13 December

• The third edition of the Manohar Parrikar Vigyan Mahostav will be held on Monday at eight venues in Goa, organising committee chairperson Jose Manuel Noronha said.

• The science festival, named after the late BJP leader and former chief minister, will have former ISRO chairperson Professor K Kasturirangan delivering a lecture on 'Space- A Promising Endeavour' at the National Institute of Oceanography in Dona Paula.

• “This talk will be followed by a virtual lecture on 'Next Generation Antibiotics' by Prof Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry in 2009. Then Prof Ashutosh Sharma, former secretary of the government of India's Department of Science and Technology, will speak on science and innovation in the new millennium.

DRDO successfully tests Extended Range Pinaka at Pokhran Range

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test-fired Pinaka Extended Range (Pinaka-ER), Area Denial Munitions (ADM), and indigenously developed fuzes. The test was conducted at Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the Odisha coast. A total of 25 enhanced Pinaka rockets were reportedly fired from multi-barrel rocket launchers (MRLs) at several ranges during the test.

• The range version can destroy the target of up to 45 km. At the same time, the flight path of these missiles was tracked by range instruments including telemetry, radar, and electro-optical tracking system deployed by ITR and Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE).

India re-elected to international Maritime Organisation council

• India has been re-elected to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council after elections were held at its Assembly in London for the 2022-23 biennium.

• India’s election falls under the Category of 10 states with “the largest interest in international seaborne trade”, alongside Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

• The newly elected council will meet formally at the conclusion of the 32nd Assembly for the IMO’s 126th session on Wednesday, when it will elect its Chair and Vice-Chair for the next biennium

IIT Guwahati established advanced facilities at nanotechnology centre

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati has established advanced microelectronics and nano-energy facilities at its Centre for Nanotechnology which is the first-of-its-kind in the Northeast, according to officials. The centre, aimed at meeting future challenges and augmenting academic partnerships with industry in nanotechnology, will carry out multidisciplinary translational research in the fields of health care, nano biomaterials, micro and nanoelectronics, nano-energy devices and sensors.

• The institute has been working in the field of nanotechnology since early 2000 and has a proven record in multiple areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the new building last month, the construction of which was funded by the income generated by the existing work on nanotechnology at the institute.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Unicef Day 2021: 11th December

• Every year, UNICEF Day is observed on December 11 to raise awareness about saving children’s lives by defending and helping them to fulfil their wishes. The day provides assistance for the health, nutrition, education, and welfare of children during World War II. UNICEF’s name was subsequently changed from United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund to United Nations Children’s Fund though, it continued to be known by the popular acronym based on the previous title.

• The theme for this year is to help children recover from interruptions and learning losses experienced through pandemics in the last two years.

International Day of Neutrality 2021: 12th December

• International Day of Neutrality is a United Nations recognized day held on December 12 each year to raise public awareness of the value of neutrality in international relations. It was officially declared by a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in February 2017 and first observed on December 12, 2017.

• Neutrality defined as the legal status arising from the abstention of a state from all participation in a war between other states, the maintenance of an attitude of impartiality toward the belligerents, and the recognition by the belligerents of this abstention and impartiality is critically important for the United Nations to gain and maintain the confidence and cooperation of all in order to operate independently and effectively, especially in situations that are politically charged.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

India's Harnaaz Sandhu becomes Miss Universe 2021

• Actor-model Harnaaz Sandhu made history as she was crowned Miss Universe 2021 beating contestants from 80 countries, 21 years after India last brought home the title. While Paraguay’s Nadia Ferreira, 22, finished second, South Africa’s Lalela Mswane, 24, came third.

• Only two Indians before Ms Sandhu have won the title of Miss Universe— actors Sushmita Sen in 1994 and Lara Dutta in 2000. The 70th edition of the event was held in Eilat, Israel, where the 21-year-old bagged the coveted pageant.

Mathematician Neena Gupta wins 2021 Ramanujan Prize

• Indian Mathematician Neena Gupta has received the 2021 DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from Developing Countries for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata. She is the third woman to receive Ramanujan Prize, which was first awarded in 2005 and is administered by Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics jointly with Dept Science and Technology and International Mathematical Union.

• After graduating with mathematics honours from Bethune College, Kolkata, in 2006, Neena Gupta went on to complete her post-graduation from the Indian Statistical Institute.

• Following her post-graduation, Professor Gupta pursued her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in algebraic geometry and in the year 2014 went on to publish her first research paper on Zariski’s ‘cancellation problem’. Her paper received an award and was widely recognised by other mathematicians.

BANKING AND ECONOMIC

Karnataka Bank bags two DigiDhan Awards from MeitY

• Karnataka Bank has been conferred with two DigiDhan awards instituted by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The awards were given during Digital payment Utsav in New Delhi. The award recognized banks for achieving the target with the highest percentage in BHIM-UPI transactions under the private sector bank category consecutively for two years 2019-20 and 2020-21. Karnataka Bank has always stood ahead of the time in adopting the latest digital technology to its products in order to provide best in class service to our customers.