Important Current Affairs 18th November 2021

NATIONAL

IFFI 2021:Tamil film Koozhangal selected to be screened at Indian Panorama segment

• Tamil film Koozhangal will be screened at the Indian Panorama segment in the 52 International film festival Goa. Koozhangal is also India’s official entry for Academy Award for Oscars. It is a story about the relationship between an alcoholic, abusive husband and his wife. The story is from the viewpoint of their Child.
• The 52 International Film Festival of India will be organized from 20 -28 November 2021 in Goa. The International Film Festival of India is one of India’s biggest international film festivals.

PM Modi inaugurated the 82nd AIPOC in Shimla

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the 82nd All India Presiding Officers Conference (AIPOC) in Shimla.  The first Conference was held in Shimla in 1921 and the AIPOC is being held in Shimla for the seventh time. All India Presiding Officers’ Conference (AIPOC) is celebrating its hundred years in 2021. In this conference, various issues will be discussed such as the responsibility of presiding officers towards the Constitution, the House and the people.
• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has presided over the conference. The Conference attended by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the presiding officers of all the States and Union Territories added the Lok Sabha speaker. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur also participate in the meeting.

Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv starts in Jhansi

• 3-day Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv will be held in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. 19th of November is the Birth Anniversary of Rani Lakshmi Bai, the epitome of bravery and courage and a great National icon of Rashtra Raksha and India’s Independence struggle. As a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv will be organised from November 17 to November 19, 2021.
• This event is being organised by the defence ministry in association with the Government of Uttar Pradesh. On November 19, the programme will witness the participation from Defence Minister, Minister of State for Defence, Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath.

SPORTS

Janette Brittin, Mahela Jayawardena and Shaun Pollock announced as ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced cricket legends Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka), Shaun Pollock (SA), and Janette Brittin (England) were inducted into the hall of fame. The ICC Hall of Fame recognizes the achievements of the legends of the game from cricket’s long and illustrious history. 106 players have been inducted since its launch in 2009.
• Jayawardene, who retired as one of Sri Lanka’s greatest ever players, was a key member of the team that won the T20 World Cup in 2014 and reached the four other major ICC finals.
• Pollock, on the other hand, was one of the finest all-rounders South Africa has ever produced. He was the first player to achieve the double of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets in both Test and ODI cricket.
• Brittin, who died in 2017, was a mainstay of the England Test team for 19 years, helping pave the way for women’s cricket from 1979 to 1998. She was the oldest woman to score a Test hundred (at 39 years and 38 days vs Australia in 1998) and the second-oldest to score an ODI hundred (at 38 years and 161 days vs Pakistan in 1997).

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Philosophy Day 2021: 18^th November

• World Philosophy Day is celebrated on the Third Thursday of November each year. In 2021, the day falls on 18 November. World Philosophy Day 2021 opens the discussion on the different interactions of human beings with their social, cultural, geographical and political environment, with the underlying objective of better understanding the contribution of philosophy in our contemporary societies and the challenges they face, pandemic in particular.
• World Philosophy Day was introduced in 2002 by UNESCO. In 2005 the UNESCO General Conference proclaimed that World Philosophy Day would be celebrated every third Thursday of November.

Naturopathy Day 2021: 18^th November

• The National Naturopathy Day is observed in India on 18 November every year, to promote positive mental and physical health through a drugless system of medicine, called as Naturopathy. The day was declared by the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), Government of India, on November 18, 2018.
• It was on this day in 1945, when Mahatma Gandhi became lifetime Chairman of the All India Nature Cure Foundation Trust and signed the deed with the object of making the benefits of Nature Cure available to all classes of people.

BOOKS & AUTHOR

“The Disruptor: How Vishwanath Pratap Singh Shook India” by Debashish Mukerji

• A book titled ‘The Disruptor: How Vishwanath Pratap Singh Shook India’ was authored by Debashish Mukerji. The book presents a detailed account on India’s eighth Prime Minister (PM), Vishwanath Pratap Singh (V P Singh), who served as PM between December 1989 to November 1990. He also served as the Defence Minister of India & the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

BANKING AND ECONOMIC

PIDF’s Total corpus reaches Rs 614 crore

• The total corpus of Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) of RBI has reached Rs 614 crore. The PIDF scheme was launched by RBI in January 2021, to subsidize deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure (PoS) in Tier-3 to Tier-6 centres with a special focus on the North-Eastern States of the country. At that time it was decided that, RBI will make an initial contribution of Rs. 250 crores to the PIDF covering half the fund and the remaining contribution will be from card-issuing banks and card networks operating in the country.
• Initially when the scheme has launched the corpus of PIDF was Rs. 345 crore (Rs. 250 crores contributed by RBI and Rs. 95 crores by the major authorized card networks in the country). Now various other Authorised Card Networks (Rs. 153.72) and Card Issuing Banks (Rs. 210.17 crores) have increased their contribution to the PIDF Scheme hence taking the total corpus to Rs. 613.89 crore (approx Rs 614 crore).

Oct WPI inflation hits five-month high of 12.54% on higher input costs

• Ministry of Commerce & Industry released its data on Wholesale Price Index (WPI). As per Ministry’s data, provisional Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation have been accelerated to a five-month high to 12.54% in October 2021 as against 66% recorded in September. This rise was attributed to an increase in fuel and manufacturing prices. The report notes that, benchmark inflation print has remained in double digits for seven consecutive months.
• The benchmark inflation print for October 2020 was 1.31%. The high rate of inflation in October 2021 is due to an increase in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas, food products, chemicals and chemical products etc as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

World Bank and Asian Development Bank launches 'WePOWER India Partnership Forum'

• The WePOWER India Partnership Forum was held through a virtual platform on November 9, 2021, to boost the South Asia Women in Power Sector Professional Network (WePOWER) in India. The event was organized by the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in association with the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). The event saw a panel discussion on expanding job opportunities for women in India’s Clean Energy Transition’.
• Initiated in 2019, WB in collaboration with ADB launched the WePOWER to promote gender equality in the Indian electricity sector. It is a network of 28 energy sector utilities and organizations. It also promotes normative change for women and girls in Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education.