Important Current Affairs 28th October 2021

NATIONAL

GAIL Ltd will build India's largest green hydrogen plant in next 12-14 months

•State-owned GAIL (India) Ltd will build India’s largest green hydrogen-making plant as it looks to supplement ‎its natural gas business with carbon-free fuel. GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Jain said the company is looking at building a 10-megawatt (MW) electrolyzer capable of generating 4.5 tonnes of green hydrogen daily.

•The firm has already floated a global tender to buy the electrolyzer and is hoping to get delivery in 12-14 months. It will be double the size of the one announced by state electricity producer NTPC.

R K Singh, Union Minister of Power & New and Renewable Energy, launched the new market segment, Green Day Ahead Market

•The Union Minister of Power & New and Renewable Energy, R K Singh has launched a new market segment, “Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM)”. This makes India as the only large electricity market in the world to implement a GDAM exclusively for renewable energy. The launch of the green day-ahead market will deepen the green market and will provide competitive price signals, besides offering an opportunity to market participants to trade in green energy, in the most transparent, flexible, competitive, and efficient manner.

•The new initiative will open the renewable energy sector to enable anyone to set up the capacity and sell it to distribution companies and industries.

•Meanwhile, the electricity generation and distribution companies will be able to buy or sell renewable energy through open access.

India successfully test-fires surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5

•The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) carried successful test-firing of surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5 on October 27, 2021, from APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha. Agni-5 is a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which uses a three-stage solid-fuelled engine. The missile can strike targets at ranges up to 5,000 km with a very high degree of accuracy.

•The indigenously-developed surface-to-surface missile, Agni-5, is capable of striking a target more than 5,000 km. It is about 17-metre long, 2-metre wide and has a launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne. The successful test of Agni-5 is in line with India’s stated policy to have ‘credible minimum deterrence’ that underpins the commitment to ‘No First Use’.

Union Minister for MSME Narayan Rane launches “SAMBHAV” National Level Awareness Programme, 2021

•The Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) has launched an e-National Level Awareness Programme ‘SAMBHAV”, to promote engagement of the youth in promoting entrepreneurship. The e-National Level Awareness Programme 2021 ‘SAMBHAV” was launched by Union Minister of MSME Narayan Rane in New Delhi.

•The mass outreach program will be a one-month long initiative under the Ministry of MSME in which students from different colleges/ITIs from all parts of the country will be encouraged by 130 field offices of the Ministry to take up entrepreneurship.

•During the campaign, the college students will be made aware of the various schemes being implemented by the Ministry of MSME through Audio/Video film presentations.

•Awareness programs will be conducted in more than 1,300 colleges across the country in which 1,50,000 students are expected to participate.

SPORTS

Fabio Quartararo Becomes 2021 MotoGP World Champion

•Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo became the ‘’2021 MotoGP World Champion’’. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) secured second and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar), finished third. Fabio Quartararo is the sixth-youngest rider to clinch a premier class world title, aged 22 years, 187 days on race day of the Emilia Romagna GP.

•Quartararo became the first French rider to clinch a premier class world title and the seventh overall in GP racing along with Johann Zarco (2 titles), Mike Di Meglio (1), Arnaud Vincent (1), Olivier Jacque (1), Christian Sarron (1) and Jean-Louis Tournadre (1).

APPOINTMENT & RESIGNATION

Siddharth Lal appointed Eicher Motors MD for 5 years starting May 1

•Eicher Motors Ltd passed the resolution to reappoint Siddhartha Lal as the Managing Director of the company for five years, starting May 1, 2021.

•The board also approved a revised remuneration structure for the Managing Director, with a maximum cap of 1.5 per cent of profits as per Section 198 of the Companies Act. The proposal for reappointment was cleared with almost 93.8 per cent of the total 226 million votes casted going in favour of the resolution.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Animation Day 2021: 28th October

•International Animation Day is observed every year on October 28 to celebrate the art of animation and also recognise the artists, scientists and technicians behind animation. This year marks the 20th International Animation Day. The day was created in 2002 by International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), an International Animated Film Association, a member of UNESCO.

•ASIFA created the International Animation Day (IAD) in 2002, honouring the birth of animation, recognized as the first public performance of projected moving images: Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optique in Paris, on the 28th October 1892.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Tsitsi Dangarembga received the German Book Trade Peace Prize 2021 at a ceremony in Frankfurt

•The Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2021 has been awarded to the Zimbabwean author and a filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga for a “new Enlightenment”, a work on violence in her country and all over the world by Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, an association of German book publishers and booksellers.

•Dangarembga is the first black woman to win the German Peace Prize. She has won the PEN Pinter prize 2021. Her debut novel, Nervous conditions were the first to be published in English by black women from Zimbabwe.

BOOKS & AUTHOR

The biography titled “Kamala Harris: Phenomenal Woman” written by Chidanand Rajghatta

•Renowned journalist and writer Chidanand Rajghatta have authored a new book “Kamala Harris: Phenomenal Woman”, a biography of Kamala Harris, the first women Vice President of the United States of America (USA).

•The book features the life incidents of Kamala Harris, a woman of mixed race (India and Jamaica) who has become the first Indian descent, the first woman to become the vice president of the USA.

BANKING AND ECONOMIC

CCI approves HDFC Bank's acquisition of 4.99% stake in HDFC ERGO

•The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of 4.99 percent of the outstanding equity share capital in HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company by private sector lender HDFC Bank. HDFC Bank will acquire 3.56 crore shares or 4.99% stake for Rs 1,906 crore from the parent company Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC). HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company is a joint venture between HDFC and European insurer ERGO International AG.

•The proposed combination will enable the lender to participate in the growth opportunity of HDFC ERGO General Insurance and create long-term value for its shareholders, as per a combination notice filed with the regulator.