15th and 16th April 2021 Daily GK Update: Read Daily GK, Current Affairs for Bank Exam

Here is the Daily GK Update of 15th and 16th April 2021 covering the following news headlines: e-SANTA, Poshan Gyan, Regulations Review Authority, Gaganyaan Mission, Amazon, Inclusive Internet Index 2021, World Voice Day.

Daily GK updates are incorporated with the important news that made the current affairs headlines for banking or other competitive exams. Daily GK Update is the complete bag of the important news that held all day long. One should have complete knowledge about banking terms, current affairs news, etc. So, here is the GK update of 15th and 16th April 2021 to help you prepare the Current affairs part. After reading this section, you can successfully attempt Current Affairs Quiz.

National News

1. Mental-Health Digital Platform MANAS Launched

• The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Prof. K Vijay Raghavan launched a mobile app called “MANAS” to cater mental well-being of citizens on scalable, secure and digital platforms.
• MANAS stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System.
• MANAS is an initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. It has been jointly executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune and C-DAC Bengaluru.
• The app MANAS is developed under the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), to promote wellbeing across age groups.

2. Piyush Goyal Launches “e-SANTA”, an Electronic Marketplace For Aqua Farmers

• Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal has inaugurated e-SANTA, an electronic marketplace, to provide a platform for connecting aqua farmers and buyers. e-SANTA aims to raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, of aqua farmers.
• e-SANTA stands for Electronic Solution for Augmenting NaCSA farmers’ Trade-in Aquaculture.
• Here, the term National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA) is an extension arm of the Marine Products Export Development Authority.
• It will act as an alternative marketing tool between farmers & buyers by eliminating middlemen.
• The platform will help the farmers to get a better price and the exporters to directly purchase quality products from the farmers and enhancing traceability.

International News

3. US President Biden announces complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

• US President Joe Biden has announced that all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11 this year, thus bringing to end the country’s longest war.
• US troops, as well as forces deployed by our NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Allies and operational partners, will be out of Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of that heinous attack on September 11 (2001). 
• Biden and his team are refining national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in Afghanistan, but anywhere they may arise — Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
• Before making the announcement, Biden had spoken with former US presidents Barack Obama and George Bush.
• The US and the Taliban signed a landmark deal in Doha on February 29, 2020, to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan and allow US troops to return home from America’s longest war.

4. Indian-American Congressman Introduces Resolution “To Honour” BR Ambedkar

• An Indian-American Congressman has introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives for a second consecutive year to honour Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, on his 130th birth anniversary so that young leaders around the world can be inspired by his vision for equality.
• The resolution states that Dr Ambedkar’s contributions to economics, political science, civil rights, religious harmony, and jurisprudence have had a profound impact around the world, promoting democratic values, unfettered equality, and justice for peoples of all castes, races, genders, religions, and backgrounds.

State News

5. Himachal Day is observed on 15th April

• Himachal Day is observed on 15th April in Himachal Pradesh. The state became a full-fledged state on this day.
• Four districts of Mandi, Chamba, Mahasu and Sirmour were integrated with over two dozen princely states, leading to the formation of Himachal Pradesh as a Union Territory in 1948.
• Decades later, in 1971, Himachal Pradesh became the 18th state in India with Shimla as its capital.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Chief Minister of HP: Jairam Thakur; Governor of HP: Bandaru Dattatraya.

6. Pohela Boishakh (Subho Noboborsho) 2021

• Pohela Boishakh, also known as Bengali New Year, is the traditional New Year day of the Bengali people.
• The festival date is set according to the lunisolar Bengali calendar as the first day of its first month Baishakh. However, the festival falls on April 14 or April 15 every year in India.
• In Bengali, Pohela stands for ‘first’ and Boishakh is the first month of the Bengali calendar. The festival is celebrated with processions, fairs and family time. Bengalis all over the world celebrate New Year by on this day by greeting each other by saying Shubho Nobobarsho.

Banking News

7. RBI to set up Regulations Review Authority for one year

Schemes and Committees News

13. NITI Aayog launches ‘Poshan Gyan’, a digital repository on health, nutrition

• NITI Aayog, in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University launched called “Poshan Gyan”, a national digital repository on health and nutrition. The website can be accessed through eh following link: https://poshangyan.niti.gov.in/
• The unique feature of the repository is that it has a crowdsourcing feature that allows anyone to submit communication material for inclusion on the website, followed by a review by a designated committee.
• Poshan Gyan repository enables the search of communication materials on 14 thematic areas of health and nutrition across diverse languages, media types, target audiences and sources.
• Content for the repository has been sourced from the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child Development and developmental organizations.

14. ‘Aahaar Kranti’ mission launched by Health Ministry

• Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched Aahaar Kranti, a mission dedicated to spreading awareness about nutrition. It is designed to address the peculiar problem of hunger and diseases in abundance, being faced by India and the world.
• The movement proposes to address the problem by working to rouse the people to the values and richness of India’s traditional diet, to the healing powers of local fruits and vegetables and to the miracles of a balanced diet. Vijnana Bharati, Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats Forum, Vigyan Prasar, and Pravasi Bharatiya Academic and Scientific Sampark have come together to launch this mission.

Awards News

15. Marathi film Puglya wins Best Foreign Feature at Moscow Film Fest

• The Marathi film “Puglya” has won the Best Foreign Language Feature award at Moscow International Film Festival, 2021. The film Puglya has been directed and produced by Vinod Sam Peter under the banner Abraham Films.
• So far, this film has won over 45 awards and recognitions at various international film festivals. The film is yet to be released in India. The film revolves around a pug and two boys, who are around 10 years old.

Science and Technology News

16. A ‘Healthy normal’ Monsoon forecasts by Skymet

• Skymet has released its monsoon forecast for 2021. Skymet expects the upcoming monsoon to be ‘healthy normal’ to the tune of 103% (with an error margin of +/- 5%) of the long period average (LPA) of 880.6 mm for the 4-month period from June to September.
• The North India plains along with a few parts of northeast India are at risk of being rain deficient through the season.
• The Indian Ocean Dipole, characterised by a temperature gradient in the western and eastern Indian Ocean. It is expected to be slightly on the negative. Usually a positive dipole aids the monsoon.
• During the season in India, the monsoon in 2019 and 2020 was only the third time in a century of back-to-back years of above normal rainfall.

Important Days

17. World Voice Day: 16 April

• The World Voice Day (WVD) is celebrated globally on April 16 every year to demonstrate the enormous importance of the voice in the daily lives of all people.
• The Day is a global annual event dedicated to recognizing the boundless limits of the human voice. The mission is to share the excitement of the voice phenomenon with people, scientists, and other funding bodies.
• The theme of 2021 is ONE WORLD|MANY VOICES.
• World Voice Day found its beginnings in 1999 as Brazilian National Voice Day.

Obituaries News

18. Former election commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy passes away

• Former election commissioner, GVG Krishnamurty passed away due to age-related ailments. An Indian Legal Service officer, Krishnamurty became the election commissioner in October 1993 to September 1996.

Miscellaneous News

19. “Online Grievance Management Portal” launched

• Union Minister for Communication & IT and Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad launched  the “Online Grievance Management Portal of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)”.
• NCSC Grievance Management portal would make it easier for Scheduled Castes population of our country to register their complaint from any part of the country.
• The portal shall enable them to file their application and other atrocity and services related grievances online and to get them addressed in a time bound manner.
• NCSC aims to streamline the grievance redressal specially of the Scheduled Caste population through this portal.
• The portal designed in collaboration with the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N), a Centre of Excellence under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India will facilitate an end-to-end e-filing of complaints and grievances and their tracking.

20. HGCO19 an mRNA Vaccine Candidate

• India’s mRNA-based covid-19 vaccine candidate-HGCO19, developed by Pune-based biotechnology company Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd has received additional government funding for its clinical studies.
• The department of biotechnology (DBT), ministry of science & technology on Tuesday announced approval of additional funding awarded under Mission Covid Suraksha—The Indian covid-19 Vaccine Development Mission by DBT’s dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• After multiple rounds of evaluation of all the applications that were submitted in response to the ‘Request for Expression of Interest (REOI)’ under Mission COVID Suraksha for the development of covid-19 vaccine candidate(s)’.

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16th April Current Affairs 2021 | Current Affairs Today | Daily Current Affairs 2021

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