18th August 2021 Daily GK Update: Read Daily GK, Current Affairs for Bank Exam

Here is the Daily GK Update of 18th August 2021 covering the following news headlines: De Jure Transfer day, Mirabai Chanu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anti-Terrorist Squad, National Youth Award, Exercise Konkan 2021.

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 is held all day long. One should have complete knowledge about banking terms, current affairs news, etc. So, here is the GK update of 18th August 2021 to help you prepare the Current affairs part. After reading this section, you can successfully attempt Current Affairs Quiz.

Top 15 Daily GK Updates: National & International News

Here is providing below the top 15 important Daily General Knowledge GK 2021 updates with national & international news

International News

1. Hakainde Hichilema wins Zambia Presidential Election

• In Zambia, opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, of the United Party for National Development, has won the 2021 general Presidential election of the country.
• The 59-year-old Hichilema won with a landslide victory, winning 59.38% of the total vote. He will replace incumbent President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front.
• Last year, Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper miner, produced a record output of the metal.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Zambia Capital: Lusaka;
• Zambia Currency: Zambian kwacha.

2. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigns

• The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resigned after losing a confidence vote in parliament. The 74-year-old Muhyiddin came to power in March 2020. He will however stay on as a caretaker prime minister until a successor is named.
• The resignations plunged Malaysia even deeper into political turmoil while it contends with one of the world’s worst surges of the virus.
• The nation of about 32 million people has averaged more than 20,000 cases per day in the last 14 days, and just 33 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated. The total death toll from the pandemic in the country is at least 12,510.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Malaysia Capital: Kuala Lumpur.
• Malaysia Currency: Malaysian Ringgit.

State News

3. UP govt to set up Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) training centre

• The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up a training centre for Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) commandos in Saharanpur’s Deoband.
• According to sources, the government has already allotted over 2,000 square meters of land for establishing the ATS training centre in Deoband.
• Deoband is on the Uttaranchal and Haryana border and it is an important place to help us increase our depth, presence and operation efficiency in western parts of the state.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• UP Capital: Lucknow;
• UP Governor: Anandiben Patel;
• UP Chief minister: Yogi Adityanath.

Appointments News

4. Priyanka Chopra Jonas named MAMI film festival chairperson

• Actor-producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas was announced as the chairperson of Jio MAMI Film Festival, almost four months after Deepika Padukone stepped down from the position.
• The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) unveiled its plans for the coming year, edition and the change in leadership.
• Priyanka was unanimously nominated by MAMI’s Board of Trustees which comprises Nita M Ambani (Co-Chairperson), Anupama Chopra (Festival Director), Ajay Bijli, Anand G. Mahindra, Farhan Akhtar, Isha Ambani, Kabir Khan, Kaustubh Dhavse, Kiran Rao, Rana Daggubati, Riteish Deshmukh, Rohan Sippy, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vishal Bhardwaj and Zoya Akhtar.

5. Amway India appoints Mirabai Chanu as brand ambassador

• Direct selling FMCG firm Amway India has announced that it has appointed Olympian Saikhom Mirabai Chanu as the brand ambassador for Amway and its Nutrilite range of products.
• Chanu will spearhead the company’s campaigns focused on product ranges such as Nutrilite Daily, Omega and All Plant Protein among others. Chanu, a weightlifter, won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 49kg category.

Banking News

6. RBI launches the Financial Inclusion Index

• The Reserve Bank of India has introduced the Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index), which is a measure of the extent of financial inclusion in India.
• FI-Index incorporates the inclusion details of banking, investments, insurance, postal and pension sector in India. This was among the announcements made in the first bimonthly monetary policy in April this year.
• The value of FI-Index will range between 0 to 100. Where 0 denotes complete financial exclusion while 100 denotes full financial inclusion.
• Parameters of FI-Index: The FI-Index comprises of three parameters, namely- Access (35%), Usage (45%), and Quality (20%) with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators. In total there are 97 indicators.
• The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 is 53.9 while for the period ending March 2017 it is 43.4. RBI will release the FI-Index in the month of July every year. There is no base year for this Index.

Defence News

7. INS Tabar Participates in Exercise Konkan 2021

• The Indian Naval Ship Tabar arrived at Portsmouth in England, to undertake the annual bilateral drill ‘Exercise Konkan 2021’ between the Indian Navy and Britain’s Royal Navy.
• The bilateral naval exercise Konkan is being held every year since 2004, to enhance the interoperability, synergy and cooperation between both navies. HMS Westminster of the Royal Navy took part from Britain’s side.

Ranks and Reports News

8. Ghaziabad is world’s second most polluted city of 2020

• Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad was adjudged the second most polluted city out of the 50 ‘most polluted cities’ in the world in 2020 by a report prepared by British company HouseFresh. Ghaziabad reported an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 2.5 particulate matter (PM) in 106.6µg/m3.
• Preceding Ghaziabad, the Chinese city of Hotan in Xinjiang province has been named the most polluted city with a PM2.5 of 110.2µg/m3. The report attributed the air pollution in Hotan to sandstorms resulting from its closeness to the Taklimakan Desert, which is the largest shifting sand desert in the world.
• According to the report, Bangladesh was the most polluted country across the world in 2020, followed by Pakistan, India and Mongolia.
• Meanwhile, Judbury in Australia bagged the top position in the list of cities with the cleanest air with a PM2.5 level of 2.4µg/m3.

Awards News

9. Mohammad Azam honoured with National Youth Award

• An influential US lawmaker from New York reintroduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives to posthumously award the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal to Mahatma Gandhi in recognition of his promotion of peace and nonviolence.
• The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award in the United States. Gandhi would be the first Indian to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, an honour bestowed upon such great figures as George Washington, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks.

10. Mohammad Azam honoured with National Youth Award

• Mohammad Azam from Karimnagar district in Telangana has been awarded the National Youth Award recently by the Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur in Delhi for displaying exemplary leadership qualities.
• He has conducted several awareness programmes related to blood donation, organ donation and plantation programmes under the Haritha Haram project. The award carries an appreciation certificate and Rs 50,000 cash.
• Apart from these, he has also worked on water conservation, construction of soaking pits, works related to the Swachh Bharat mission and government welfare schemes, for the benefit of the people in various villages.
• He received the ‘Indira Gandhi NSS Award’ from then President of India Pranab Mukherjee. He was also awarded the Pratibha Puraskar award by the State government in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and the Rashtriya Gaurav Samman Award.

Sports News

11. Messi signs for Paris St Germain after leaving Barcelona

• Lionel Messi joined star-packed Paris St Germain after leaving Barcelona, the club where he had begun, after 21 years.
• Messi, a six-time winner of the Ballon d’Or for Europe’s best soccer player, signed a two-year contract with an option for a third year. Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain or PSG.
• Messi leaves Barcelona with 672 goals in 778 appearances, a record tally for one club. His trophy haul includes four Champions Leagues and 10 La Liga titles.

12. Raunak Sadhwani wins 2021 Spilimbergo Open Chess Tournament

• A 15-year-old young Indian Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani has won the 19th Spilimbergo Open chess tournament in Italy. The fourth-seeded Sadhwani, who hails from Nagpur, remained undefeated in the tournament, with seven points from nine rounds, in which claimed five wins and four draws.
• In the ninth and final round, Sadhwani and Italian GM Pier Luigi Basso finished level on seven points, but the Indian was declared the winner on the basis of a better tie-break score.

Obituaries News

13. Maki Kaji, creator of Sudoku puzzle passes away

• Maki Kaji, the creator of puzzle Sudoku passed away at the age of 69 years due to bile duct cancer. He was known as the father of Sodoku and was from Japan. He was the president of Nikoli Co., Ltd., a Japanese puzzle manufacturer.
• Kaji established Japan’s first puzzle magazine, Puzzle Tsushin Nikoli, with pals in 1980. His most legendary creation, Sudoku, followed in 1983.

Miscellaneous News

14. Puducherry celebrates its De Jure Transfer day

• Puducherry on 16th August celebrated its De Jure Transfer day. Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly, R. Selvam, paid floral tributes at the memorial in Kizhur, a remote hamlet in Puducherry, where the transfer of power took place on the same day in 1962.
• De Jure Transfer Day is the day it really got independence. The then Pondicherry was under French control well after 1947.
• The treaty of cession signed between the French and Indian governments was ratified by the French Parliament only on August 16, 1962.
• So on that day the “De-Jure”(The Legal Merger of the UT with the Indian Union) was effected. 178 representatives participated in the referendum in which 170 voted in favour of a merger with India and 8 against it.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

•  Chief Minister of Puducherry: N Rangasamy.

15. J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha launches PROOF App

• In Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has unveiled a mobile application named PROOF, to bring more transparency and accountability in the governance system. PROOF stands for ‘Photographic Record of On-site Facility’.
• The main objective of this app is to monitor the work progress of all the projects allocated to different departments of the UT and ensure timely completion of these projects.
• The app will give a complete pictorial view of the work along with its geographical coordinates i.e. latitude and longitude and user comments on work progress
• As per the new rules of the UT government, no bills shall be entertained in the treasury unless photographs of projects are uploaded.
• In order to get the bills passed, it will be mandatory to upload geo-tagged photographs to bring in more transparency and accountability in the system.