21st January 2021 Daily GK Update: Read Daily GK, Current Affairs for Bank Exam

• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has launched Himachal Pradesh’s first online youth radio station ”Radio Hills-Youngistan Ka Dil”.
• The Chief Minister appreciated the efforts of young entrepreneurs. The developer of the online radio Karan, and Radio Jockeys Palak, Rahul and Nidhi were also present on the occasion.
• The online radio would go a long way in promoting the culture and traditions of the state, besides providing an opportunity to the youth to exhibit their talents. The founders of the online radio, Deepika and Saurabh.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

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

3. Gujarat to Rename Dragon Fruit as ‘Kamalam’

• The Gujarat state government has renamed dragon fruit as ‘Kamalam’. The move has kept the internet in splits and many criticized it using the hashtag #SanskariFruitSabzi.
• As per Gujarat Chief Minister, the dragon fruit has been renamed Kamalam because of the shape of the fruit.
• The state government has applied for the patent of the fruit named Kamalam. This was announced at the launch of the Chief Minister Horticulture Development Mission.
• The Horticulture Development Mission is a scheme to promote horticulture in the unproductive regions of the state as well.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Gujarat Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani.
• Gujarat Governor: Acharya Devvrat.

• France President: Emmanuel Macron.
• France Capital: Paris.
• France Currency: Euro.

• Life Insurance Corporation Founded: 1 September 1956.
• Life Insurance Corporation Headquarters: Mumbai.

6. ACC appoints Sanjeev Kumar as new CMD of TCIL

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Sanjeev Kumar as the new Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL).
• According to an order from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Kumar has been appointed to the post for a period of five years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post, or till the age of superannuation, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. He is currently serving as Director (Technical) in Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).
• Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is a Miniratna PSU under the administrative control of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications. TCIL, a premier telecommunication consultancy and engineering company is making available its vast and varied telecom expertise to friendly developing countries.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• Telecommunications Consultants India Limited Founded: 1978.
• Telecommunications Consultants India Limited Headquarters: New Delhi.

7. Sundaram Finance names Rajiv Lochan as MD

• The board of Sundaram Finance has named Rajiv Lochan (director Strategy) as managing director with effect from April 1. Sundaram Finance Ltd has made top-level changes as the current managing director T.T. Srinivasaraghavan will be retiring on March 31, 2020.
• While the current deputy managing director Harsha Viji will assume the office of executive vice-chairman, and take responsibility for the overall strategy and direction of Sundaram Finance Ltd., and other group companies in financial services.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

Banking News

9. ICICI Bank launches ‘InstaFX’ mobile app

• ICICI Bank has launched a new mobile application ‘InstaFX’ for authorised money changers to help customers of any bank get ‘ICICI Bank Forex Prepaid Card’ swiftly. ICICI is the bank is the first in the country to offer such facility to money changers.
• A money changer is a person or organization whose business is the exchange of coins or currency of one country, for that of another.
• The ‘InstaFX’ app will enable the authorised money changers, who are partners of the Bank, to complete the KYC verification and validation of customers digitally and on a real-time basis.
• The ‘ICICI Bank Forex Prepaid Card’ gets activated swiftly within a few hours, as against the industry practice of up to two-days, thus it will significantly improve customer convenience, even if they are not customers of ICICI bank.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

• ICICI Bank Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• ICICI Bank MD & CEO: Sandeep Bakhshi.
• ICICI Bank Tagline: Hum Hai Na, Khayal Apka.

10.  Airtel Payments Bank launches ‘Airtel Safe Pay’

• To protect Airtel customers from the growing incidents of online payment frauds, Airtel Payments Bank has launched ‘Airtel Safe Pay’, a safe way to pay digitally.
• With ‘Airtel Safe Pay’, Airtel customers making UPI or net banking-based payments through Airtel Payments Bank, no longer have to worry about money flowing out of their accounts without their explicit consent.
• An India-First innovation, ‘Airtel Safe Pay’ leverages Airtel’s ‘telco exclusive’ strength of network intelligence to provide an additional layer of payment validation, compared to the industry norm of two-factor authentication.
• This offers the highest level of protection from potential frauds such as phishing, stolen credentials or passwords, and even phone cloning that catches customers unaware.
• Using ‘Airtel Safe Pay’, Airtel Payments Bank customers can make secure digital payments across millions of merchants, online retailers and utilities, and even send money.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams:

Ranks and Reports News

11. NITI Aayog Releases India Innovation Index 2.0

• NITI Aayog released the second edition of the India Innovation Index on 20 January 2021, along with the Institute for Competitiveness.
• India Innovation Index 2.0 or 2nd edition has released by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar. The index demonstrates the government’s continued commitment towards transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy. The report examines the innovation capabilities and performance of the states and union territories.
• The innovation index ranking is based on five enabler parameters (‘Human Capital’, ‘Investment’, ‘Knowledge Workers’, ‘Business Environment’, ‘Safety and Legal Environment’), and two performance parameters (‘Knowledge Output’ and ‘Knowledge Diffusion’).
• In the ‘Major States’ category, Karnataka occupied the top position, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu respectively.
• In UT and city-states category, Delhi topped followed by Chandigarh.
• Under the ‘North-Eastern/Hill States’ category, Himachal Pradesh emerged as the top state.

Obituaries News