Daily Current Affairs 14th and 15th May 2023

National News

1. National Medical Commission makes unique ID mandatory for doctors

• Doctors will now have to get a Unique Identification Number (UID) to be able to practice medicine in the country, as per the new regulations by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
• The UID will be generated centrally by the NMC ethics board and thereby grant the practitioner, registration in NMR and eligibility to practice medicine in India. According to the new notification by NMC, there will be a common national medical register for all the registered medical practitioners of the country.
• The same will be maintained by the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) under the NMC. This register will contain all the entries of the registered medical practitioners of all State Registers maintained by the various State Medical Councils and will have all relevant information regarding the medical practitioner.

States News

2. Tungnath temple built by Pandavas declared national monument

• Tungnath, located in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, is not only one of the highest Shiva temples in the world but also the highest among the five Panch Kedar temples.
• Recently, it has been designated as a national monument. The Central Government declared Tungnath a monument of national importance in a notification dated March 27. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), led by Devraj Singh Rautela, confirmed that they had been working towards this recognition for a significant period.
• During the process, ASI actively sought public opinions and objections regarding the declaration of Tungnath as a national heritage.

Appointments News

3. Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood appointed next CBI director

• Praveen Sood, the Director General of Police in Karnataka, has been appointed as the next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The 59-year-old will take on the position for two years after Subodh Kumar Jaiswal’s term ends on May 25.
• With an impressive educational background, Sood has previously held roles including superintendent of police of Bellary and Raichur districts, commissioner of police of Mysore City, and police advisor to the government of Mauritius.

• In April, wholesale price-based inflation dropped to -0.92% on a yearly basis, down from 1.34% in March, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. This decrease was greater than the estimated 0.2% decline from a Reuters poll.
• The month-to-month change in WPI for April 2023 compared to March 2023 remained unchanged at 0.0%. For the 11th consecutive month, WPI-based inflation has continued to decline in April. The decline in inflation was widespread, primarily due to lower prices of crude oil, energy, non-food items, and food articles. In April, the rate of inflation for primary articles decreased to 1.60% compared to 2.40% in March.

Ranks and Reports News

7. MoPSW ranked 2nd in the Survey Report on Data Governance Quality Index

• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has achieved an outstanding accomplishment in securing the second position among 66 ministries in the highly influential Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI) assessment for 2022-2023 Q3. The Ministry has been awarded an impressive score of 4.7 out of 5, which highlights the ministry’s unwavering commitment to achieving excellence in data governance.
• The DGQI survey is conducted by the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), Niti Aayog, with the intention of measuring the maturity level of administrative data systems used in decision-making processes by various Ministries and Departments for the implementation of Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).

Awards News

8. Jayant Narlikar awarded Govind Swarup Lifetime Achievement Award 2022

• Renowned astronomer and founder director of IUCAA, Prof Jayant V. Narlikar, received the inaugural Govind Swarup Lifetime Achievement Award from the Astronomical Society of India (ASI).
• Narlikar is a past president of ASI and was the founding director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). He is known for his work on cosmology and gravitation, and has made significant contributions to the understanding of the evolution of the universe.

Important takeaways for all competitive exams: 

• President of the Astronomical Society of India: Prof. Dipankar Banerjee;
• Astronomical Society of IndiaHyderabad, India;
• Astronomical Society of India Founded: 1972. 

Summits and Conferences News

9. 6th Indian Ocean Conference- IOC 2023

• The Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) was established in 2016 and over the past six years, it has become the prominent consultative forum for nations in the region to discuss regional affairs. The objective of the IOC is to facilitate discussions on regional cooperation for Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) by bringing together important states and principal maritime partners of the region on a common platform.
• The 6th IOC is set to take place on May 12-13, 2023, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and is being organised by India Foundation in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Bangladesh, and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. The theme for the conference is “Peace, Prosperity and Partnership for a Resilient Future”. The conference aims to bring together a distinguished gathering of key stakeholders to chart the course for strengthening the Indian Ocean Region.

Sports News

10. Telangana’s Vuppala Prraneeth became India’s 82nd Grandmaster

• V. Prraneeth, a 15-year-old chess player from Telangana, achieved the title of Grandmaster, becoming the sixth from the state and the 82nd in India. He secured this milestone by defeating GM Hans Niemann from the US during the penultimate round of the Baku Open 2023.
• This victory also helped him surpass an Elo rating of 2500, specifically 2500.5. Prraneeth obtained his first GM-norm and the title of International Master (IM) at the First Saturday tournament in March 2022. He earned his second GM-norm at Biel MTO in July 2022, followed by his final GM-norm at the second Chessable Sunway Formentera Open 2023 after nine months.

Important Days

11. International Day of Families 2023 observed on 15 May

• International Day of Families is celebrated on May 15 to raise awareness of the importance of families and their role in society. The day focuses on the important role that families play in our society while also highlighting the issues faced by them. The International Day of Families is a global observance that is celebrated by countries around the world.
• In the United States, the day is celebrated by a variety of organizations, including the National Council on Family Relations, the Family Resource Coalition of America, and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. International Day of Families has been observed annually, with a different theme each year. The theme of International Day of Families 2023 is ‘Demographic Trends and Families’.