Daily Current Affairs 23rd Oct 2021 – Videos, News & MCQs

Get All the Important Current Affairs of 23rd Oct 2021 in this blog. It covers all important sections like Banking Current Affairs, Finance Current Affairs, Sports Current Affairs, Latest Appointments, Awards and more. In this blog, you also get to solve Important Current Affairs MCQs of 23rd Oct 2021.

Daily Current Affairs 23rd Oct 2021

Important Days

October 23 is observed as International Snow Leopard Day since 2014.

• The day commemorates the anniversary of the Bishkek Declaration and to celebrate this endangered cat and raise awareness for its conservation and protection.
• It was on October 23, 2013, when political leaders from 12 countries came together to endorse the ‘Bishkek Declaration’ on the conservation of snow leopards.
• Snow Leopard is found in 12 countries. They are India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

• Union Territory of Ladakh has declared snow leopard (Panther unica) as the new state animal and black-necked crane (Grus nicricollis) as the new state bird
• Uttarakhand is going to develop India’s first Snow Leopard Conservation Centre in Uttarkashi forests. This centre will be developed by the Uttarakhand Forest Department along with the United Nations Development Program
• In India, the snow leopards are found in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim,Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh.

International News

International Monetary Fund’s Chief Economist and Director of the Research
Department, Gita Gopinath will leave the organisation in January 2022.

• She will return to Harvard University’s economics department.
• Gopinath, during her tenure, co-authored the “Pandemic Paper”, a document that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world against Covid-19, the IMF said.

Donald Trump has announced plans to launch a social media platform called TRUTH
Social that will be rolled be out early next year.

• The former US president, who was banned from Facebook and Twitter earlier this year, says his goal is to rival the tech companies that have denied him the megaphone that was paramount to his rise.
• Truth social will be a product of a new venture called the Trump Media & Technology Group.
• He wants to create a platform that rivals Twitter or Facebook, but that simply won’t happen.

National News

Union Cabinet has approved a further hike of 3 per cent in Dearness Allowance (DA) and
Dearness Relief (DR) for the central government employees and pensioners on October 21, 2021.

• The increase of 3% is over the existing rate of 28 percent of the basic pay/pension and will be effective from July 1, 2021.
• Now after this hike, the DA/DR will increase to 31%.
• It must be remembered that earlier in July 2021, the government had announced 11% hike in DA/DR from 17% to 28% of the basic pay/pension.
• It will cost the exchequer Rs 9,488.70 crore per annum.
• DA and DR hike announcement will benefit around 47.14 lakh Central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners respectively.

Reliance Industries Ltd’s Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL) and famous designer Manish
Malhotra have announced a strategic partnership to acquire a 40 per cent stake in
Malhotra’s MM Styles Pvt Ltd.

According to a Reliance Brands statement, this “strategic partnership” is the first “external
investment” for MM Styles Pvt Ltd.

Sports News

THOMAS Cup

• Indonesia beat defending champion China, 3-0, to win the Thomas Cup final played at the Ceres Arena in Aarhus, Denmark
• Japan and hosts Denmark shared the bronze.

UBER Cup

• Meanwhile, in Uber Cup, China beat defending champions Japan 3-1, to clinch their 15th Uber Cup trophy.
• South Korea and Thailand shared bronze.

• Thomas Cup is the biennial international badminton championship contested by the men’s national teams of the member associations of Badminton World Federation (BWF) while Uber Cup is women’ team event.
• The 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup was the 31st edition of the Thomas Cup and the 28th edition of the Uber Cup.

Appointment

Government of India has approved the appointment of Captain Alok Mishra as
the Managing Director of India Ports Global Limited (IPGL).

• He has been appointed for a five-year tenure.
• IPGL is a state-owned entity tasked with developing and running the strategically important and India-funded Chabahar port in Iran.
• India Ports Global Private Limited (IPGPL) is a joint venture company formed by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 2013.

Sports Authority of India (SAI) has appointed Commodore PK Garg as the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) effective from October 25, 2021.

• Commodore Garg will be replacing Commander Rajesh Rajagopalan, who held the post from 2018 till the Tokyo Olympics.
• The Arjuna Awardee recipient (1990) and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Awardee (1993-94), Commodore Garg served as the High-Performance Director with Sports Authority of India till June 2021.

Books and Author

Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched a book titled “Veer Savarkar: The Man Who
Could Have Prevented Partition” recently.

• The book is based on the life of Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and
  presents many new facets of Savarkar’s life which are unknown to the country.
  
• It has been authored by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit.

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Current Affairs 23rd Oct 2021 – MCQs

Q. RBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) over
certain specified violations, as referred in Section 26 (2) of which batch?
a) Banking Regulation Act, 1949
b) Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007
c) Indian Companies Act, 1913
d) RBI Act- 1934
e) RBI Act-1948

Answer: Option B

RBI observed that the information submitted during Paytm Payments Bank’s application for
issue of final Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) did not reflect the factual position.

Q. State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has appointed whom as the new
chief executive officer (CEO) of the company on deputation, on October 11, 2021.
a) Navnit Nakra
b) Arun Kumar Mishra
c) Imtiaz Ali
d) Gurdeep Singh
e) Sanjeev Singh

Answer: Option B

EESL is a joint venture of state-owned NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation, REC
Limited and POWERGRID, set up in 2009, under the Ministry of Power to facilitate energy
efficiency projects.

Q. Who is the head of the Expert Group on Tobacco Tax Policy set up by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare?
(a) Vikas Sheel
(b) V G Kannan
(c) M Rajeshwar Rao
(d) Baijayant Panda
(e) P K Mohanty

Answer: Option A

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has set up an expert group headed by Vikas Sheel, additional secretary in MoHFW to develop a comprehensive tax policy for all tobacco products.
• The reason behind this is to prepare a roadmap for reducing tobacco demandaccording to World Health Organization’s (WHO) plans.

Q. Which India Businessmen is set to invest in Zand, the first digital-only independent
bank in UAE.
a) Ratan Tata
b) Mukesh Ambani
c) Shantanu Narayen
d) Kumar Mangalam Birla
e) Uday Kotak

Answer: Option D

• Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Chairman of Aditya Birla Group,
• For this investment, Birla will partner with Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
• Initial investment is projected between $50-$100 million, which is expected to be made from Birla’s private family office.
• Birla is the first Indian to make an invest in the banking system of UAE.

That is all from us in this blog on Current Affairs 23rd Oct 2021.