UAE’s Mohammad Naveed, Shaiman Anwar banned for 8 years from all cricket
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has imposed eight years ban on former UAE players Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar Butt from all cricket, for trying to fix matches during the T20 World Cup qualifiers in 2019. The ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal had found them guilty of breaching the Anti-Corruption Code in January 2021.
The bans are backdated to 16 October 2019, when they were provisionally suspended for attempting to corrupt matches of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 in the UAE. Naveed was the captain and leading wicket-taker. Anwar was the opening bat. Both had long international careers and were well versed in the threat from match-fixers.
Both have been charged with two breaches each, the first of which is Article 2.2.1, which stands for ‘contriving, or being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the upcoming ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.’
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chairman of ICC: Greg Barclay.
- CEO of ICC: Manu Sawhney.
- Headquarters of ICC: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Advisor P K Sinha resigns
Former Cabinet Secretary and Principal Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) P.K. Sinha has relinquished his high-profile position on personal grounds. He was appointed in the PMO first as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) briefly and then as Principal Advisor, a specially created position for him, in September 2019 after the 2019 parliamentary polls. Besides him, two senior officials are serving as Advisors in the PMO: Bhaskar Khulbe and Amarjit Sinha, both 1983 batch retired IAS officials.
Mr. Sinha is a retired 1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and served in various capacities during the UPA and the NDA regimes. His is the second high profile exit from the PMO after PM’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra had resigned after the last Lok Sabha polls. Earlier, he was Secretary, Ministry of Power in the government of India and served as Cabinet Secretary for four years from 2015.
Virat Kohli becomes first player to score 3000 runs in men’s T20I
Indian captain Virat Kohli has breached the 3000-run mark in Twenty20 Internationals with his last shot in the second T20I against England. Kohli’s knock of 73 runs, which came off 49 balls, also helped India to level the five-match T20I series. He also became the third captain in international cricket to score 12000 runs as a captain. He joined legendary captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith in the elite list.
Samsung sets up Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University
Samsung India has announced that it has inaugurated a Samsung Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University (DTU) to focus on collaborative research and training. It has set up the innovation lab under the Samsung Innovation Campus initiative as part of its new #PoweringDigitalIndia vision. With this addition, Samsung now has eight technical labs spread across the country as part of its Samsung Innovation Campus initiative, which was earlier called Samsung Digital Academy.
About the project:
- As part of the lab, engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Noida (SRI-N) will work with students and faculty at DTU on collaborative research projects on smartphone domains.
- The students and faculty at DTU will work on domains such as Application Framework, Multimedia, Health and Security, at the lab.
- Projects will focus on technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Computer Vision. So far, over 200 students have worked with SRI-N engineers on research projects and have received training.
- Collaborative research projects will be open to B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD students at DTU, who will receive certificates for their contribution at the end of each project. Samsung Innovation Campus is the company’s global citizenship program that aims to bridge proficiency gaps by skilling students on cutting-edge technology.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Samsung Founder: Lee Byung-chul.
- Samsung Founded: 1 March 1938, Seoul, South Korea.
- Samsung Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea.
WHO declares El Salvador malaria-free
El Salvador is the first country in Central America to be certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization. WHO grants a certification of malaria elimination when a country proves “beyond a reasonable doubt” that there has been no indigenous transmission of the disease nationwide for the previous three consecutive years.
El Salvador hasn’t had a malaria outbreak since 1996 and has reported no indigenous cases since 2017. In 1990, the country had 9,000 cases per year, a figure that declined to 26 by 2010. WHO credited El Salvador’s sustained domestic funding for malaria prevention, detection, and treatment for the success.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- El Salvador President: Nayib Bukele.
- El Salvador Capital: San Salvador; Currency: El Salvador colon.
Audio cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens passes away
The Dutch inventor of audio cassette tapes, Lou Ottens passed away. Dutch engineer credited with inventing the cassette tape and playing a major role in the development of the first CD. In 1963, Ottens presented the first cassette tape at the Berlin Radio Show electronics fair. After the fair deal signed between Sony and Philips to patent his creation that gained worldwide popularity. Ottens also worked on the CD development project.
The device that he made was equipped with a directional antenna which he termed as “Germanenfilter” because it was resistant to the jammers used by the Nazi regime. In 1960, Ottens with his team developed the first portable tape recorder and two years later, he invented CDs.
RBI: Image-based Cheque Truncation System in all branches by Sep 30
The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to implement the image-based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) in all branches by September 30 this year. The move is aimed at faster settlement of cheques resulting in better customer service. The Apex bank said that to leverage the availability of CTS and provide a uniform customer experience irrespective of the location of her/his bank branch, it has been decided to extend CTS across all bank branches in the country. To facilitate this, banks will have to ensure that all their branches participate in image-based CTS under respective grids by September 30.
About Image Cheque clearing system:
- There’s now a new way of clearing cheques more easily and quickly across the UK.
- The Image Clearing System allows banks and building societies to exchange images of cheques instead of moving paper around the country.
- This new approach means you can withdraw money much sooner.
What is Cheque Truncation System?
A cheque truncation system is an arrangement that facilitates the electronic processing of a cheque with the use of Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR) data and the scanned image of the instrument without involving any physical exchange or movement of the financial instrument.
WEF honours ReNew Power named as Global Lighthouse Network
ReNew Power has been named to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Lighthouse Network, which recognises companies using new technologies to achieve environmentally sustainable, community supportive, profitable growth. ReNew Power is an Indian renewable energy company. It has an asset base of over 8 GW, with around 5 GW operational. ReNew Power is one of the two Indian companies to be recognised by the Global Lighthouse Network this year.
The WEF Global Lighthouse Network is a group of 69 factories that serve as a platform to develop, replicate, and scale innovations, creating opportunities for cross-company learning and collaboration while setting new benchmarks for the global manufacturing community.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- World Economic Forum Headquarters: Cologny, Switzerland.
- World Economic Forum Founder: Klaus Schwab.
- World Economic Forum Founded: January 1971.
Hurun India Wealth Report 2020 announced
The Hurun India Wealth Report, 2020 was released on March 16, 2020. The report identifies a novel household category in India called the ‘New Middle Class’ which accounts for an average savings of Rs 20-lakh per annum. The report highlights that these households have a major allocation towards physical assets like primary residential property and automobiles. As per the report, the total number of such cumulative households in India stands at 633,000.
About the report:
- The report further states that there are around 4,12,000 dollar-millionaire households or affluent households across India which are having a net worth of Rs 7 crore. As per the report, the Hurun Rich Listers comprise a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore.
- This category of the report comprises 3000 number of cumulative households in India. The ‘Indian middle class’ has earnings of over Rs 2.5-lakh per annum while they have a net worth of less than Rs 7 crore. The ‘Indian Middle Class’ category accounts for 56400,000 families in India.
About Wealthy Households
The Hurun report classifies two broad segments of the wealthy households in India. The first is the “lower part” which comprises the households having the work compensation income, fixed deposits, real estate and equity investments as the primary source of income. The second segment is the “Upper Part” which comprises inherited wealth, primary business earnings, real estate possessions and an equity investment portfolio as their sources of income.
Business Owner:
The report highlights that, business-owner whether a billionaire or international ultra-high net worth individual or an affluent individual allocate a major portion of their wealth for their primary business activities.
Nokia to Develop New 5G Radio Solutions
The Finnish telecom equipment maker, Nokia has announced on March 16 that it has partnered with Microsoft, Amazon web services and Google so as to develop a new cloud-based 5G radio solution. This solution will be developed with its radio access network (RNA) technology. This partnership was gone with the objective of developing new business cases.
About Radio Access Network (RAN)
- RAN is part of a mobile telecommunication system. This system implements radio access technology. RAN resides between a device like a computer, mobile phone or any remotely controlled machine. It also provides a connection with the core network.
- Based on the standard mobile phones and other wireless connected devices are called user equipment, terminal equipment or mobile station etc. The functionality of RAN is typically provided by the silicon chip which resides in both the core network and the user equipment.
Features of RAN
- The single handset or phone can be connected to multiple radio access networks simultaneously.
- The Handsets which are capable of this feature are called dual-mode handsets. For example, a handset can commonly support both GSM and UMTS or “3G” radio access technologies. Such devices also transfer the ongoing call across different radio access networks without any disruption to users.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Nokia CEO: Pekka Lundmark.
- Nokia Founded: 12 May 1865.
- Nokia Headquarters: Espoo, Finland.
