Daily Current Affairs, 21st April 2020

1) India celebrates Civil Services Day on 21st April

•The Government of India celebrates Civil Services Day on 21st April every year. On this day, civil servants rededicate themselves to the cause of citizen and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work. The day was celebrated for the first time on 21 April 2006.

•Civil Services Day is celebrated on this day to commemorate the address of the first Home Minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi. During his address, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel referred to civil servants as the ‘steel frame of India’.

•As part of Civil Servant Day celebrations, Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration are conferred to Districts/Implementing Units for effective implementation of Priority programme and innovation categories.

2) World Creativity and Innovation Day: 21 April

•World Creativity and Innovation Day is observed globally on 21 April every year. This day is celebrated to raise awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation in problem-solving with respect to advancing the United Nations sustainable development goals, also known as the “global goals”. The main objective of the day is to encourage people to use new ideas, make new decisions, and do creative thinking. Creativity is what makes the world go ‘round.

History of World Creativity and Innovation Day:

•World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID) was founded on 25 May 2001 in Toronto, Canada. The founder of the day was the Canadian Marci Segal. Segal was studying creativity in 1977 at the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

•The United Nations on 27 April 2017 resolved to include World Creativity and Innovation Day on 21 April as a Day of observance to raise importance among people about the use of their creativity in problem-solving for all issues that may be related to achieving the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

3) FM attends 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB

•The 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank was held through video-conference. Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman represented India in the Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank.

•During the meeting, Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman lauded the efforts made by New Development Bank in establishing itself as a credible Global Financial Institution, living up to its mandate successfully by taking more sustainable and inclusive measures. She also commended the efforts taken by NDB as a response to combat the COVID-19 pandemic such as financial assistance of about $5 billion to the BRICS countries and the Emergency Assistance of $1 billion India to fight with the COVID-19 outbreak.

•The New Development Bank was formed in 2014 by the BRICS countries i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS as well as other emerging market economies and developing countries.

4) Himachal Pradesh rolls out “e-sanjeevani-opd”

•Himachal Pradesh government has rolled out “e-sanjeevani-opd” for free online medical consultation to sick people. The “e-sanjeevani-opd” has been launched to provide free online medical consultation to sick people at their residence throughout the state. Hence, through this new initiative, the Himachal Pradesh government will ensure the facility of health services to the people in the wake of COVID-19 Pandemic.

•To reap the benefits of “e-sanjeevani-opd”, a person should have a computer, laptop, tablet along with webcam mike, speaker as well as internet connection. To provide the free online medical consultation, a team of 16 doctors of various medical colleges of state will be available on all working days. This facility will be beneficial for the sick people who were feeling uncomfortable to visit hospitals in view of COVID-19 pandemic.




5) Bombay, Meghalaya & Orissa high courts to get new chief justices

•Supreme Court (SC) Collegium led by the chief justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde has recommended the appointment of new Chief Justices for the Bombay, Orissa and Meghalaya High Courts (HC).

S. No.	Name	High court
1	Dipankar Datta	Bombay High Court
2	Biswanath Somadder	Meghalaya High Court
3	Mohammad Rafiq	Orissa High Court

5) Kapil Dev Tripathi becomes new Secretary to President of India

•Kapil Dev Tripathi has been appointed as the Secretary to the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. He will replace Sanjay Kothari, who was selected as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner in February. The appointment of Kapil Dev Tripathi has been approved by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kapil Dev Tripathi is 1980-batch retired IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Prior to this, He was retired as the Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June 2018.

6) Fish gills used for rechargeable metal-air battery

•A low-cost electro-catalyst has been developed with “Fish gills” by the scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology. These low-cost electro-catalyst will be used for the development of environmentally friendly energy conversion devices and storage technologies like fuel cell, biofuel cell, and metal−air battery.

•The scientists has fabricated a homemade rechargeable Zn−air battery (ZAB) with the catalyst as an air cathode and stated that the use of Fish Gills can lead to the development of highly efficient and low-cost bioinspired electrocatalyst. This low-cost bioinspired electrocatalyst is better than the commercial Platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst. Hence, it could be used as the next-generation nonprecious carbon-based electrocatalyst for energy conversion and storage applications in the future.