• Indian shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar, the world No. 1 in the men’s 10m Air Rifle has won bronze in men’s 10m Air Rifle event at the ISSF World Cup 2021 in New Delhi.
• Also, the Indian team bagged the air rifle men’s team event with a cumulative score of 185.9. The USA stood second with score of 180.8 followed by South Korea with 180.3.
• The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2021 is being held at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi from March 18, 2021. The event will end on March 29, 2021.
• It is the first international event of 2021 by ISSF.
• More than 300 shooters from as many as 43 countries are participating in the World Cup being held in all three disciplines – shotgun, rifle, and pistol. 

• Every year, March 21 is celebrated as the International Day of Forests. The day is aimed at raising public awareness about the values, significance, and contributions of the forests to balance the life cycle on the earth. Various organisations, private and government, work together on this day to enlighten people not only about the forests at large but also the trees and vegetation that exists outside of the forested areas.
• Previously, the 16th session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) voted to “World Forestry Day” in 1971. Then, from 2007 to 2012, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) held six Forest Days. Partnering with Collaborative Partnership on Forest, 2011 was declared as the Year of Forests.
• Each year, the Collaborative Partnership on Forest (which is an arm of United Nations Forum on Forests) decides on a theme for the forest day. International Day of Forests 2021 theme has been declared as is “Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being”.

• In view of the Covid spike in the state, the Punjab Government will start the crop procurement operations from April 10 this year. The decision to delay the procurement was taken at a Covid review meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh at Chandigarh.
• Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said in the meeting that the department needed more time to make arrangements to ensure safe procurement amid the surge in Covid cases.

• NTPC Bongaigaon, Assam for the 1st time achieved more than 100% Plant Load Factor (PLF) since commissioning of all its units. The station also achieved the highest ever generation of 18.2499 MUs on 18th March,2021 with 101.39% PLF.
• The individual units I and II have crossed 100%and Unit III achieved a PLF of 98.5% PLF. The station also achieved the highest ever monthly Declared Capacity(DC)of 103.3% in June-2020. The plant also achieved the highest ever Quarterly DC of 103.05% in Q1 of the financial year which is the best among all NTPC stations.

• The Ministry of AYUSH through its autonomous body- Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi has started a Yoga Volunteer Training Programme on Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) from 1st of February this year.
• The program divides the Yoga Protocol into short modules like appreciation, introduction and volunteer program allowing persons of varying capabilities to gradually learn and adopt Yoga. It is a monthly training module and would be repeated every month till month of June. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, AYUSH Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the objective of the programme is to increase mass awareness about the health benefits of Yoga as well as to introduce basic well-being principles and practices to common people. He said, the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy, New Delhi conducts research and development in the field of Yoga and Naturopathy.

• The Jharkhand government Wednesday announced the launch of SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction) campaign to tackle malnutrition in the state. The campaign aims to identify anemic women and malnourished children and converge various departments to effectively deal with the problem in a state where malnutrition has been a major problem.
•  The recent Economic Survey quoted The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey conducted in the state during March 2017 to July 2017 stating that based on the sample data, 36% of under five years of age are stunted—height for age, 29% are affected from Wasting—weight for height, and 45% are underweight—weight for age, indicating the status of uunde-nutrition.

• The World Bank has approved USD 500 million financing to help Bangladesh vaccinate 54 million people against COVID 19.
• The additional financing to the COVID 19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project  will help Bangladesh in procuring vaccines, expanding storage facilities and distribute it to 31 percent of its population. It will help the Bangladesh government in achieving the target of vaccinating 40 percent of the population against COVID 19 in the first phase. The project will also help in providing training and capacity building for vaccination in the country.
• The World Bank finance will help cover the deployment cost of the vaccines procured through the COVAX facility of the WHO for 20 percent of the people. It will also provide for direct purchase of vaccines from manufactures or COVAX for the remaining 11 percent of the people.

• The first high-level U.S.-China meeting of the Biden administration got off to a fiery start on Thursday, with both sides leveling sharp rebukes of the others' policies in a rare public display that underscored the level of bilateral tension.
• The run-up to the talks in Anchorage, Alaska, which followed visits by U.S. officials to allies Japan and South Korea, was marked by a flurry of moves by Washington that showed it was taking a tough stance, and by blunt talk from Beijing.

• More than 67.5 million people have been brought back from around the world under the Vande Bharat mission so far.
• India commenced one of the world's largest evacuation operations from 7th May last year to bring back stranded Indians from abroad. Initially, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express played a key role in the operations. Afterwards, other air carriers were allowed to take part in the programme. Besides, aerial evacuation, ships were also used to bring back Indian citizens.

• Lok Sabha has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The Bill seeks to modify the list of Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu. The Bill replaces the entry for the Devendrakulathan community with Devendrakula Velalar which includes Devendrakulathan, Kalladi, Kudumban, Pallan, Pannadi and Vathiriyan.
• Speaking on the Bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said that no caste is being included and omitted with this legislation. He said, only the regrouping of some castes will be done so that the aspiration of these communities can be fulfilled.
• the government is committed towards the welfare of the Scheduled Caste and several historic decisions were taken in this regard. He said, budgetary allocation has increased which will benefit the schemes related to the welfare of scheduled castes. He informed that Central government has devised a new formula for the post matric scholarship which will benefit four crore scheduled caste students.

Download Daily GK PDF of 21 March 2021