Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) has recently invited research proposals for projects with special focus on improving female participation in economic activities of India.
The Ministry has announced grants in aid to NGOs, Universities, institutions etc for research, publication, and monitoring.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi is on a 2-day official visit to Bangladesh as a part of National Day celebrations in Bangladesh.
During his visit, he has inaugurated the “Bangabandhu-Bapu Museum” together with his counterpart of Bangladesh at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

Notes:
Earth Hour, is being held annually on the last Saturday of March across the world. This year, the Earth Hour Day was observed on March 27.
The Earth hour began as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney by WWF and partners in 2007. It has turned into one of the world’s biggest events. The event calls for actions to raise awareness about the importance of nature and the role people can play in global efforts for nature.

Notes:
The Lakhta Centre, which is located in St.Petersburg of Russia, has been awarded with the Emporis Skyscraper award 2019. This is the most prestigious award given to high rise architecture.
This building is 462 m tall. Russia has for the first time bagged this award since inception of this award 20 years ago.

Notes:
As per a recent release by the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), it has registered more than 1.55 lakh companies in the financial year 2020-21 compared to a registration of to 1.22 Lakh companies during the previous FY 2019-20.
This increase in number of company registration is significant amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. It has been the result of various measures undertaken by the Government of India under “Ease of Doing Business” reforms.

Notes:
The Work Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released the Global Gender Gap Report 2021. India has been ranked at 140th place among 156 countries. In last year’s report, India ranked 112 and, in this year, India has fallen back 28 spots.
The report has stated that India had so far closed 62.5% of its gender gap. It noted that most of the decline was seen on the Political Empowerment sub-index.

Notes:
The Government of India had signed the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) on 22nd February, 2021.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified that all the legal formalities pertaining to the CCEA has been completed and the agreement has come into force on 1st April 2021.

Notes:
The state Government of Odisha has proposed to form the state’s 2nd biosphere reserve at Mahendragiri, a hill ecosystem having rich biodiversity located in southern part of the state. The reserve will cover parts of Gajapati and Ganjam districts in the Eastern Ghats.
Similipal Biosphere Reserve is Odisha’s first Bio sphere reserve notified in the year 1996.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released the ‘Forest Governance by Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ report recently.
As per the report, deforestation rates in Latin America and the Caribbean are significantly lower in Indigenous and Tribal territories. The report was jointly released by Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC).

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has recently released a report titled “Women and Men in India 2020”.
This report has been published by MoSPI since 1995 and this year’s report is 20th in the series. It provides gender related data for policy makers, planners and other stakeholders.