Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
World Development Report 2021 has been released with the theme of ‘Data for Better Lives’— Leveraging greater value from data to help the poor
This is the first World Development Report which focused solely on the role of data for development. As the Covid pandemic made the global data inequalities even greater, the report speaks on how do we tap the full value of data, to ensure equitable access for poor people.

Notes:
The United States of America (USA) has released a notification which classifies India among the list of countries affected with African swine fever disease.
With this, the USA has imposed certain restrictions on import of pork and pork products from India.
This notification has been made by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Notes:
Saurabh Garg – a senior bureaucrat and 1991 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, has been appointed as the Chief Officer (CEO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This has been announced by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).
The committee has appointed him in the rank of Additional Secretary.

Notes:
Mount Merapi is an active volcano located in the Central Java province of Indonesia. Being the most active volcano in Indonesia, it has erupted constantly since 1548.
Recently, the volcano was observed releasing ash high into the air and sending streams of lava and debris along its slopes. As per media reports, clouds of hot ash were blown 200 meters or 656 feet above the surface.

Notes:
The United Kingdom is set to launch HEAL-COVID (Helping to Alleviate the Longer-term consequences of COVID-19), a national drug trial.
The trials would test the selection of safe, existing drugs already available in the market on patients across the country, in order to find effective treatments. The trial aims to find drugs to reduce deaths and hospital readmissions among patients.

Notes:
Renowned journalist and author Anil Dharker died recently in Mumbai at the age of 74 years.
He was the founding person and director of the Mumbai International Literary Festival which is celebrated in November every year. He was also the founder and director of Literature Live, which conducts literary events throughout Mumbai.

Notes:
The Union health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has recently launched the “Tribal TB Initiative”. This is a part of the TB Mukt Bharat. He inaugurated the initiative via videoconference from his office.
This is a part of the Union Government to eliminate Tuberculosis from India by the year 2025, much ahead of the global target of eliminating TB by 2030.

Notes:
World Bank has recently released a report titled “South Asia Vaccinates”. It highlighted that private consumption and public investment will make the Indian economy grow by 10.1% in 2021-22 (FY22).
It also estimated that on account of uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said India’s economic growth in FY22 will be in the range from 7.5% to 12.5%. It also forecasts that the Indian economy to contract by 8.5% in FY21.

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:
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has amended the rules pertaining to location of thermal power plants within 10 km of major cities with more than 10 lakh population and the National Capital Region.
As per the amended rules, certain emission norms have been mandated to be adhered by the thermal power plants latest by the end of 2022.