Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2021

Notes:
The Government of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has recently appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto as the country’s 1st ever Minister for Loneliness.
This decision has been made to tackle the rise in suicide rates due to COVID crisis. Also, the minister is responsible for managing the fall in birth rate in the country.

Notes:
The second round of Airport Authority of India (AAI) customer satisfaction survey was conducted between July and December 2020, whose results were announced recently. The ranking of airports has been made based on 36 categories of services provided by the airport.
Udaipur has been ranked at No.1 in the survey with a score of 4.84 while Madurai (Tamil Nadu) has emerged at the second position.

Notes:
The Union Agriculture Ministry’s flagship scheme PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM KISAN) has completed 2 years on 24th February 2021.
This is a 100% central sector scheme, under which income support of Rs.6000/- per year would be given to farmer families in three instalments. The funds would be directly transferred to the beneficiaries through DBT mode.

Notes:
“International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD)” is an international non-governmental organization, which shares knowledge of design, construction, maintenance, and impact of large dams, based at Paris.
The ICOLD ‘Symposium on Sustainable Development of Dams & River Basins’ was inaugurated by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister for Jal Shakti. It has been organised with Central Water Commission (CWC), Dam Rehabilitation Improvement Project (DRIP) and National Hydrology Project (NHP).

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, which will now be known as ‘Narendra Modi stadium’.
The Motera Stadium was named after the Prime Minster while the entire sports complex continues to be named after Sardar Patel. It has a seating capacity of 132,000 spectators.

Notes:
Australia has passed a new law, which will require digital platforms like Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or search results.
The “News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code” aims to remunerate the news media businesses for the content they generate. Earlier, Google agreed to pay the publishers for news content in France.

Notes:
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has recently launched the City Innovation Exchange (CiX) platform.
The platform aims to bring together academia, businesses, and the government to design innovative solutions for the challenges of the cities. The platform has over 400 start-ups, 100 smart cities, more than 150 challenge statements and over 215 solutions when it was launched.

Notes:
A Nidhi company is classified as “Mutual Benefit Financial Company” by the Reserve Bank of India. It is regulated by the Department of Corporate Affairs for its operational matters and the deployment of funds. RBI can issue directions to the companies on its deposit taking activities.
Recently, the Corporate Affairs Ministry warned that investors must check the status of the Nidhi company before investing.

Notes:
Recently, members of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have discovered the first epigraphical to the death of Krishnadevaraya Nayaka.
Krishnadevaraya Nayaka was the emperor of Vijayanagara empire and ruled the kingdom from 1509-1529 AD. The epigraphical reference was found near Gopalakrishna temple at Honnenahalli of Tumkur district in Karnataka.

Notes:
British think-tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said military spending touched USD 1.8 trillion in the year 2020.
Global military spending rose 3.9% compared to the last year. The U.S. remained the world’s largest defence spender in 2020, followed by China. The rapid military expansion of China is the reason for the rise in Asian spending.