Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2021

Notes:
TRIFED is the nodal agency working for the empowerment of tribal people, under the aegis of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
TRIFED has entered into a collaborative project titled “Sustainable Livelihoods for Tribal Households in India”. The LINK Fund, a foundation which aims to eradicate poverty and mitigate the effects of climate change, is also joining hands with TRIFED for this project.

Notes:
The Indian Government has revised the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020 and allowed the import of oxygen concentrators for personal use, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.
According to a notification of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), oxygen concentrators have been added to the list of exempted categories, where customs clearance is sought as ”gifts”. They can be procured through post, courier or e-commerce portals and the exemption is allowed till July 31, 2021.

Notes:
In India, 100% FDI has been allowed for roads and highways sector allowed under the automatic route.
Recently, Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has set a target of road construction worth Rs 15 lakh crores in next two years. The Ministry also aims to achieve the target of 40 kilometres per day of highways construction, in the current year.

Notes:
Scientists of Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune in collaboration with Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) have developed a new high-yielding and pest-resistant variety of soybean named MACS 1407.
This seed is suited for cultivation in North Eastern states and in states like West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Notes:
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared working journalists of the state as frontline Covid warriors.
Around 7000 working journalists of the state have been covered under the Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana. Under the scheme, the journalists are provided a health insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh each. They would also get priority in the vaccination programme.

Notes:
T.Rabi Shankar has been appointed as the new Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He succeeds B P Kanungo, whose term ended on 2nd April 2021.
Presently, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Patra and Rajeshwar Rao are the three Dy. Governors and Rabi Shankar joined them as the fourth.

Notes:
Significant Economic Presence (SEP) principle was introduced in the Finance Bill 2018-19. It widened the scope of ‘business connection’ to include download of data or software, if aggregate payments from such transactions exceed a prescribed amount, or a prescribed number of users.
India recently notified a revenue threshold of Rs 2 crore and a limit of 300,000 users for non-resident technology firms such as Google, Facebook, to pay tax in India.

Notes:
A team of researchers in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal have studied “N-protein” in Covid virus. It has been found that this N Protein promotes the incorporation of the spike protein into viral particles.
The infectivity levels of the virus have been found to significantly vary with the levels of N Protein present in it.

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment along with transfer of management control in IDBI Bank.
However, the extent of shareholding to be divested by the Government of India and LIC shall be decided at the time of the transaction in consultation with Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Notes:
In a first of its kind, genetically modified mosquitoes have been released in the USA by a biotech firm Oxitec.
The mosquitoes have been released with an aim to suppress the disease-carrying mosquito populations in the region. Previously, the company released its modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia, it is reported that the local A. aegypti mosquito populations fell by at least 90%.