Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
E-commerce major Amazon India announced the launch of Amazon Future Engineer in India. It is the company’s global computer science education programme.
According to the company, the programme will enable access to quality computer science education and career opportunities for students from underserved communities. In the first year, Amazon aims to deliver learning opportunities to more than 1 lakh students from 900 government and aided schools across seven states in the country.

Notes:
Union Minister of Power has recently approved a “Dispute Avoidance Mechanism” through ‘Independent Engineer’ (IE).
The CPSEs executing Hydro Power Projects had been raising concerns that the present mechanism of dispute resolution in Hydro Power sector did notaddress the conflicts between the Employer and the Contractor at their initial stage.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated CIPET: Institute of Petrochemicals Technology, Jaipur through video conference.
The Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET), formerly called as the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology, was established in 1968 by India with the assistance of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at Chennai.

Notes:
According to the Union Finance Ministry’ status report on India’s external debt, India’s External debt to GDP ratio increased marginally to 21.1% from 20.6% as at end-March 2020.
India’s external debt rose by 2.1% year-on-year to 570 billion as of March-end 2021. Reserves to external debt ratio increased to 101.2% from 85.6% during the same period. With this, it can be concluded that India is a net creditor to the world. The sovereign debt at 107.2 billion rose by 6.2%. The non-sovereign debt grew 1.2% to $462.8 billion.

Notes:
Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe. The summit of the Mont Blanc peak, has shrunk by two metres over the past 20 years.
Recently, surveyors including experts and high mountain guides measured the peak and announced its new measurements. It has reached an official height of 4,807.81 metres above sea level. The official height has been on a downward slide for over a decade. The highest reading was 4,810.9 metres in 2007.

Notes:
The expert group on minimum wages and national-floor wages has been reconstituted under economist and statistician SP Mukherjee.
He replaces the previous head Ajit Mishra. The group has been constituted for a term of three years. The Labour Code on Wages 2019, gives legislative protection of minimum wages to all workers.  The Satpathy-led panel had suggested a national minimum wage at Rs 375 per day or Rs 9,750 per month irrespective of sectors, skills, occupations and rural-urban locations.

Notes:
Kilauea – one of the most active volcanoes on earth is located in the Hawaii islands. The volcano has recently started to erupt, raising the alert level to “warning” and the aviation code being changed to “red” in the region.
The US Geological Survey has confirmed the large-scale eruption in Halemaumau crater of the volcano. Prior to this, the volcano made a major eruption in 2018 which led to destruction of more than 700 houses and left thousands of residents displaced from the locality.

Notes:
The Armies of India and Sri Lanka are set to participate in the 12-day military exercise – “Mitra Shakti”, which would be held in Combat Training School in Sri Lanka’s Ampara. This is the 8th edition of the joint military exercise between the two countries.
India would be represented by a contingent of 120 personnel. This exercise is aimed to promote close coordination and interoperability among the two military forces.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has launched ‘The State Nutrition Profiles’ for 19 States and Union Territories in the country. It was launched in collaboration with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Indian Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), UNICEF and Institute of Economic Growth (IEG).
It analyses key indicators such as wasting, stunting, anemia, underweight and overweight and NCDs (Diabetes and High blood pressure). The SNP has included key takeaways for children, women and men and also identifies areas where the state has the potential to improve further.

 

Notes:
Prime Minister recehntly virtually launched the Jal Jeevan Mission mobile application. It contains all details about the mission including the number of households that received water, quality of water etc. The application aims to improve awareness among stakeholders and for more transparency and accountability of schemes under the Jal Jeevan mission.
He also launched the Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh. The fund facilitates contributions for providing tap water connection in every rural household, school, Anganwadi centre, etc. Contributions can be made by any individual, organisation, philanthropist, either in India or abroad.