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:
India unveiled a ‘National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination’(NAPRE) by 2030. It has been drafted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in consultation with the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying.
World Rabies Day is observed on September 28. NAPRE is based on 5 major pillars – political will, sustained funding, intersectoral planning, coordination and review, community planning, and operational research.

Notes:
Japan’s former foreign minister Fumio Kishida is set to replace Yoshihide Suga as the Prime minister. He has won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership vote on Wednesday.
The 64-year-old is set to replace PM Suga, after his approval ratings fell within his first year in office. Japan is facing a stagnant economy damaged  by the coronavirus pandemic, unprecedented public health crisis, and increased political threatening by China.

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:
Digital Economy Report 2021 was released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The report examines the implications of growing cross-border data flows, especially for developing countries. It proposes to broaden the international policy debate with a view to build multilateral cooperation. The Report also calls for innovative approaches to govern data and data flows to ensure equitable distribution of the gains from data flows.

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:
North Korea has claimed that it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile called Hwasong-8. This technology allows missiles to be pre-fuelled and then sent to the field.
Days after the hypersonic missile, North Korea said it test-fired a new anti-aircraft missile. This marks the country’s fourth weapons test in under a month. North Korea also said that its weapons are needed for self-defence.

 

Notes:
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) announced that Chacha Chaudhary, the popular comic book character, has been declared as a mascot of Namami Gange Programme.
The character would be used for sensitising children and youths about the cleaning of Ganga and other rivers. ‘Ganga ki Baat, Chacha Choudhary Ke Sath’ is a public engagement activity under the  public outreach activities of Namami Gange mission.”

Notes:
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is an infra development bank headquartered at Beijing. The Bank has recently approved financial assistance in the form of a loan amounting $356.67 million to support the Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL).
The financial assistance would be utilised for construction of CMRL’s Phase-II development which aims to provide an integrated connectivity between suburban rail, bus stations and the airport.

Notes:
Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP), is an initiative of the Andhra Pradesh government launched by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Gandhi Jayanti. It aims to make the state clean with public participation.
Under the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) mission, over 4000 garbage collecting vehicles will be deployed across 13 districts in the state. The state government will distribute 3 colour coded dustbins (Red, Green and Blue) to all 40 lakh households. People ought to use them for waste disposal after segregating the waste.