Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Left front government in Kerala has decided to recommend a judicial inquiry against the central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate.
Earlier, the Crime Branch registered an FIR against some ED officials for derailing the probe in the gold smuggling and dollar cases. The state has decided to appoint Justice (Retd) KV Mohan to head the commission.

Notes:
Chairman of the fast moving consumer goods firm Marico, Mr Harsh Mariwala has been selected as the EY Entrepreneur for 2020.
Prathap Chandra Reddy, founder and executive chairman of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. was given the lifetime achievement award. Byju Raveendran was awarded for business transformation, while Peyush Bansal of Lenskart was awarded in the start-up category.

Notes:
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released its new assessment recently. It highlighted the pressures faced by the two species of elephants in Africa due to poaching for ivory and human encroachment.
It announced that the Savanna elephant was “endangered” and the much smaller, lighter forest elephant was “critically endangered”.

Notes:
The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has decided to utilise the services of retired combat canines / dogs as ‘therapy dogs’. They would help early recovery of personnel undergoing medical treatment. Also, they are to be used in treatment of the soldier’s specially abled children.
This is the first time in India, that retired canine elements are being used to serve the soldiers.

Notes:
The Union Jal Shakti Ministry approved Rs 465 crore performance to 7 states under the Jal Jeevan Mission. These states are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The Ministry has stated that Gujarat was among the best performing in implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission.

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:
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog has launched AIM-PRIME (Program for Researchers on Innovations, Market-Readiness & Entrepreneurship).
It aims to promote and support science-based start-ups & ventures across India. AIM has partnered with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to launch this program. It will be implemented by Venture Center – a non-profit technology business incubator.

Notes:
The world’s first animal vaccine against the novel coronavirus has been registered in Russia. It has been as ‘Carnivac-Cov’.
As per the country’s agriculture safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, the immunity lasts for six months after the vaccination. The use of this vaccine is expected to prevent the development of virus mutations.

Notes:
The Department of Economic Affairs, Union Finance Ministry decides the small saving schemes such as the PPF, NSC and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
The Government announces interest rates for small saving schemes at the end of every quarter. Recently after announcing steep cuts in the rates, the Finance Minister rolled back the changes to previous rates for the next quarter.

Notes:
In the state of Telengana, India’s largest floating solar power plant is proposed to be set up with a generation capacity of 100MW. The unit is coming up in Ramagundam.
The project is being commissioned by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at an estimated cost of Rs.423 crore with 4.5 lakh photovoltaic panels.