Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
Mr K. VijayRaghavan has been given a one-year extension as the principal scientific advisor (PSA) to the Government of India.
As per the order issued by the Personnel Ministry, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the extension as the PSA for a period of one year. He provides objective advice to the Prime minister and Cabinet on matters related to science, technology and innovation.

Notes:
A skyscraper-sized cargo ship MV Ever Given recently stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt. As it stuck across the canal, over 150 other vessels which were to pass the waterway were waiting for the obstruction to clear.
Ever Given vehicle was carrying cargo between Asia and Europe. The Suez Canal is a narrow, man-made canal that divides continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula.

Notes:
As per a latest forecast by the World Bank, China is set to lead economic recovery of East Asian and Pacific economies in the year 2021.
The report predicts that China will grow by 8.1% in 2021, compared with 2.3% the previous year. The East Asian and Pacific region would grow by 7.4% compared to 1.2 per cent growth in 2020.

Notes:
The Market Regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India approved amendments to SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.
It extended the requirement for formulation of dividend distribution policy by the existing top 500 listed companies to the top 1,000 listed companies. It also relaxed norms for listing of start-ups.

Notes:
The Union Commerce Ministry laid down a four-point strategy to handle the situation of total blockage at the Suez Canal.
It organised a meeting with the Ministry of ports, shipping and waterways and other stake holders. As per the government’s assessment, total backlog at the waterway will likely be cleared in a week’s time.

Notes:
As per the data released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Karnataka has the highest number of vehicles which are older than 15 years are plying on roads.
The number of such vehicles pan India is more than four crore vehicles and Karnataka has topped the list with 70 lakh vehicles.

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:
Recently, a new view of the black hole has been released by astronomers working with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In this view, the astronomers have mapped the magnetic fields close to the hole.
The event horizon telescope first revealed the images of black hole, in the year 2018, which is located in the galaxy M87 at a distance of 55 million light-years.

Notes:
As per a recent release by FIS (leading provider of financial technology solutions to banks and merchants), the number of real-time financial transactions in India has grown to 41 million transactions per day. This number is more than double that of the last year.
In terms of growth rate of real time financial transactions, the list is topped by Bahrain with 657% growth.

Notes:
Ingenuity is a mini-helicopter developed by NASA for propulsion in Mars. This was fixed with the NASA’s Perseverance rover that successfully landed in Mars recently.
The helicopter has been dropped successfully on Mars’s surface and is expected to make its flight through Mars atmosphere on 11th April.