Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The United States is set to host the two-day climate summit of world leaders starting on Earth Day, April 22. During the summit, the President Joe Biden is expected to announce the nationally determined contribution of the US.
In this regard, the US President has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the summit.

Notes:
Earth Hour, is being held annually on the last Saturday of March across the world. This year, the Earth Hour Day was observed on March 27.
The Earth hour began as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney by WWF and partners in 2007. It has turned into one of the world’s biggest events. The event calls for actions to raise awareness about the importance of nature and the role people can play in global efforts for nature.

Notes:
As per a recent report by Rystad Energy, by replacing humans with robots on oil rigs, the US oil industry could save more than $7 billion in wages
The report suggested that two out of every 10 oil workers in drilling, operational support and maintenance of oil rigs could be replaced by automation over the next decade.

Notes:
Indian veteran actor Rajinikanth has been recently conferred with 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2020 recently. This is the top most honour in Indian cinema.
This award is presented every year for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. This award was first instituted the year 1969.

Notes:
The Work Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released the Global Gender Gap Report 2021. India has been ranked at 140th place among 156 countries. In last year’s report, India ranked 112 and, in this year, India has fallen back 28 spots.
The report has stated that India had so far closed 62.5% of its gender gap. It noted that most of the decline was seen on the Political Empowerment sub-index.

Notes:
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that India holds the world record for fastest road construction.
India has entered Guinness World Records by building a 2.5 km 4-lane concrete road within 24 hours. It also built 25-km bitumen Solapur-Bijapur road within 24 hours. A record construction of 37 km per day was achieved in financial year 2020-21.

Notes:
India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) announced that it has signed a loan agreement of up to USD 1 billion with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). JBIC is wholly owned by the Government of Japan.
This loan intends to promote smooth flow of funds for the business operations of Japanese automobile manufacturers in India. SBI had signed a similar deal with JBIC in October last year. The beneficiaries include suppliers, dealers and the end users.

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.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has amended the rules pertaining to location of thermal power plants within 10 km of major cities with more than 10 lakh population and the National Capital Region.
As per the amended rules, certain emission norms have been mandated to be adhered by the thermal power plants latest by the end of 2022.

Notes:
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2020, also known as the Shanghai Ranking has been released recently.
As per the ranking, Calcutta University has been ranked 1st among the Indian Universities and 3rd among higher educational institutions in the country. 15 India Universities have made it into the ARWU 2020 list.