Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
As per the recent report from the University of Maryland and available on Global Forest Watch, the tropical region has lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover in 2020.
Out of the total cover, deforestation of around 4.2 million hectares occurred within humid tropical primary forest. The resulting carbon emissions from this primary forest loss is about 2.64 Gt CO2. The Primary forest loss was also 12% higher in 2020 than the year before.

Notes:
The UNESCO has recently released a report titled “World 2030: Public Survey Report”. This report is based on surveys conducted around the world from May 2020 to September 2020.
As per the report, climate change, violence and conflict, loss of biodiversity, discrimination and inequality etc are some of the important challenges affecting a peaceful society.

Notes:
The 1.3-kilometre-long Chenab Bridge is being constructed in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. It is being placed 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab river and is considered the world’s highest railway bridge.
Recently, construction of the arch of the bridge has been completed, which is termed as a milestone achievement by the Northern Railways zone of Indian Railways.

Notes:
Quasars are extremely luminous cores of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes.
Recently, a group of astronomers have discovered a dozen quasars, distorted by a cosmic lens and split int four similar images. The first such quadruple image was discovered in 1985. The study by “Gaia Gravitational Lenses Working Group” of astronomers, also included scientists from ARIES, Nainital.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $484 million to improve transport connectivity and road maintenance in the Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC).
CKIC extends from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu and it connects India to the production networks of Southeast and East Asia. This project will upgrade about 590 km of State highways in the CKIC influence area.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has doubled the limit of maximum balance that an individual customer can hold with payments banks to Rs 2 lakh.
The announcement in this matter was made by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das after the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. As per the current norms, the payment banks can hold a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per customer. This expansion will help them to serve more MSMEs.

Notes:
The Union Jal Shakti Ministry is set to commence an annual planning exercise with states and UTs in the month of April, for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.
The scheme was announced on 15th August, 2019 which aims to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural home by 2024.

Notes:
The Central Mine Planning & Design Institute is Mini Ratna company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL).
The company has obtained approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation for use of drones to survey the coalfield areas of Coal India Ltd and for monitoring various mining activities.

Notes:
The three-banded rosefinch was spotted in Arunachal Pradesh and has become the 1,340th species of the bird family in India.
The new species was spotted with a flock of white-browed rosefinch, a species commonly seen in this region. A male and a female three-banded rosefinch were spotted at an altitude of 3,852 metres above sea level.

Notes:
Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), is an autonomous apex research organization under Ministry of AYUSH.
It has recently launched a unique digital initiative, the Homoeopathic Clinical Case Repository (HCCR) portal on World Homeopathy Day- April 10. The portal aims to create a standard platform for Homoeopathic clinicians, researchers, medical students to enter clinical cases.