Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Government of India had signed the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) on 22nd February, 2021.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified that all the legal formalities pertaining to the CCEA has been completed and the agreement has come into force on 1st April 2021.

Notes:
The Department of Science and Technology announced that Scientists have developed a new technique to track the huge bubbles of gas, which are ejected from the Sun.
This new technique will be used in India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1. A software named Computer Aided CME Tracking Software (CACTus) and CMEs Identification in Inner Solar Corona (CIISCO) algorithm have been developed.

Notes:
The Union Finance ministry has notified rules for winding up of the Settlement Commission, handling income tax and wealth tax disputes.
The Settlement Commission (IT/WT) was constituted in 1976 under Income-tax Act, 1961 and the Wealth Tax Act, 1957. The new dispute resolution system will be available to assessees with taxable income up to ₹50 lakh where disputed income is up to ₹10 lakh.

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:
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:
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:
The Union Road Transport Ministry has introduced the ‘National Register’ for driving licenses (DLs) and National Register for Registration Certificates.
These registers have come into effect from March 31, 2021 and are intended to make all changes in Driving Licenses done electronically. This would prevent duplication or misuse of DLs.

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 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.

Notes:
Two researchers from IIT Kanpur have recently developed touch-sensitive, tactile, haptic watch. This is intended to measure time by touching the face of the clock.
This model of watch conveys time via vibrations when an individual touches the proper spoke on the face.