Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

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.

Notes:
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has revised its global merchandise trade volume growth in 2021 and 2022 to 8 per cent and 4 percent respectively.
Earlier in October 2020, WTO has predicted 7.2 per cent growth. The slow down of 4 per cent in 2022 is due to the continued effects of pandemic. The report also highlighted that much of global import demand will be met by Asia.

Notes:
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin has recently approved a legislation that allows him to hold office for an additional two “six-year term”. The President, who is in power for the last 2 decades, can remain in power till 2036 (up to his age of 80 years).
This change is a part of constitutional reforms brought by Putin last year.

Notes:
The Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund Gita Gopinath announced that the IMF has favoured adoption of a global minimum tax on corporate profits.
She also highlighted that tax avoidance is a troubling issue for the global economy. The disparities in national corporate tax rates has resulted in significant tax shifting and tax avoidance, which again results in reduced social welfare spending.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to provide a sum of Rs.50,000 crore to the All-India Financial Institutions (AIFIs) namely NABARD, SIDBI and NHB.
NABARD would receive Rs.25,000 crore, SIDBI would receive Rs.15,000 crore and NHB would receive a sum of Rs.10,000 crore as refinance credit facility.

Notes:
Dr Chintan Vaishnav has been appointed as the Mission director of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), the flagship initiative under NITI Aayog.
He will take over from Ramanathan Ramanan, who has been leading AIM as its first mission director since June 2017. Chintan Vaishnav is a socio-technologist who is currently serving at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US.

Notes:
Meghalaya’s Assembly Committee on Women Empowerment has said that three out of every 1,000 pregnant women test positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The panel headed by Ampareen Lyngdoh has also sought a scheme to rehabilitate commercial sex workers in the state. The increase in HIV cases observed in the state is increasing at an alarming rate.

Notes:
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have planned to launch a dedicated platform that would advise the poor nations on funding their climate and conservation activities.
It is proposed that the platform would consist of UN officials, non-governmental organisations, private investors and rating agencies, to aid and advise the funding activities.

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 US Navy has recently carried out a freedom of navigation operation in the Indian waters in Indian Ocean Region near Lakshadweep Islands.
Any maritime operations in Indian water require prior approval from the Government of India. But, the US Naval forces had conducted this operation without the consent of Indian authorities.