Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The fossil of a skunk-like mammal that lived during the age of dinosaurs has been discovered in Patagonia region of Chile, South America.
Named as “Orretherium tzen” meaning ‘Beast of Five Teeth’, it is claimed to have lived lived between 72 and 74 million years ago. It is said to have been a herbivore and said to have lived in South America at the end of the Mesozoic era.

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.

Notes:
The Ministers of the BASIC countries- Brazil, South Africa, India and China have announced that the European Union’s plan to impose taxes on carbon at its border are discriminatory and unfair to developing nations.
The EU had proposed to impose a levy on carbon-intensive products imported into the Union from countries which do not have a price on carbon.

Notes:
India has entered into a strategic partnership with the Government of Netherlands in water sector. This partnership further aims to deepen the cooperation and better coherence between the two contrives in water sector.
This agreement was signed at India – Netherlands Virtual Summit headed by the Prime Ministers of the two nations.

Notes:
The Subject expert committee recommended the emergency use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in India.
Now, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) will consider this recommendation and authorise the restricted emergency use in India. The other two vaccines are Covishield by Serum Institute and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. Sputnik V will be manufactured in India by several companies in India.

Notes:
Tropical cyclone Seroja recently hit and damaged a 1,000km stretch of Western Australia. With a windspeed of up to 170km/h, the category three storm made landfalls.
As per the country’s Bureau of Meteorology the storm had weakened yet it would cause damages wi the peak winds of 110 km/hr.

Notes:
As per the data released by the Union Finance Ministry, net indirect tax collection in 2020-21 grew 12.3% over the previous financial year.
The total collection stood at Rs.10.71 lakh, thereby exceeding the indirect tax collection target of Rs.9.89 lakh set for the FY 2020-21.

Notes:
The European Commission has proposed to make borrowings amounting 150 billion euros till the year 2026.
The proceeds of the borrowing will be used to make its economy greener and more digitalized. The funds are proposed to be raised through auctions and syndication through a primary deal network.

Notes:
National Housing Bank has launched a Rs.10,000 crore ‘Special Refinance Facility-2021’ aimed to provide liquidity to housing finance companies and other financial institutions / banks in India.
This would infuse funds into the housing finance system and enable institutions to maintain steady growth in housing finance.

Notes:
India hosted the BRICS seminar on “Misuse of Internet for Terrorist Purposes and Role of Digital Forensics in Terrorist Investigations”, which was organised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
It is a two-day event organized in a virtual format which emphasized on international cooperation and seamless sharing of good practices in tackling cyber terrorism.