Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The UN Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism was established by the Secretary-General in 2009. The fund is used for providing capacity building support to Member States through the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) and the Special Projects and Innovation Branch (SPIB).
India has recently contributed an additional USD 500,000 to the United Nations Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism. With this, India’s total contribution to the fund so far is USD 1.05 million.

Notes:
India’s leading private sector bank – HDFC Bank instituted the SmartUp grants in 2017 and over the last 4 years, it has supported 87 start-ups across the country.
The Bank has announced the SmartUp Grants 2021 recently. 21 start-ups have been selected for the grant from more than 300 applications received.

Notes:
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US Special Presidential Envoy for climate John Kerry have agreed to come together and collaborate for the 2030 climate change agenda.
The special focus of the collaboration would be clean and green energy, adequate finance, resilient infrastructure and green hydrogen.

Notes:
The International Quiet Ocean Experiment was originally formed in 2011 to create a time series of measurements of ambient sound in different ocean locations.
Recently, a team of scientists from the International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE), have been undertaking experiments to understand and measure the impact of the reduction in ambient human activity due to the Covid-19 lockdown, in oceans.

Notes:
As per a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation, several unique animals and plants will go extinct if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.
The study reveals that Climate change will negatively affect most native and endemic species. All endemic species from islands and more than four out of five endemic species from mountains are at high risk of extinction.

Notes:
AEFI stands for “Adverse events following immunisation”. India had earlier constituted a national committee on AEFI.
Around 617 severe and serious (including deaths) adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) and 180 deaths were reported. A member of the National committee on AEFI highlighted that Indian has elaborate machinery to monitor the situation.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates has named the next two astronauts for its space programme. The ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has named Noura al-Matroushi as the UAE’s first female astronaut.
The two astronauts have been identified among more than 4000 applications received. The two astronauts will undergo special space training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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:
In the South American country of Chile, has witnessed the spread of a killer algae which has claimed the lives of more than 4,200 tonnes of salmon. The algal bloom has led to decreased water availability in waters that led to suffocating the salmon.
This is considered to be the latest mass mortality event recorded in Chile, which is the world’s second largest producer of salmon.

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated that the collective performance of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam would be 4.9% for the year 2021, down from its previous forecast of 5.2%.
Although the IMF’s global forecast is on the optimistic side, still there has been a downgrade in growth projections for SE Asian nations.