Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Benin Bronzes are a group of over a thousand metal plaques and sculptures located in the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin.
The Benin city is situated in modern-day southern Nigeria. It was famous for its skilled artisans that produced works of huge historic and cultural importance. In 1897, the British soldiers plundered Benin City, stealing a set of metal sculptures. Recently, UK accepted that the objects will be supplied by their current European custodians, initially on loan for three years.

Notes:
Kamath Committee identified 26 sectors to be included in the ₹3 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).
Recently, the Finance Ministry expanded the scope of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to cover borrowers from the healthcare segment, apart from the 26 sectors. SMA-1 borrowers in the healthcare sector are covered under ECLGS 2.0.

Notes:
Every year April 18 is celebrated as World Heritage Day or the International Day for Monuments and Sites.
This year, the theme of the World Heritage Day is “Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures”. In India, Tourism and Culture Minister has inaugurated the first-ever online exhibition on Ramayana. The online exhibition showcases 49 miniature paintings collections of National Museum, New Delhi.

Notes:
Israel and Greece have signed their biggest ever defence procurement deal. It includes a USD 1.65bn contract for establishment and operation of a training centre for the Hellenic Air Force (Greece) by Israeli defence contractor.
This deal is expected to strengthen political and economic ties between the countries. The Air Forces of the two countries also launched a joint exercise.

Notes:
Ace Racing Driver Max Verstappen claimed an impressive victory in the Emilia Romagna GP for Red Bull. Top Driver Lewis Hamilton recovered to the second place for Mercedes. Verstappen registered his first race victory of the Formula One 2021 season.
Valtteri Bottas and George Russell were involved in a huge collision. Lewis Hamilton still leads the championship leaderboard with 44 points.

Notes:
The RBI formed a 6-member committee headed by Sudarshan Sen, then RBI Executive Director, to review the role and effectiveness of Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) in stressed debt resolution and suggest improvements to the legal and regulatory framework.

Notes:
‘Nimbus’ is a flagship cloud service project of Israel, which aims to provide a solution for cloud services to the government, the defence system, and other sectors.
Recently, Israel’s government chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google for the USD 1-billion project to provide cloud services for the country’s public sector and military. Amazon and Google beat Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM in the tender for the four-phase “Nimbus” project.

Notes:
The American Space Agency – NASA has recently launched a mission named – SHIELDS (Spatial Heterodyne Interferometric Emission Line Dynamics Spectrometer).
This mission aims to study light from interstellar particles which have drifted into the solar system to learn about the closest reaches of interstellar space. The mission was launched using a NASA black Brant IX sounding rocket from Mexico.

Notes:
In the World Youth Boxing Championships held in Kielce, Poland, Indian women boxers created history with seven gold medals.
All the women finalists Gitika, Naorem Babyrojisana Chanu, Poonam, Vinka, Arundhati Choudhary, T Sanamacha Chanu and Alfiya Pathan finished on the top of the podium. Three other Indian boxers also won bronze medals.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) Research, in its recent research report forecasted that India’s GDP would grow at 10.4% in the financial year 2021-22.
Earlier, SBI had forecasted a higher 11% of growth rate for Indian Economy. The reason for the lower growth was on account of the increasing restrictions across states. Ramping up Covid-19 vaccination efforts would be the preferred way to tackle the surging second wave of the pandemic in India, as per the report.