Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
Ministry of Rural Development organised the “Gender Samvaad” event. It is ajoint attempt between the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) and the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE).
The event aims to create a common platform to share experiences and awareness on gender related interventions under DAY-NRLM, and as part of the ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Notes:
The Ministry of Energy, Israel has announced a National plan which includes the main target of reducing 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The plan aims to shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2025, reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector by 75 to 85 per cent by 2050, increase electricity generation from renewable energy among others.

Notes:
Charles Geschke, who founded Adobe along with colleague John Warnock from Xerox, in the year 1982, recently passed away.
He also helped develop Portable Document Format (PDF) document. Though he retired in 2000, he remained on the Adobe board until 2020. At present, the CEO of Adobe is Shantanu Narayen. The famous softwares of the company are PDF, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop.”

Notes:
A report was recently released by China’s central bank, People’s Bank of China (PBOC). It stated that India’s demographic advantage to overtake China’s by 2035.
It also proposed that China should immediately liberalise its birth policies to tackle the problems of an ageing population. This would enable the country to compete economically with demographically young India and immigration-friendly US.

Notes:
A new global marine initiative has been launched to protect and conserve 18 million square kilometres of the ocean over the next five years.
This initiative is known as the “Blue Nature Alliance”. It is led by several philanthropic organisations along with national governments, local communities, Indigenous peoples, scientists, and academics.

Notes:
The International Energy Agency, which is headquartered in Paris (France) has recently released a report, which states that energy related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions across the globe have risen by about 1.5 billion tonnes in the year 2021.
This is considered to be the largest increase in carbon emission since the year 2010.

Notes:
The NASA has recently released the image of interacting galaxies Arp 273, in the shape of a ‘Cosmic Rose’.
The image has been shared on the official Instagram handle of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In the image, a group of spiral galaxies create a shape resembling a rose. This structure made of galaxies lies in the Andromeda constellation, at about 300 million light-years away.

Notes:
The House of Representatives of the United States of America (USA) has recently passed the “No Ban Act”.
This bill aims to limit the ability of any United States president to impose a travel ban on the basis of religion. This move has been welcomed by many activists across the globe. Earlier, the US administration headed by President Donald Trump imposed “Muslim Ban” that barred travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries.

Notes:
Yasukuni Shrine (meaning “Peaceful Country”) is a shrine located in Tokyo, Japan. It commemorates those who died in service of Japan in several wars including the 2.4 million war dead from WWII.
Recently, the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga sent a ritual offering of potted plant to Yasukuni Shrine, to mark the spring festival. However, China and South Korea were irked by the action of the Prime Minister

Notes:
A virtual roundtable discussion ‘Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Government’ was organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) in collaboration with Omidyar Network India.
The MEITY also launched the #FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge to accelerate adoption of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) In Government.