Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Indian Government has decided to resume providing free food grains to the poor in May and June.
The 5-kg additional food grains to PDS beneficiaries is to be provided under the PMGKAY for two months -May and June. But this time, pulses are not being provided to the poor. PMGKAY was announced in 2020 from May to November to help poor people tackle the pandemic.

Notes:
The Annapurna Mountain Range in the Himalayas is located in north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain peak in the world, which includes a peak over 8000 metres.
Recently, Priyanka Mohite from Satara in Maharashtra became the first Indian woman to scale Mt Annapurna. She had earlier summitted several peaks including Mt Everest.

Notes:
New Zealand’s fishing companies Sanford, the New Zealand Government, WWF-New Zealand and technology experts have joined together to deploy a drone which is capable of finding and tracking Māui dolphins using artificial intelligence.
The drone is developed by an NGO MĀUI63. It has been designed in such a way that it can distinguish between Māui dolphins from other species, with more than 90% accuracy.

Notes:
The ‘Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leaving no Country Behind’ is a report jointly released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with UNDP and UNESCAP.
As per the report, the richer countries in the Asia-Pacific region would recover quickly from the impact of the pandemic than the poorer countries. This difference is because of variation in degree of immunity, healthcare system and vaccine roll-out.

Notes:
In the 12th Barcelona Open tournament, Spanish professional tennis player Rafael Nadal clinched the title. This victory marks his first title of the year and 87th title of his tennis career.
He defeated his opponent Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who is also one among the top ten international players. The final match played between Nadal and Tsitsipas is considered to be longest ATP match in the year 2021.

Notes:
Three number of small Indian civets have been rescued and recovered by the East Godavari Wildlife Management authorities in two separate rescue operations.
The small Indian civet, bearing scientific name Viverricula indica, is native to South and Southeast Asia. It is categorized as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List.

Notes:
A dedicated community service centre named Aditya-L1 Support Cell (AL1SC) has been set up by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES).
This service centre would bring all data pertaining to the India’s first solar space mission onto a single web-based interface. It has been set up in ARIES transit campus at Haldwani – Uttarakhand.

Notes:
China has unveiled a new anti-espionage regulation, which seeks to prevent ‘foreign infiltration’ in key companies and organisations.
Under the regulation, the National security authority will prepare lists of the firms that are susceptible to foreign infiltration and require security measures. The regulation will also draft the procedures to guard against foreign threats and espionage.

Notes:
NEO 01 is a robot, launched by a Chinese space mining start-up into low Earth orbit. It has been launched on an experimental basis to remove the space debris.
The robot has been launched using China’s Long March 6 rocket. The experimental technology involves use of a large net to capture debris and then burning it using its electric propulsion system.

Notes:
India and Russia recently agreed to establish a “2+2 ministerial dialogue” between foreign and defence ministers, to promote the bilateral strategic partnership.
Russian President and Indian Prime Minister had a telephonic, wherein they reviewed bilateral cooperation, especially in the area of space exploration and renewable energy sector, focussing hydrogen economy.