Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) shri. GC Murmu has been selected as the external auditor of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He would serve the position for a term of three years. His term as an external auditor commences from the year 2021.
OPCW is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands.

Notes:
The Government of India has planned to bring around nine million hectares of land under mustard cultivation and increase the production to around 17 million tonnes (mt) by 2025-26.
This was announced during the ‘Mission Mustard 2025’, organised by Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) of India. The average normal area for five years from 2014-15 to 2018-19 was 5.9 million hectares and the production was around 7.7 mt.

Notes:
The Shanghai headquartered New Development Bank (NDB) has launched the USD 1.5 billion benchmark bond, for a term of 5 years.
The net proceeds of the bond issue would be used for financing sustainable development activities and to fund COVID-19 Emergency Program Loans to the Bank’s member countries.

Notes:
SVAMITVA Scheme is a Central Sector scheme launched on National Panchayat Day i.e 24th April 2020. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) is the Nodal Ministry for implementation of the scheme.
Recently, e-property cards under SWAMITVA have been distributed to 4.09 lakh property owners in 5,000 villages by the Prime Minster of India.

Notes:
As per the Sero survey conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the recurrence of coronavirus outbreak in March could be due to lack of meaningful antibodies in seropositive people after a peak in September 2020.
The CSIR conducted a sero-survey on 10,427 people from 17 states and two union territories. The average sero positivity was 10.14 per cent, among the sample people.

Notes:
Project DANTAK was established on April 24, 1961 under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
It is one of the oldest projects of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which was tasked to construct motorable roads in Bhutan. Recently, the Diamond Jubilee of the Project was commemorated in Bhutan, at the DANTAK Memorial.

Notes:
VARUNA is a multilateral Naval Exercise between India and France. The 19th edition of the bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ concluded on 27th April 2021.
Conducted in the Arabian Sea, the exercise included advanced air defence and anti-submarine programmes, intense flying operations, surface and anti-air weapon firings and other maritime security operations.

Notes:
Researchers in India have discovered two new species of damselflies, named Euphaea thosegharensis and Euphaea pseudodispar in Satara district of Maharashtra.
These damsels are commonly called as Torrent Darts and are endemic to the Western Ghats. These are large insects which belong to the genus Euphaea.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank has recently released a report titled Developing Asia’s Economic Outlook.
As per the report, Asia’s economy shrank by 0.2% in 2020. Although recovery has commenced in Asia, the recovery is registered at different speeds. Also, average inflation in the region is forecast to fall from 2.8% in 2020 to 2.3% in 2021.

Notes:
Veteran Gujarati poet Dadudan Gadhvi has recently passed away. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 for his contribution in literature and education.
He had also won several other awards including the Gujarat Gaurav Award as well as the Jhaverchand Meghani Award. His complete works are collected in two literary volumes named Terva and Lachhanayan.