Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
A 13-day mega military exercise between Indian and Russian army is scheduled to be organised from August 1 at Volgograd city located in Russia. The name of the Joint military exercise between Indian and Russian army is INDRA. The scheduled exercise is the 12th edition of INDRA and it is named “INDRA-21”.
Accroding to the Indian army, 250 personnel from each side will participate in this 12th edition of the joint military exercise. The military exercise will help in strengthening the bilateral security cooperation and will serve to reinforce the longstanding bond of friendship between India and Russia. It will also conduct counter-terror operations as mandated under the UN’s framework of joint forces against international terror groups.

Notes:
Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for Culture participated in the G20 Culture Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Italy. The meeting was held on 30 July, 2021. The main focus of the meeting was on ideas related to the protection of cultural heritage. Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi presented India’s perspective on the topic ” Culture and Creative Sectors as drivers for growth”. She highlighted the significance of culture and creative sectors in providing economic growth and employment. She discussed about One District One Product Scheme of Uttar Pradesh, Tourism circuits, promotion of Yoga and Ayurveda etc.
G20 is an intergovernmental forum which comprises European Union and 19 countries including India.

Notes:
A virtual meeting “BRICS Counter Terrorism Working Group” was oraganised recently on July 28-29 under the chairmanship of India. It was the 6th meeting of the BRICS Counter Terrorism Working Group.
The main outcome of the meeting was the finalisation of the BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan containing specific measures for the implementation of the BRICS Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted by BRICS leaders in 2020.
BRICS includes five major emerging economies : Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS members are known for their significant influence on regional affairs. It was founded in 2006.

Notes:
Deepak Tilak, the president of the Lokmanya Tilak Trust recently announced that Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of Serum Institute of India (SII) will be honoured with the prestigious “Lokamanya Tilak Award 2021”. He will be awarded for his contribution towards the society by manufacturing Covisheild and hence helping in saving many lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lokmanya Tilak National Award was started in 1983. The award is annually given on August 1, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak. Several prominent personalities like Indira Gandhi, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Atal Biharee Vajpayee, Pranab Mukherjee, N R Narayana Murthy etc. have been honoured with this award.

Notes:
India & Israel collaborated recently to develop rapid testing for COVID-19  in under 30 seconds with the involvement of advanced technological expertise of Israel and Indian development and production capabilities.
Trials are being conducted at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya (RML) hospital at a special site. Four different technologies are  taken under consideration for clinical trials : Voice test, Breath analyser test, Isothermal testing and Polyamino acid testing.

Notes:
Shri Bhupendra Singh, Madhya Pradesh Urban Development and Housing Minister launched “Ek Mask-Anek Zindagi” public awareness campaign on August 1, 2021. The campaign will end on August 15, 2021.
The main idea behind the initiation of this campaign is to spread awareness about wearing masks as an preventive step towards controlling the spread of Covid-19. Mask Banks will be established under this scheme where people can donate new masks for poor and needy people. Citizens can donate mask or funds with the help of NGOs also.

Notes:
Emma Mckeon became the first female swimmer to win seven medals in a single Olympic event. She won seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics. She belongs to Australia. She had broken the Olympic record twice in the Tokyo Olympic. She completed the 50m freestyle event in 24.02 seconds and set a world record and then again  broken this record by completing the 50m freestyle in 24 seconds.
She now matched the record for the most decorated female athlete at a single Games/event along with the Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya who won seven medals in 1952 Olympics held in Helsinki.
Emma Mckeon joins Michael Phelps, Matt Biondi and Otto, as the only swimmers to win five or more golds at one Games/event.

Notes:
Nikol Pashinyan, the chairman of the Civil Contract Party has been re-appointed as the Prime Minister of Armenia. He was first appointed as the Prime Minister in 2018.
President Armen Srkissian approved Pashinyan’s candidacy for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia.
Armenia is a country in Asia. It lies in the mountainous Caucasus region between Asia and Europe. Yerevan is the capital of Armenia and  Armenian dram is its currency.

Notes:
Khalid Mansoor has been appointed as the chief of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority. He replaced Asim Saleem Bajwa. Khalid Mansoor has more than 30 years of experience in energy and petrochemical sectors. He has a good knowledge about execution, management and operations related to mega-projects.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a collection of infrastructure projects that are under construction in the regions of Pakistan and China.  It was established on 22 May, 2013.

Notes:
The state government of Uttarakhand has launched an earthquake alert app which is named ‘Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert.‘ This app has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. This app will send early warning messages before the earthquake and will also help in tracing the location of people stuck during the earthquake and will send the alert to the concerned authorities.