Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
Avinash Sable finished seventh in 3000m steeplechase event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. He took 8 minutes 18.12 seconds (8:18.12s) to finish the race and set a national record by breaking his own record of 8:20.20s  that he set during the Federation Cup in March. He became the first Indian after 1952 to qualify for the Olympics in 3000m steeplechase event.
Avinash Sable belongs to Beed district of Maharashtra.

Notes:
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has set up a committee after receiving the proposals from the government of Puducherry and Sri Lanka to start the passenger shipping between Karaikal Port (Puducherry) and Kankesanthurai Port (Sri Lanka).
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Sri Lanka in 2011 and under the provisions of this amendment, the Puducherry govt. and the govt. of Sri Lanka has sent proposals to the Union government of India.
The proposals to start the ferry service for passenger shipping between these two ports has been sent by King lear limited.

Notes:
CSIR- Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh developed a personal reading machine “Divya Nayan” for visually impaired people. In this device, any printed or digital document can be accessed in the form of speech output. The device can analyse a multi column document and provide seamless reading on the basis of principle of contact scanning. User can place the device over the document to be read and manually scan it. The image is converted into text, text is converted to speech and audio with the help of language dependent optical character.
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) was established by the Government of India in September 1942. It is an autonomous body and has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India. Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India is its parent organisation. The institute was founded by Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar.

Notes:
A formal ceremony was held in the morning on 31st July, 2021 at South block, New Delhi. In this meeting, Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, AVSM, NM assumed charge as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff from Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC.
The new Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral SN Ghormade is an alumni of National Defence Academy (NDA). He was commissioned in the Indian Navy on 1 Jan 1984 and is a Navigation and Direction Specialist.
The Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS) is the second-highest ranking officer of the Indian Navy and the deputy to the chief of the navy. VCNS is a PSO at Naval Headquarters in New Delhi. He is responsible for naval related tasks.

Notes:
Rashad Hussain is an American attorney, diplomat and professor. He has been nominated as the Ambassador-at Large for International Religious Freedom by Joe Biden, the President of USA. Rashad Hussain is Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement at the National Security Council.
He previously served as Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice’s National Security Division. He served as U.S. Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), U.S Special Envoy for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications and Deputy Associate White House Counsel.

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:
On August 1, 2021, Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as leader of the Palestinian Islamist group ‘Hamas’. He is the chief of Hamas since 2017. He is a senior political leader of Hamas and he became the prime minister of Palestinian National Authority in 2006 after  Palestinian legislative elections. He has earlier controlled the political activities of Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the diaspora largely from outside Gaza, splitting his time between Turkey and Qatar for the past two years.
Hamas is a Palestinian militant and nationalist organization which rules the Gaza strip and has fought violent conflicts with Israel. It was founded in 1987. Its headquarter is in Gaza, a self-governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Notes:
Marcell Jacobs won a gold medal in a 100m race at the Tokyo Olympics on August 1, 2021. He completed the race in 9.80 seconds and became the first Italian man to win an Olympic medal in a 100m race. He also set a European record in 100m race by finishing the race in 9.80 seconds. He is an Italian sprinter and long jumper. He won the 60metres title during the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

Notes:
Chen Yufei won the gold medal in women’s singles badminton at Tokyo Olympics on August 2, 2021. She defeated Taiwan’s Tai Tzu ying 21-18, 19-21, 21-18 to capture the title. She is a Chinese badminton player. She won the girls’ singles junior titles at the 2016 Asian and the World Junior Championships. In 2017, she was awarded the 2017 Eddy Choong Most Promising Player of the Year.