Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

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:
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:
P V Sindu is the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals. She won her first Olympic medal, which was a silver medal, at Rio Olympics 2016. She won a bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics 2021 after defeating He Bing Jiao of China.
PV Sindhu belongs to Hyderabad, Telangana. Her Personal coach is Park Tae Sang and the national coach of Badminton is Pullela Gopichand.  She got Padma Bhushan Award in 2020. She has been also awarded with Pamda Shri (2015), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2016 and Arjuna Award in 2013.

Notes:
A core committee meeting was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat to review the progress of the vaccination programme across the state. As per the meeting reports, Gujarat is on the top position in terms of vaccinations per million people.
Officials said that about 5 lakh 17 thousand people have been vaccinated in the state against the population of ten lakhs. More than 3.32 crore doses of vaccines have been administered under state wide vaccination drive. In the month of July, more than 75 lakh vaccinations have been done.

Notes:
Forbes released Fortune 500 global list of companies on August 2, 2021. According to the list,
Walmart is ranked first in terms of total revenues for their respective fiscal years ended on or before March 31, 2021. Walmart had a revenue of USD 524 billion.
Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. The company is based in United States of America. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was founded on 2 July, 1962 by Sam Walton and Walton family is its owner. Doug Mcmillion is the current CEO of this company.
Forbes is an American business magazine. It is owned by Integrated whale media investments and Forbes family. It features articles on finance, industry, investments and marketing topics. It is based in New Jersey, USA.

Notes:
Udupi district of Karnataka stood first in the successful implementation of Sakala scheme in July, 2021.
Sakala is a legislation formed to provide timely delivery of government services to citizens by the Government departments concerned.
Karnataka incorporate Sakala scheme under Right to Public Services legislation.
Karnataka Sakala Services Act was passed in 2011 to provide guarantee of services to citizens in Karnataka with a stipulated time limiting to citizen related services. It was renamed as Sakala Act in 2012.
The technical services related to the Sakala scheme is developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with a motive to provide solutions and services to monitor the services.

Notes:
Financial Times Publication, The Banker honoured DBS Bank as the global winner for Most Innovative in Digital Banking, 2021. The bank was also recognised as the Asia-pacific winner and won in the Cyber security category for its secure access and remote working solution.
Euromoney, a leading financial publication named DBS bank as Asia’s best bank and Asia’s best digital bank in its regional awards for excellence 2021.
DBS Bank Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation which is headquartered in Marina Bay, Singapore. Earlier, It was known as ‘The Development Bank of Singapore Limited’. It was named as “DBS bank Limited” on 21 July, 2003.
Piyush Gupta is the current CEO of DBS Bank Ltd.

Notes:
India’s largest and most complex warship “INS Vikrant” began its sea trials on August 4, 2021. It is the first indigenous aircraft carrier of India. Its weight is about 40,000 tonne and this is the maiden sea trials of INS Vikrant. It is constructed by the  Cochin Shipyard Limited for the Indian Navy. It was launched in 2013. The meaning of Vikrant is “Courageous”.
The motto of the ship is “Jayema Sam Yudhi Sprdhah”. The meaning of the phrase is “I defeat those who fight against me”. The phrase is taken from the Rigveda.

Notes:
The Government of India has approved development of 11 Industrial Corridors with 32 Projects which will be developed in four phases around the country as part of the National Industrial Corridor Programme (NICP). These include:

1. DMIC: Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor
2. CBIC: Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor
3. Extension of CBIC to Kochi via Coimbatore
4. AKIC: Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor
5. HNIC: Hyderabad Nagpur Industrial Corridor
6. HWIC: Hyderabad Warangal Industrial Corridor
7. HBIC: Hyderabad Bengaluru Industrial Corridor
8. BMIC: Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor
9. VCIC: Vizag Chennai Industrial Corridor
10. OEC: Odisha Economic Corridor
11. DNIC: Delhi Nagpur Industrial Corridor

Notes:
India and the European Union (EU) have agreed to resume the negotiations for an ambitious, balanced, mutually beneficial and comprehensive trade agreement. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations are to be held considering the interest of both India and EU.