Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

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:
All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct study on ‘Ashwagandha’ for promoting recovery from Covid-19. Clinical trials will be conducted on 2000 participants in three U.K. Cities : Birmingham, Leicester and London.
All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury and a constituent college of the University of London that specifies in public health and tropical medicine. It was founded in 1899 by Patrick Manson.

Notes:
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) and State-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd. (CESL) collaborated for setting up EV Charging stations in metro cities across India including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru. CESL and HPCL will identify major highway across India where adequate charging infrastructure could be installed and established.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. is a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Its headquarter is in Mumbai. It has approximately 25% market-share in India among public sector understandings and has a strong marketing infrastructure.
State-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd is a subsidiary of state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Limited. It is a joint venture of public sector companies under the Ministry of Power, Government of India.

Notes:
The tenure of India as a non-permanent of the UN Security Council began on January 1,2021. On August 1, 2021 India took over the UN Security Council Presidency for the month of August. The August presidency will be India’s first presidency as a non-permanent member. India will again preside over the council in December 2022 which is the last month of its two-year tenure. France was the immediate predecessor of India in the UN Security Council Presidency. This is India’s tenth tenure as a president.
United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation and help in harmonizing the actions of nations.
UN was founded on 24th October, 1945. Antonio Guterres is the current security general of UN.

 

Notes:
Hungarian Grand Prix, 2021 was held at the Hungaroring in Mogyorod, Hungary on August 1, 2021. Esteban Ocon won his maiden F1 race. Hungarian Grand Prix was the eleventh round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship. Esteban Ocon has now taken the Formula One Championship lead from Max Verstappen.
Esteban Ocon belongs to France and he competes for Alpine-Renault.
Formula One World Championship 2021 is a motor racing championship for Formula One cars. It is recognised by the International Automobile Federation which is the governing body of International motorsport. According to FIA, Formula One World Championship  is the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship is being conducted over 23 Grands Prix  across the world.
Lewis Hamilton is the defending World driver and Mercedes is the defending World constructor. They won the titles in 2020.

Notes:
‘Mukhyamantri Vatsalya Yojana’  has been recently launched by Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Under this scheme, Rs. 3000 will be directly transferred into accounts of children who lost  their parents or the earning member of their family during the Covid-19 pandemic. Free education, ration and health facilities will be provided to them till the age of 21.
State Minister Rekha Arya was also present when this scheme/programme was launched.

Notes:
The first orchid conservation centre of North India has been inaugurated in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. The main purpose of the conservation centre is to conserve orchid species and create ventures for tourism and livelihood for local people.
Orchid is a flowering plant and its scientific name is Orchidaceae.
All orchid species are protected under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES was enforced on 1 July, 1975.
Ivonne Higuero is the current Secretary-General of CITES. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Notes:
Under the aegis of Ministry of Defence, the Government of India has approved the establishment of the Defence Cyber Agency. To mitigate various cyber threats, all the three armed force Services have established their respective Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Also, the Government of India is formulating the National cyber security strategy, which is currently in the final stages of approval.

Notes:
The Government of India, the Central Water Commission, government representatives from 10 participating states and the World Bank has signed a $250 million project for long-term dam safety program and improving the safety and performance of existing dams across various states of India. The project will be implemented in approximately 120 dams across the states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Odisha, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan and at the national level through the Central Water Commission (CWC).

 

Notes:
The Central Board for Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) have launched the Indian Customs Compliance Information Portal (CIP) which will provide free access to information about all Customs procedures and regulatory compliance for about 12,000 Customs Tariff Items.