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:
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:
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:
According to the Ministry of Defence, a hotline was established between Indian Army at Kongra La in North Sikkim and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Khamba Dzong in the Tibet Autonomous Region. It was established on 1 August, 2021. PLA Day is celebrated on August 1 by the People’s Republic of China. It is also known as Army Day.
The hotline was established with a motive of maintaining  peace & tranquility at the borders and nearby areas and build trust and strengthening cordial relations.
India and China have two military hotlines in eastern Ladakh (Chushul and Daulat Beg Oldi). The 12th round of Corps Commander talks was held on July 31, 2021 at Moldo (Chinese side).

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:
Yulimar Rojas won a gold medal at Tokyo Olympic Games on August 1, 2021 and created a world record in the women’s triple jump. She jumped 15.67 metres and broke the record of Inessa Kravets of Ukraine who has the record of 15.50 metres jump. At Tokyo Olympics, the Silver medal was won by Patricia Mamona (15.01 m) of Portugal and Bronze medal was won by Ana Peleteiro (14.87 m) of Spain.

 

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:
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:
Suicide cases due to unemployment have increased by 24% in 2019 as compared to 2016. As per the data of NCRB, Karnataka registered the maximum number of suicides (553) due to unemployment in 2019. Karnataka is followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is an Indian agency which collects and analyses crime data in accordance with the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special Local Laws (SLL). NCRB was set up in 1986. It is headquartered in New Delhi and works under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). IPS Ramphal Pawar is the current director of NCRB.

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.