Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

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:
Roberto Calasso was an Italian writer and publisher. Apart from his mother tongue, he was fluent in many languages such as French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit. He was also called as “a literary institution of one”. His books reflected his esoteric interests. He wrote on Indian and Greek mythology, the Vedic age, Kafka, Baudelaire etc.

Notes:
Man Kaur was an Indian track-and-field athlete. She was a Centenarian sprinter. She holds the world records in the Over-100 years old categories for many events. She won multiple Gold medals at the World Masters Athletics Championships. She got famous after winning the 100 metre sprint at the World Masters Games in Auckland in 2017. She got Nari Shakti Puraskar award at the age of 103. Pranab Mukherjee, the then president of India gave her this award. She was nicknamed as the “Miracle Mom from Chandigarh”.

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:
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:
Forbes released Fortune 500 global list of companies on August 2, 2021.
As per the list, Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is the highest ranked Indian company in a fiscal year ended on or before March 31, 2021. Globally, It is on 155th position. Apart from RIL, there are other Indian companies also such as Tata Motors, Indian Oil Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Rajesh Exports, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company which includes different sectors such as energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, textiles etc. It was founded on 8 May, 1973 by Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh Ambani is the current CEO of Reliance Industries Limited.
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:
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:
The Indian men’s hockey team has claimed an Olympic medal after 41 years, beating Germany 5-4 to claim the bronze in the ongoing Olympic Games on 5th August, 2021. The eight-time former gold-winners, who suffered a slump in performance in the last four decades, made the resurgence in the best way possible by bagging an Olympic medal. Determined to clinch a medal, the Indian hockey team made one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of the game, fighting back from a two-goal deficit to turn the match in their favour. It is India’s third hockey bronze medal in the history of the Olympics. The other two came in 1968 Mexico City and the 1972 Munich Games.

Notes:
The cabinet of Assam has decided that no new cases will be registered against the Gorkha community in the state at the Foreigners’ Tribunals and already registered cases will be withdrawn. Assam chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that no Gorkha citizen will be prosecuted under the Citizenship Amendment Act 1955. According to the organisation representing Gorkhas there are around 25 lakh Gorkhas in Assam.