Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
6th August, 2021 marked the 76th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing. The United States had dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945, destroying the city and killing 1,40,000 people. Three days later USA dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on 15th August ending World War II and it’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

Notes:
The Tokyo 2020 Games were declared closed by IOC chief Thomas Bach on August 8, 2021. The Olympic flag was passed to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo for the 2024 Games at the Tokyo closing ceremony. The United States topped the tally with 39 gold medals, just one ahead of China. Host Japan finished third with 27 golds followed by Great Britain with 22 and the Russian Olympic Committee, the team for Russian athletes after their country was banned for systematic doping, were fifth with 20. India finished 48th with 1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.

Notes:
Indian Bank has partnered with NSRCEL (N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning), the entrepreneurship Centre of Excellence at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) to provide funding for identified start-ups under Indian Bank’s ‘Ind Spring Board’ Scheme. In the year 2020, Indian Bank had launched ‘IND Spring Board’ in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology Madras Incubation Cell to provide a credit facility of Rs 50 crore to Start-Ups.

Notes:
Seekho Aur Kamao is a skill development scheme for youth of 14 – 35 years age group and aiming at providing employment and employment opportunities; improving the employability of existing workers, school dropouts etc. In the last 7 years around 3.92 lakh persons have been benefitted under this employment oriented scheme. This scheme was launched in the year 2013 and it is implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Notes:
India is ranked 122nd on a new Global Youth Development Index measuring the condition of young people across 181 countries, released by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on 10th August, 2021. Singapore ranked topmost while Niger came last. The index ranks countries between 0.00 (lowest) and 1.00 (highest) according to the developments in youth education, employment, health, equality and inclusion, peace and security, and political and civic participation. It looks at 27 indicators including literacy and voting to showcase the state of the world’s 1.8 billion people between the age of 15 and 29.

Notes:
The Finance Ministry has released its fifth monthly installment of Post Devolution Revenue Deficit (PDRD) Grant of Rs 9,871 crore to the states on August 9. With the release of this installment, a total amount of Rs 49,355 crore has been released to eligible states as PDRD in the current financial year. The Commission has recommended PDRD grants to 17 States during 2021-22.

Notes:
Nagaland has bagged seven prestigious national awards in the Van Dhan Vikas Yojana (VDVY) and Minimum Support Price (MSP) schemes for exemplary performance in various categories. The VDVY and MSP for Minor Forest Produce (MFP) scheme focus on farmers’ entrepreneurship programmes through processing, packaging, branding and marketing of locally available products, according to an official statement issued on Monday. Nagaland topped in three categories – Best Survey, Best Training and the most number of Van Dhan Vikas Clusters (VDVKCs) established. The North-eastern state also secured third positions in Best Sales Generated at Rs 1,15,86,000 and Innovation and Creativity. It got the two other awards for a couple of ideas: supply of gooseberry wine by a multipurpose society and mushroom.

Notes:
NABARD, State Bank of India (SBI) and Jammu & Kashmir Gramin Bank (JKGB) has signed a MoU for Joint Liability Groups financing. Main objective of the signing of MoU is to enhance the flow of credit to tenant farmers/oral lessees/sharecroppers, SF/MF etc, who at times may not have proper title to their land holding. The JLG formation will meet the credit requirements of people suffering reverse migration in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. The issue of formation of JLGs is also being discussed in every meeting of UTLBC. The formation and credit linkage of 1000 JLGs will benefit almost 5000 households in J&K.

Notes:
GIFT City, the country’s first international financial services centre (IFSC), has collaborated with the India InsurTech Association (IIA) to promote financial technology in the insurance sector. IIA is a not-for-profit organisation working towards growing a technology-driven insurance ecosystem in India. The two entities will collaborate on building thought leadership in the field of insurance and creating awareness about GIFT City among Indian and foreign insurance companies, the country’s first operational smart city said in a statement. To raise awareness about GIFT-IFSC, the collaboration will organise events, information series, seminars, and conferences.

Notes:
SAP India and Microsoft has announced the launch of a joint skilling programme ‘TechSaksham’ for empowering young women students from underserved communities to build careers in technology. Through the joint initiative, SAP India and Microsoft aims to skill 62,000 women students in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, web design and digital marketing. The programme will work in collaboration with the AICTE Training and Learning Academy-ATAL and state collegiate education departments to support the professional development of faculty at participating institutes.