Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
A parliamentary group recommended renegotiating the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan to address the impact of climate change on water supply in the basin and other challenges not covered by the agreement. On 5th August, 2021, the Standing Committee on Water Resources tabled the report before the Lok Sabha. According to the Indus Waters Treaty which was signed by India and Pakistan in 1960, all waters of the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers are allocated to India for unrestricted use. Most of the waters of the western Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers are allocated to Pakistan

Notes:
The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the year 2019. CDRI has 25 countries and seven international organisations as members now with Bangladesh being the latest entrant, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said. MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the objective of the CDRI is to promote the resilience of existing and new infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.

Notes:
Bihar’s capital city Patna is all set to get its own version of Mumbai’s famous Marine Drive. The 5.50km-long Digha-AN Sinha Institute stretch of the ambitious Ganga Pathway is all set to be opened next year. The ‘Ganga pathway’ is part of Rs 3,390 crore project which is coming up on the southern bank of river Ganga to minimise traffic on the congested Ashok Rajpath. The total length of project is 20.50km

Notes:
India’s Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in collaboration with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, United Kingdom (FCDO UK) has launched the Swavalamban Challenge Fund (SCF) with the aim to promote entrepreneurship. SIDBI is India’s principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Applications are invited in two categories, which are pilot and scale-up. In the pilot category, applicants can apply with their proposal to pilot/test/trial their innovative ideas. In the scale-up category, already ongoing/completed projects can be applied for.

Notes:
Neeraj Chopra, who won the historic gold for India in athletics by throwing 87.58m at the men’s Javelin Throw final. Not only is this Independent India’s first gold in Athletics at the Olympics but also the only medal ever by an Indian from Athletics.

Notes:
The 79th anniversary of Quit India movement was observed on August 8, 2021. On this day in 1942, father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call of Do or Die to all Indians to drive away Britishers from the country. The movement had begun from Gowalia Tank in Mumbai. The day is observed as August Kranti Day every year.

Notes:
RBL Bank has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as its preferred cloud provider. AWS helps RBL bank to strengthen its AI-powered banking solutions and drive digital transformation at the Bank, adding significant value to the Bank’s innovative offerings, saving costs, and tightening risk controls.

Notes:
RBL Bank has been empanelled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as an ‘Agency Bank’ to conduct banking business for the central and state governments, the bank informed in a regulatory filing. The announcement comes close on the heels of a recent RBI guideline that authorises scheduled private sector banks as Agency Banks of the regulator for the conduct of government business. The authorisation will enable RBL Bank, to handle a broad range of transactions related to government business, such as distributing Subsidies, Pension payments, collecting Central and State taxes including Income Tax, Excise Duties, Customs, GST, Stamp Duty, Registration, State Excise (VAT) and professional tax, in both online and offline modes.

Notes:
IIFL Finance has partnered with Bangalore and Gurgaon-based FinBox to offer innovative digital credit products to its merchants. The investment services company will offer digital credit avenues to its merchants, B2B e-commerce traders; using FinBox’s embedded buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and working capital credit products. Through this partnership, IIFL and FinBox will disburse ₹1,000 crore in loans over the next 2 quarters, through a completely digital model. Rajat Deshpande, co-founder and chief executive officer FinBox said that the FinBox Embedded Finance Platform powers credit on multiple B2B, e-commerce and retailer aggregator platforms. FinBox’s artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered underwriting capability will enable to extend credit even to MSMEs with thin-to-no credit history.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully tested the ‘Nirbhay’ Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile, powered by the Made-in-India ‘Manik’ Turbofan Engine. The missile was designed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment, a DRDO laboratory in Bengaluru. The engine was designed and developed by another DRDO laboratory, Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), which is also based in Bengaluru. The ‘Nirbhay’ subsonic missile, which has a range of 1000 kilometers, was fired from a military testing facility off the coast of Odisha on Wednesday and it flew for nearly 150 kilometers in 15 minutes.