Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed in the Lok Sabha on 6th August, 2021. The bill seeks to do away with the contentious retrospective tax provision. The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill proposes to amend the Income Tax Act, 1961 to provide that no tax demand shall be raised in the future on the basis of the retrospective amendment for any indirect transfer of Indian assets if the transaction was undertaken before May 28, 2012. Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister when retrospective tax provision was included in 2012.

Notes:
Recently, Karnataka Bank has been empanelled by RBI to act as an ‘Agency Bank’ to facilitate transactions related to government businesses. As an empanelled Agency Bank, it is authorised to undertake government businesses such as revenue receipts and payments on behalf of the Centre and States, pension payments in respect of the same, collection of stamp duty charges and also any other item of work specifically advised by the RBI.

Notes:
Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami has appointed Vandana Katariya, Indian Women’s Team Hockey Player, as the Brand Ambassador of the State’s Department of Women Empowerment & Child Development. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she became the 1st Indian Woman to score an Olympic hat-trick in hockey. The Uttarakhand Government had also announced a cash reward of INR 25 Lakh to Vandana Kataria for her performance at the Tokyo Olympics.

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:
On 11th August, 2021 Delhi government has launched faceless transport services. It will bring all the driving licences, registration and services related to permit online. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also launched 33 faceless services, in a function at I.P. Estate office on August 10. Four zonal offices namely, IP Estate, Sarai Kale Khan, Janakpuri and Vasant Vihar will be closed. Motor licensing offices (MLOs) of South zone, Raja Garden and Dwarka, respectively, will look after their Vahan and Sarathi related work. Four MLO offices will serve as facilitation centres for public who are not having access to computers to file their online applications. Services in faceless manner, through online applications, will do away with the need of visiting MLOs. List and faceless services comprise of renewal of driving license, learning licences, transfer of ownership, duplicate registration certificate, fresh permit from goods and passenger vehicles, international driving permit, change of address, hypothecation termination etc.

Notes:
The government of Maharashtra has announced about the introduction of Rajiv Gandhi Award for firms that are excelling in the Information Technology (IT) sector in the state. The awards have been named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Rajiv Gandhi Award for excellence in the IT sector will be conferred upon institutions and companies for their outstanding performance in the IT sector on August 20, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the late Rajiv Gandhi. It will be conferred by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Maharashtra IT Corporation Limited (MAHA-IT) has been appointed as the nodal agency to propose the award.

Notes:
The Skytrax World Airport Award ranking 2021 was recently published in which Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi has emerged among world’s top-50 best airports in the 2021. Delhi Airport emerged as best airport in India for the third consecutive year. Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have also found a rank among world’s 100 best airports. According to Skytrax 2021 world airport’s awards list, Delhi has been ranked at 45th position. Ranking has improved by five places as compared to number 50 in 2020. Delhi airport is first Indian airport to achieve this mark. Hyderabad has been ranked at 64th Its raking has been improved by seven places against 71st in 2020. Mumbai is at 65th number, 13 places down from 52nd position in 2020. Bengaluru is at 71st number, 3 places down from 68th rank in 2020.

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.

Notes:
Jammu & Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha has launched PROOF (Photographic Record of On-site Facility) app to monitor timely completion of projects. This app will help in uploading geotagged photographs while preferring bills in the concerned treasuries against the budget allotted through the BEAMS application. It will monitor and timely complete projects in time duration. In this application details of all projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. Bringing more transparency & accountability in the system, the details of all the projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. After the launch of this app, no bills shall be entertained in the treasury unless photographs of projects are uploaded. This new initiative will have a larger impact on monitoring & timely completion of projects.

Notes:

• Indian Bank has launched its flagship Business Mentoring Programme MSME Prerana in West Bengal.
• MSME Prerana is an innovative and unique business mentoring program in collaboration with Poornatha and Co. to enable MSME entrepreneurs to run their businesses more efficiently by maximizing value and capability.
• The programme will be in the local language of the state which is Bengali.
• MSME Prerana was launched with the aim of developing the financial and managerial capacities of MSME entrepreneurs, in addition to sensitizing them to the various initiatives of the Union and State Governments as well as other governing bodies.