Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
The Union Cabinet on 4th August, 2021 approved the continuation of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme for school education for another five years. Provision of training of master trainers for Anganwadi workers, incinerator and sanitary pad vending machines in all girls’ hostels, addition of new subjects instead of stream in existing senior secondary schools, holistic progress card for each learner, and upgrade of all Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas up to class 12 are among the initiatives in the revised scheme. Samagra Shiksha Scheme covers the school education from preschool to Class 12.

Notes:
On 6th August, 2021, a bill seeking to establish a central university in the Union Territory of Ladakh was passed in the Lok Sabha. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in his brief statement about the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2021, said that every year, around 7,000 students go out of Ladakh for education and with the establishment of the central university around 2,500 students will get the opportunity to study there. The Sindhu central university will be established at a cost of Rs 760 crore.

Notes:
Khel Ratna Award, which is India’s highest sporting honour, and was named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was on 6th August, 2021 rechristened in the honour of hockey legend Dhyan Chand. The award will now be called as ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’. Goal is the title of the autobiography of Major Dhyan Chand.

Notes:
On 7th August, 2021 Wrestler Bajrang Punia won a bronze medal in the men’s freestyle 65kg category at the Tokyo Olympics after defeating Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov in the match between losing semi-finalists.

Notes:
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has inducted its first women officers in combat. On 8th August, 2021 ITBP commissioned its first two women officers in combat after they completed their training at the ITBP officers’ training academy located in Mussoorie. A first-ever ‘History of ITBP’ book containing many unknown facts and photographs of the border guarding force was also released by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami along with ITBP director general S. S. Deswal.

Notes:
The government of India has decided to set up the Indian Institute of Heritage at Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar. This will impact higher education and research in the fields related to rich Indian heritage and its conservation. Indian Institute of Heritage would offer Masters and Ph.D courses in History of Arts, Conservation, Museology, Archival Studies, Archaeology, Preventives Conservation, Epigraphy and Numismatics, Manuscriptology etc. as well as conservation training facilities to in-service employees and the students of the Indian Institute of Heritage.

Notes:
The International Day of Indigenous Peoples was celebrated on August 9, 2021 with its theme: ‘Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract.’ There are over 476 million indigenous peoples living in 90 countries across the world, accounting for 6.2% of the global population. Indigenous peoples are the holders of a vast diversity of unique cultures, traditions, languages and knowledge systems.

Notes:
South Africa has become the first country in the world to grant patent for an invention made by Artificial intelligence (AI). The country has granted a patent to a food container system which is based on Fractal Geometry and was invented by an AI system known as DABUS (Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience). Stephen Thaler has created DABUS and it is a type of AI which is referred to as creativity machines as they are capable of complex functions. DABUS’ main function are spoiled food alerts, emergency warning system, etc.

Notes:
Pakistan has test-fired a surface-to-surface ballistic missile named ‘Ghaznavi’ on August 12, 2021. This is a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile ‘Ghaznavi’ which can strike targets up to 290 kilometres. The Ghaznavi missile has been tested in both day and night modes.

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.