Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed the highest motorable road in the world at a height of 19,300 ft at Umlingla Pass in the Eastern Ladakh region. This construction has created a record in high-altitude road construction. BRO has constructed a 52-km long tarmac road through Umlingla Pass, bettering the record of a road which is in Bolivia at 18,953 ft. This newly constructed road by BRO will now connect the important towns in Chumar sector of Eastern Ladakh.

Notes:
India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, conducted its maiden sea trials. Trials will be conducted for a long period under all conditions before the carrier is accepted as “proven at sea”. It will be fully operational by the year 2022. Navy will accept this warship and then will conduct aviation trials. Under the aviation trials, landing and take-off of MiG 29K fighter jets would take place. In the maiden trail, Navy conducted the deck landing of Navy’s Sea King helicopters. This 44000-tonne carrier has been designed by Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design at the cost of Rs 23,000 crore. It has been built at state-owned Cochin Shipyard in Kochi, Kerala.

Notes:
With the passage in Rajya Sabha, Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 got approval of both houses of Parliament on August 4, 2021. Earlier, on July 29, the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha. The Bill paves the way for privatisation of a small loss-making airport by clubbing it with a larger airport. The amendment bill proposes to modify the definition of a major airport under the AERA Act 2008. The objective is to pair the smaller non-profitable airports with profitable airports as a combination/package to bidders to make it a viable combination for investment under PPP (public-private partnership) mode.

Notes:
At the Tokyo Olympics Netherlands won the women’s hockey gold medals by beating Argentina with a 3-1 score in the final which was held on 6th August, 2021. Great Britain defeated India with a score of 4-3 in the match between losing semi-finalists to win the bronze medal.

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 Parliament has passed the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to encourage the start-up ecosystem and further boost the ease of doing business. The bill seeks to decriminalise 12 offences under the law and help improve the ease of doing business by amending the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 9, 2021 and Rajya Sabha on August 4. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that with the passage of the bill, criminal offences will be brought down while ease of doing business will go up and partners will have more flexibility.

Notes:
Bearing testimony to the growing defence ties between India and Saudi Arabia, INS KOCHI, the flagship destroyer of Indian Western Naval Fleet, arrived at Port Al-Jubail on August, 2021. The visit by the ship heralds a new chapter in the bilateral defence ties with the commencement of the harbour phase of first Naval Exercise between the two countries – ‘AL-MOHED AL-HINDI 2021’, according to a statement issued by the Indian Embassy in Riyadh.

Notes:
IIFL Home Finance (IIFL HFL), one of India’s leading housing finance company, has partnered with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Technical Assistance to support and foster the green building ecosystem in the affordable housing sector in India. This is ADBs first such private sector agreement in the country. The cost of the activities to be exercised under this Technical Assistance agreement is approximately $1 million, enabling activities addressing some of the key identified obstacles for building the ecosystem for green certified and affordable housing in India. IIFL HFL will also contribute an additional amount of up to $150,000, for supporting the above mentioned activities and objectives.

Notes:
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched a loan interest subvention scheme in association with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) to provide financial assistance for innovative waste to energy biomethanation projects. The industrial organic waste-to-energy bio-methanation projects are generally capital intensive and financially sensitive to both operating costs, including waste availability, and revenue, particularly biogas yield and its utilisation scenario. A GIS-based inventory tool of organic waste streams was also unveiled.

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.