Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

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The Indian men’s hockey team has claimed an Olympic medal after 41 years, beating Germany 5-4 to claim the bronze in the ongoing Olympic Games on 5th August, 2021. The eight-time former gold-winners, who suffered a slump in performance in the last four decades, made the resurgence in the best way possible by bagging an Olympic medal. Determined to clinch a medal, the Indian hockey team made one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of the game, fighting back from a two-goal deficit to turn the match in their favour. It is India’s third hockey bronze medal in the history of the Olympics. The other two came in 1968 Mexico City and the 1972 Munich Games.

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The cabinet of Assam has decided that no new cases will be registered against the Gorkha community in the state at the Foreigners’ Tribunals and already registered cases will be withdrawn. Assam chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that no Gorkha citizen will be prosecuted under the Citizenship Amendment Act 1955. According to the organisation representing Gorkhas there are around 25 lakh Gorkhas in Assam.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Ujjwala 2.0 (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana – PMUY) by handing over LPG connections, at Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh on 10th August, 2021, via video conferencing. During the event, the Prime Minister interacted with beneficiaries of the Ujjwala. Addressing the event, the Prime Minister said the number of people, especially women whose lives have been illuminated by the Ujjwala Yojana is unprecedented. This scheme was launched in 2016 from Ballia in UP.

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Karnataka has become the first state in the country to issue the order with regard to the implementation of National Education Policy-2020, State Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan claimed. The state government has issued an order on Saturday on the implementation of NEP-2020 with effect from the current academic year 2021-2022. The implementation will be done as per the guidelines of the NEP.

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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has built one of the world’s highest mobile air traffic control towers at the Advanced Landing Ground in Nyoma, Ladakh. The ATC controls operations of the fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters operating in the eastern Ladakh region.

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Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has launched eNagar mobile application and portal. The eNagar covers 10 modules with 52 services including property tax, professional tax, water & drainage, Complaints and grievance redressal, building permission, fire and emergency services. Gujarat Urban Development Mission has been appointed as a nodal agency for eNagar project. Total 170 locations including 162 municipalities and 8 Municipal Corporations are covered under the eNagar project.

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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.

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Grameen Foundation India (GFI) launched the Tech4Inclusion challenge for augmented reality-based solutions to advance financial literacy and inclusion. Grameen Foundation India is a social impact organization, working on financial inclusion, agriculture-based livelihoods, and health initiatives with the mission to enable the poor, especially women to overcome poverty and hunger. The challenge invites technology startups working on cutting edge augmented reality/virtual reality technologies and encourages them to come up with innovative solutions to address the challenges in advancing digital and financial inclusion of low-income people, particularly women.

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Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh on 12th August, 2021 has inaugurated the two day long 7th IBSA Academic Forum which is being held virtually. The two-day event is being hosted by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, RIS an autonomous think-tank of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India wand its headquarters is located in New Delhi. It features a conversation with IBSA Sherpas on economic partnerships that will, among other things, help economic integration and cooperation in creating resilient value chains post-Pandemic, accelerate the digital and green transition processes. The event has three topical plenary sessions, on Post-Pandemic imperatives for access to finance and economic recovery, IBSA cooperation on trade and resilient value chains and on creating post-pandemic resilience through technology and inclusive social sector development. India is the incumbent Chair of IBSA. IBSA is a unique Forum which brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, three large democracies and major economies from three different continents facing similar challenges.

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Agritech start-up Arya has tied up with SBM Bank India for commodity financing. SBM Bank India is part of Mauritius-based SBM group. The lender is headquartered in Mumbai. Arya provides integrated post-harvest services. Its platform helps users to choose ancillary services like warehouse management, access to finance, quality testing, storage protection services, and connecting produce to buyers. The start-up helps farmers, aggregators, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), food processors and end-user corporates avoid post-harvest losses. It assists sellers of agri-commodities to avoid distress sale of produce by extending post-harvest credit. In a statement, Arya said it has formed a strategic partnership with SBM Bank India to reinforce its competencies in financing solutions. SBM Bank India has profound domain expertise and is led by a core team of industry veterans. Through this collaboration, SBM Bank India said it is expanding presence to cater to agri-traders and agri-entrepreneurs across the country and offering them customised solutions to help them grow. Established in 1973, SBM is the leading international BFSI group of Mauritius.