Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

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:
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:
Indian Bank has partnered with NSRCEL (N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning), the entrepreneurship Centre of Excellence at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) to provide funding for identified start-ups under Indian Bank’s ‘Ind Spring Board’ Scheme. In the year 2020, Indian Bank had launched ‘IND Spring Board’ in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology Madras Incubation Cell to provide a credit facility of Rs 50 crore to Start-Ups.

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:
A study by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) involving 98 people, 18 of whom had inadvertently received Covishield as first dose and Covaxin as the second in Uttar Pradesh, showed that combining these two Covid-19 vaccines elicited better immunogenicity than two doses of the same vaccine. The study is titled ‘Serendipitous COVID-19 Vaccine-Mix in Uttar Pradesh, India: Safety and Immunogenicity Assessment of a Heterologous Regime.’

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:
The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) has won the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 by defeating Mexico in the finals. The final was held in the Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. This 2021 championship win marks the 7th Gold Cup title won by US. This year’s tournament was the 16th edition of this biennial tournament which is organized by CONCACAF.

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.

Notes:

• Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar launched an online portal TAPAS (Training for Augmenting Productivity and Services)
• This portal has been developed by the National Institute of Social Defence to provide access to lectures by subject experts, study material and more, but in a manner that it supplements the physical classroom without compromising teaching quality.
• The five basic courses are on Drug (Substance) Abuse Prevention, Geriatric/Elderly Care, Care and Management of Dementia, Transgender Issues and on comprehensive course on Social Defence Issues.

Notes:

• Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has announced four new districts and 18 new tehsils in the state.
• The four new districts are Mohla-Manpur, Sakti, Sarangarh-Bilaigarh and Manendragarh.
• ‘Mukhyamantri Affordable Medicine Scheme’ has been renamed as ‘Shri Dhanwantri Yojana’.
• Currently, there are 28 districts in the state of Chhattisgarh and after the announcement of four new districts the number will increase to 32.