Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
Indian Visual Artist & Illustrator Anand Radhakrishnan has won the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art). He shared the award with UK based colourist John Pearson for “Blue in Green,” a graphic novel authored by Ram V. Eisner Award is named after graphic novel legend Will Eisner and this award is known as the “Oscar of the comic field” and is presented in 32 categories.

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.

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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:
1971 war hero Commodore Kasaragod Patnashetti Gopal Rao dies at 94. Commodore Kasaragod Patnashetti Gopal Rao, a 1971 war hero and recipient of the Mahavir Chakra in the year 1971, passed away at the age of 94 on August 9, 2021. Rao was a recipient of the Veer Seva Medal also. He played a key role in the war with Pakistan to liberate East Pakistan that is now Bangladesh. Rao led a small task group of the Western Fleet and launched an offensive off the coast of Karachi as part of Operation Cactus Lily. He led the group into enemy waters on the night of December 4, 1971 and sunk two destroyers and a minesweeper.

Notes:
PM Narendra Modi has chaired UNSC High-Level Open Debate on “Enhancing Maritime Security” Stressing on enhancing maritime security. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8th August, 2021 called for peaceful settlement of disputes as per international law and for jointly combating maritime threats posed by non-state actors as he chaired a high-level UN Security Council open debate on “Enhancing Maritime Security – A Case for International Cooperation” via video conferencing. PM Narendra Modi is the first Indian PM to chair UNSC meet.

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:
Last remaining population of the Asiatic Lions are found in Gir National Park of Gujarat. In 2020, population of Asiatic lions has surged by almost 29% in Gujarat’s Gir forests. The distribution area of lions has also increased by 36%. Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan Gir, is a forest, national park, and wildlife sanctuary near Talala Gir in Gujarat, India. This national park was established in 1965.

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:
IIFL Finance has partnered with Bangalore and Gurgaon-based FinBox to offer innovative digital credit products to its merchants. The investment services company will offer digital credit avenues to its merchants, B2B e-commerce traders; using FinBox’s embedded buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and working capital credit products. Through this partnership, IIFL and FinBox will disburse ₹1,000 crore in loans over the next 2 quarters, through a completely digital model. Rajat Deshpande, co-founder and chief executive officer FinBox said that the FinBox Embedded Finance Platform powers credit on multiple B2B, e-commerce and retailer aggregator platforms. FinBox’s artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered underwriting capability will enable to extend credit even to MSMEs with thin-to-no credit history.

Notes:
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.