Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
Nagaland has bagged seven prestigious national awards in the Van Dhan Vikas Yojana (VDVY) and Minimum Support Price (MSP) schemes for exemplary performance in various categories. The VDVY and MSP for Minor Forest Produce (MFP) scheme focus on farmers’ entrepreneurship programmes through processing, packaging, branding and marketing of locally available products, according to an official statement issued on Monday. Nagaland topped in three categories – Best Survey, Best Training and the most number of Van Dhan Vikas Clusters (VDVKCs) established. The North-eastern state also secured third positions in Best Sales Generated at Rs 1,15,86,000 and Innovation and Creativity. It got the two other awards for a couple of ideas: supply of gooseberry wine by a multipurpose society and mushroom.

Notes:
Indore, the country’s cleanest city, has now been declared as the first ‘water plus’ city of India under the Swachh Survekshan 2021, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Wednesday. Indore City received the certification from the centre on Wednesday. Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India launched as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Notes:
12th August is observed as World Elephant Day to draw focus towards protection and conservation of elephants across the world amid mistreatment in captivity, human-elephant conflict, poaching, and habitat loss. World Elephant Day aims to accelerate efforts to offer better protection to elephants, prevent the trade of ivory, improving enforcement policies, conserve elephant habitat, illegal poaching, better captive environments for elephants, and reintroduce the captive elephants back in their natural sanctuaries.

Notes:
Jammu & Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha has launched PROOF (Photographic Record of On-site Facility) app to monitor timely completion of projects. This app will help in uploading geotagged photographs while preferring bills in the concerned treasuries against the budget allotted through the BEAMS application. It will monitor and timely complete projects in time duration. In this application details of all projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. Bringing more transparency & accountability in the system, the details of all the projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. After the launch of this app, no bills shall be entertained in the treasury unless photographs of projects are uploaded. This new initiative will have a larger impact on monitoring & timely completion of projects.

Notes:

• The Investor Summit is being organized by the Gujarat government in collaboration with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
• The Investor Summit will focus on the synergies presented by the ship-breaking industry at Alang, for the development of an integrated scrapping hub.
• It is being conducted in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
• This summit will see participation from various potential investors, industry experts and the concerned central and state government ministries.
• The National Vehicle Scrappage Policy was announced by the PM on 13th August, 2021.

Notes:

• Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has announced a special package for the weavers of the state following reports that the Covid-19 had badly hit their livelihood.
• The state government announced interest-free loans of up to Rs 50,000 to weavers.
• 3,000 weaver families will be provided with house-cum-work shed on a priority basis.
• The weavers will be provided with electricity and electrical fans so that they can do weaving and designing comfortably.
• After agriculture, handlooms are the main source of employment for the rural population in Odisha.
• Infrastructure such as Customer Fulfillment Centre (CFC); warehouses and sales centres will be established through the panchayati raj to store the weaver’s products.

Notes:

• HCL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of HCL Technologies has launched an online portal, ‘My e-Haat’, to empower artisans and strengthen the value chain of the handicraft sector in the country.
• Currently, more than 30 partners from eight states with over 600 products are listed on the portal.
• The portal will assist in showcasing the ingenuity of skilled artisans from all over the country in front of the globe, resulting in increased recognition, appreciation, and remuneration.

Notes:

• A new cheaper, faster, and more accurate COVID-19 diagnostic test that uses electrodes made from graphite (the material found in pencil lead) to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been developed by researchers in the United States.
• Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in the US have developed this test.
• The research published in the journal PNAS stated that graphite electrodes in the new low-cost COVID-19 detection test known as the Electrochemical Advanced Diagnostic (LEAD) test aid in reducing the cost to $1.50 per test and take only 6.5 minutes to detect the COVID-19 virus.

Notes:

• In Manipur, Patriots’ Day in memory of those heroes who sacrificed their lives in the Anglo-Manipur War, 1891 is observed annually on 13th August.
• On the occasion, Governor Shri Ganga Prasad Chaurasia inaugurated the Memorial Complex dedicated to the exiled martyrs of the Anglo-Manipur War 1891 at Bir Tikendrajit Park, Imphal.
• The names of those unsung heroes who fought valiantly against the mighty British forces and later exiled to Andaman and Nicobar Islands are engraved on the Memorial Stone.
• Later, the artistes of Roop Raag performed the first rendition of the State Song of Manipur “Sana Leibak Manipur” the State Cabinet has decided to adopt this song as the State song of Manipur recently.

Notes:

• Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited has partnered with Corsight AI and I-Sec to develop facial recognition technology.
• Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited (AMTRON) has partnered with Corsight AI, a leading Facial Recognition Technology provider, to establish a strong Facial Recognition Technology Development and Services portfolio along with setting up a Facial Recognition Center of Excellence (”FR-COE”) at Tech City, Guwahati.
• I-Sec will become AMTRON’s strategic partner in this joint venture. ISec and its global partners specialize in providing the most advanced emerging technologies and solutions for all fields, from defense to space technology.
• Through this collaboration, AMTRON aims to provide facial recognition, capacity development, research and training services to the Indian government, state governments and related government organizations, as well as public sector enterprises (PSUs) in India.