Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
Multi-skill Development Centre (MSDC) for Aviation Skilling has been set up at Chandigarh under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme which has been funded by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Aviation Skill Development Center has been set up at Mumbai by LearnNet Skills as training implementation partner for CSR project of AAI.

Notes:
Indian and American bodies have signed an agreement on monsoon data analysis and cooperation to improve weather forecasts in the region. The agreement was signed by India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology Director, G.A. Ramadass and the U.S. Assistant Administrator for Research and Acting Chief Scientist, Craig McLean of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As a result of this, the two bodies would enhance technical cooperation in the development of the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) and the Ocean Moored buoy Network in the northern Indian ocean (OMNI) for improving weather and monsoon forecasts between NOAA of US and India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences.

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:
The International Left-Handers’ Day 2021 is celebrated every year on August 13. It is a way to acknowledge those who, unlike the majority of the population, are born left-handed. A considerable part of the population, almost 10-12% of the global population, consists of left-handers. There are people who are afraid of the left-side or left-handed people. This condition can take the form of a phobia and is known as Sinistrophobia.

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:

• Arunachal Pradesh signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with with North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) for the development of two hydropower projects in the state.
• North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) will set up a 90-megawatt project in Tawang and another 120 MW plant in West Kameng.

Notes:

• Samsung has introduced a skilling programme that aims to train 50,000 youth and make them job-ready for the electronics retail sector in the next few years.
• The South Korea-based firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), to execute the programme through its nationwide skills training centres.
• The ‘Samsung DOST’ (Digital & Offline Skills Training) programme plans to provide 200 hours of blended classroom and online training, followed by five months of on-the-job training.
• The participants’ training will be as per the National Skill Qualification Framework and will include skill sets such as customer engagement, managing sales counter, handling customer queries, product demonstration and selling skills, and several other soft skills.
• They will be made familiar with the functioning of electronics retail stores through live demonstrations, role-play techniques and hands-on training during the on-the-job training.
• The company said the programme participants will be youth who have completed school education and will be mobilised through NSDC’s approved training partners at 120 centres across India.

Notes:

• Puducherry on 16th August celebrated its De Jure Transfer day.
• As far as Puducherry is concerned, De Jure Transfer Day, is the day it really got independence.
• The then Pondicherry was under French control well after 1947.
• Soon protests rose demanding a free government, culminating in Indo-French dialogues on the issue. March 13, 1954, the talks on settlement of French territories began, and the process ended with the signing of a treaty for cessation of French control, in May 1956.
• The treaty was cemented in the French parliament in May 1962.
• On 16th August 1962, there was a complete surrender of Indian territories after the exchange of instruments of ratification between the two nations.

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:

• Smartphone maker Oppo has set up a specialised lab for camera innovation at its Hyderabad research and development centre.
• It is designed to develop localised features, camera solutions using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and focus on developing imaging software for a better user experience.