Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has appointed Noopur Chaturvedi as the chief executive officer (CEO) of NPCI. Bharat BillPay Ltd. (NBBL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPCI, providing a one-stop solution to billers for low-cost collections. Chaturvedi’s mandate is to scale up the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) so as to make it the most preferred platform for bill payments. Prior to joining NPCI, Chaturvedi was country head at PayU and chief-corporate business alliances at Airtel Payments Bank.

Notes:

• Union Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G. Kishan Reddy inaugurated an Exhibition Katha Kranthiveeron Ki, an exhibition of revolutionaries in New Delhi.
• The exhibition Katha Kranthiveeron Ki has been put up at Rabindra Bhawan as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ being celebrated to commemorate 75 years of Independence.
• The Exhibition “Katha Krantiveeron Ki” has on display more than 100 artworks recognising unsung heroes like Alluri Sitarama Raju and Artwork created during Shaheedi Diwas, Champaran Satyagraha and Jallianwala Bagh camp.

Notes:

• To spread awareness about Prediabetes and flatten the curve of diabetes, a first-time global event was held on August 14 as World Prediabetes Day.
• The World Prediabetes Day will be celebrated annually on 14 August starting from the year 2021.
• This event has been strategically chosen 90 days ahead of Diabetes day as scientifically it takes 90 days to mend the lifestyle to reverse Prediabetes and prevent progression to diabetes.
• In India, 9 crore people are living with Prediabetes. Almost 75% of these will go on to develop diabetes within the next 5 years.

Notes:

• Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa in New Delhi.
• The need for bio fortified crop varieties is being felt, which the government is trying to overcome.
• The National Gene Bank established in the year 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations, has the capacity to preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds.
• Presently it is protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, of which 2.7 lakh are Indian germplasm and the rest have been imported from other countries.

Notes:

• ASK Investment Managers Ltd on August 16 launched a digital onboarding for Alternate Investment Fund (AIF), the first of its kind in the industry for its flexicap portfolio theme.
• The ASK Emerging Opportunities Fund, is a flexicap portfolio with a midcap bias, and will be investing in listed Indian equities. The term of the scheme is seven years with two years of lock-in.
• With the government’s focus on Atmanirbhar Bharat and PLI schemes aimed at lowering dependence on imports and boosting exports, this fund aims to invest in beneficiaries of varied sectors including speciality chemicals, footwear, diagnostics, niche digital technologies, etc.
• An alternative investment is a financial asset that does not fall into one of the conventional investment categories.
• Alternative investments include private equity or venture capital, hedge funds, managed futures, art and antiques, commodities, and derivatives contracts.

Notes:

• The Civil Aviation Ministry gave conditional permission to 10 organisations, including Mahindra and Mahindra, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Bayer Crop Science, to use drones for various purposes.
• Karnataka government is one of the 10 organisations and it has got the permission to conduct “drone based aerial survey for creating urban property ownership records in Bengaluru”.
• Mahindra and Mahindra has got permission to conduct “drone-based agricultural trials” and use drones for precision spraying on paddy and hot pepper crop in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Two organisations—Gujarat-based Blue Ray Aviation and Telangana-based Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy—have been permitted to conduct remote pilot training using drones.
• Bayer Crop Science has got the permission to conduct drone-based agricultural research activities and use drones for agricultural spraying.
• The National Health Mission in Mumbai has also got the permission to conduct experimental BVLOS (beyond visual line-of-sight) drone flights to deliver essential healthcare items in tribal areas of Jawhar in Palghar district of Maharashtra.
• Gangtok Smart City Development has got the permission for drone-based aerial survey for its smart city project.
• SAIL has got the permission to use drones to conduct perimeter surveillance of its steel plant in Burnpur, West Bengal.
• Chennai-based Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited has got the permission to conduct drone-based aerial spraying to assess crop health and prevent crop disease.
• Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology to conduct atmospheric research at five different locations in the country.

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:

• The World Bank has launched a new Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund aimed at better defining and systematically rolling out the cybersecurity development agenda to help ensure a more substantial reflection of cybersecurity considerations across its programs and financing.
• Developed as an associated trust fund under the World Bank’s broader Digital Development Partnership Umbrella (DDP), the Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund’s launch was made possible with donor contributions from Estonia, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.
• The new Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund will help ensure that countries and their citizens can safely and securely take full advantage of the ongoing digital transformation and development.

Notes:

• The Indian Navy has carried out joint drills with the Vietnamese Navy in the South China Sea as part of maritime cooperation between the two countries.
• INS Ranvijay and INS Kora undertook bilateral maritime exercises with Vietnam People’s Navy (VPN) frigate VPNS Ly Thai To(HQ-012).
• The bilateral interaction aims to consolidate the strong bond shared by the two navies and would be another step towards strengthening India-Vietnam defence relations.
• The sea phase included surface warfare exercises, weapon firing drills and helicopter operations.
• Regular interactions between the two navies over the years have enhanced their interoperability and adaptability.

Notes:

• Qualcomm has unveiled a new drone platform and reference design with 5G and AI capabilities, to help accelerate drone development and edge computing.
• The chipmaker’s ‘Flight RB5 5G’ platform, powered by the Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, builds upon the company’s latest IoT offerings, to drive the next generation of high-performance, low-power, 5G drones.
• The drone platform offers multiple technologies to support evolving applications and new use cases in sectors including film and entertainment, security and emergency response, delivery, defence, inspection, and mapping.