Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has recently released ‘Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines’ and ‘National Marine Turtle Action Plan’.
The documents contain framework for handling stranded animals on shore, entangled animals in the sea or boat, management actions for reducing threats to marine species and their habitats, rehabilitation of degraded habitats, among others.

Notes:
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar launched the Indo-French year of Environment along with his French counterpart.
India and France have environment projects being undertaken in Assam, Rajasthan and a project to be started in Jharkhand. The objective of this event is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister S Jai Shankar recently delivered his virtual keynote address at the All-India Conference of China Studies.
During the conference, he proposed Eight Guiding principles to repair the strained relations of India with China. He also highlighted the disturbance in their ties due to the stand-off at Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Notes:
The Economic Survey for 2020-21 has mentioned “Bare Necessities Index” (BNI), to describe the inequalities in access to bare necessities like drinking water, sanitation and housing conditions between urban and rural India.
The index lists 26 indicators on five dimensions namely water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. It also classifies the regions in three levels of access to bare necessities namely high, medium, low.

Notes:
The ‘Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change’, is a declaration released by the global maritime industry recently.
The declaration focusses on recognising seafarers as key workers by all governments in line with the UNGA resolution adopted recently. The Maritime Union of India (MUI) urged the Centre to consider the declaration while formulating ‘Maritime India Vision 2030’.

Notes:
Anders Antonsen of Denmark won the men’s singles final at badminton World Tour held in Bangkok recently. In the final match, he defeated Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
The tournament is hosted by Thailand in a bio secure coronavirus bubble. The tournament contained no spectators, to guard against the pandemic.

Notes:
Lieutenant General C P Mohanty assumed charge as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff. Prior to this appointment he was the Army Commander of the Southern Army.
The area of responsibility of the Southern Army includes 11 states and four Union Territories. C P Mohanty has replaced the previous Vice Chief of the Army Staff, Lieutenant General Satinder Kumar Saini.

Notes:
The Oxford group has selected ‘Aatmanirbharta’ as the Oxford Hindi word of 2020. In Hindi language, it means self-reliance.
Previous Hindi words of the year selected by Oxford are ‘Aadhar’ (2017), ‘Nari Shakti’ (2018) and ‘Samvidhaan’ (2019). Following the prime minister’s address, there was a significant increase in the usage of ‘aatmanirbharta’ following the Prime minister’s address.

Notes:
According to a recent research published in the journal Nature, Scientists have developed a new protein-based biosensor to detect the novel coronavirus.
These devices recognise the unique molecules on the surface of the virus and bind to them. Subsequently, they emit light through a biochemical reaction. This technique does not rely on genetic amplification as used in the RT-PCR method and saves time.

Notes:
A team of researchers have discovered a new gecko species in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The new species belongs to the genus Cyrtodactylus also known as bent-toed geckos. The species was named as Cyrtodactylus arunachalensis after the state of Arunachal Pradesh, in which it was discovered.