Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare addressed the event on Restoring Cross Border Mobility, through video conference.
The event was organised by World Economic Forum’s Common Trust Network, to discuss the policies and partnerships required to reopen borders and enable essential travel, tourism and commerce in a safe and sustainable method.

Notes:
‘STARS’ stand for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States. It is a project of the Union Ministry of Education for improving the quality of education in six selected states.
The total project cost of project is Rs 5718 crore with the financial support of World Bank amounting to approximately Rs. 3700 crore. Recently, the agreement for the financial support of the project was signed with World Bank.

Notes:
The Indian construction major L&T Construction, has bagged the contract for building 28 steel bridges for Mumbai and Ahmedabad bullet train project.
The order costs about Rs.1000 crore to Rs.2500 crore. It involves procurement, fabrication, assembly and erection of bridges at various sites in the line. This project has been bagged as a consortium of L&T and Japan’s IHI Infrastructure Systems.

Notes:
The Central Government has approved the Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with a corpus of Rs 945 crore to provide financial assistance to start-ups.
As per the recent notification of thethe Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the funds will be disbursed through selected incubators across India from 2021 to 2025. DPIIT will also set up an Experts Advisory Committee (EAC) to monitor the scheme.

Notes:
The National Statistical Office (NSO) recently released its revised national account data. As per the data, the economic growth rate for 2019-20 was revised downwards to 4 per cent.
The decrease from the previous estimate of 4.2 per cent was mainly due to contraction in secondary sectors like manufacturing and construction. Real GDP growth of 2018-19 is estimated at 6.5 per cent, against the 6.1 per cent revealed in January estimate.

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 United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently amended its Emirati Nationality Law, for granting citizenship to expatriates. This move is aimed to attract and retain individuals with specialised skills.
The amendment seeks to grant UAE citizenship to investors, and professionals like scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has recently announced a framework to strengthen the grievance redress mechanism in Banks. The framework mandates all banks (excluding regional rural banks) to have enhanced disclosures on complaints.
This move of Reserve Bank comes at the back drop of increase in customer complaints in the banking industry in the recent years.

Notes:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India has the highest number of new cases of leprosy in the world annually.
India is followed by Brazil and Indonesia in the largest number of cases. In India, more new cases are reported from the rural belts of Bihar, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. January 31 is observed as World Leprosy Day.

Notes:
China is the largest producer of silk, in the world. It is followed by India in the second place. India is the only country in the world which produces all four major varieties of silk namely – Mulberry, Eri, Tassar, and Muga.
Recently, the Textiles Minister Smriti Irani inaugurated India’s biggest silk fair, the 8th India International Silk Fair. It is held on the virtual platform of Indian Silk Export Promotion Council.