Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Punjab National Bank (PNB) has signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation to provide up to Rs 2 crore to the dealers of the Oil company.
Under the MoU, the bank would provide credit facilities at lower interest rates, nil margin, and with minimum or zero collateral requirements. These measures are to be undertaken under the PNB e-Dealer scheme.

Notes:
As per a study published in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, tap water access in densely populated parts of Delhi is a strong predictor of Dengue contraction risk.
As per the study, 7.6 per cent of the surveyed individuals were positive for dengue virus antibodies. Areas with less than 61 per cent of houses having access to tap water, were associated with a higher risk of virus exposure.

Notes:
The Government of India has approved applications from leading medical devices manufacturing companies, under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
These companies include Siemens Healthcare, Sahajanand Medical Technologies, Nipro India Corporation and Wipro GE Healthcare.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently unveiled the draft “Humans in space policy 2021”.
The policy will be sent to the government for approval. The policy seeks to facilitate start-ups and the local industry to build technologies for its human space programme. ISRO has also set up a two-member team to study the technologies needed for the mission.

Notes:
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Tunisia Africa Business Council and Indian Economic Trade Organization (IETO).
The MoU seeks to establish the India Tunisia Business Council. The event was organised by IETO and was attended by members from the Ministry of External Affairs, India, Ministry of Foreign Affairs based in Tunis, businesspersons and Academia.

Notes:
Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani rolled out the commercial Jute seed distribution scheme. The productive variant of Jute seeds will help enhance the income of Jute farmers.
Jute Corporation of India had signed an MoU with National Seeds Corporation for commercial distribution of around one thousand Metric Tonne jute seeds for the year 2021-22.

Notes:
The Department of Science and Technology has announced major changes to India’s mapping policy. This step aims to enable the Indian companies access to modern mapping technologies.
As per the guidelines released by the Science and Technology Ministry, there are no restrictions for acquiring and producing geospatial data and geospatial data services including maps.

Notes:
As per the recent data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat, China was the biggest trading partner of the European Union.
Last year, China overtook the United States as the biggest trading partner of the EU. As per the agency, Britain which is not a part of the European Union at present, was the third-largest trading partner.

Notes:
Arribada is a term used to describe the mass migration of sea turtles, where large groups of females assemble at a nesting site on the beach.
Recently, the Olive Ridley turtles have started laying eggs in the beach in this nesting season. The nesting season which usually begins in November was delayed by a few weeks this year, due to changes in climate conditions due to the cyclones Nivar and Burevi.

Notes:
S. Chinny Krishna, the co-founder of Blue Cross of India, has been conferred with the prestigious ‘Prani Mitra’ award for 2021 by the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh presented the award to Mr. Krishna in New Delhi, for his lifetime service to animals. It is the country’s highest award for animal welfare.