Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has recently launched the ‘Pey Jal Survekshan’ survey under the Jal Jeevan Mission- Urban.
This survey is conducted on a pilot basis in 10 cities- Agra, Badlapur, Bhubaneswar, Churu, Kochi, Madurai, Patiala, Rohtak, Surat and Tumkur. The survey would assess distribution of water, reuse of wastewater and mapping of water bodies.

Notes:
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, is scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021.
The event is to be held under the presidency of the United Kingdom. British MP and President-designate of COP-26, Alok Sharma called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Notes:
Global E-commerce giant Amazon has announced that it is set to begin manufacturing devices in India. This is the first Amazon manufacturing line in India.
Amazon will begin manufacturing with Cloud Network Technology, a subsidiary of Foxconn, in Chennai. Beginning later this year, the programme aims to manufacture several lakhs of Fire TV Stick devices every year, generating additional jobs in the country.

Notes:
The Jal Jeevan Mission was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th August, 2019. It aims to provide tap water connection to every rural household by 2024.
Recently, the scheme has reached a new milestone by providing 3.53 Crore rural household tap water connections. 35.24% of rural households receive potable water through taps, against only 17% in 2019.

Notes:
The first day of the spring called ‘Pahela Phagun’ is celebrated in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The country’s top cultural organisations including the Bangladesh Shilpa Kala Academy held programmes to celebrate the beginning of the spring.
On account of the Covid pandemic, the traditional programme of ‘Basanta Utsab’ at the Fine Arts faculty in Dhaka university was cancelled.

Notes:
Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen Hassen arrived in New Delhi.
He inaugurated the new Chancery and Residence at Ethiopian Embassy in New Delhi along with External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S. Jaishankar. They also discussed on various bilateral and global issues of mutual interest.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Australian Space Agency signed an amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding, for space cooperation with Australia.
The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year.

Notes:
Recently, Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA on record. It has been extracted from teeth of mammoths found in north-eastern Siberia that existed to 1.2 million years.
This is seen as a major breakthrough in understanding the evolution of species and determine the characteristics of extinct species.

Notes:
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) has proposed to launch World Solar Bank (WSB).
This is proposed to be launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that is scheduled to be held in November 2021. The ISA is an intergovernmental treaty-based organization headquartered in India.

Notes:
Union Minister for Mines, Pralhad Joshi and Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik jointly inaugurated the production in two new iron ore mines of Odisha namely Jiling-Langlota Iron ore Block and Guali Iron ore Block.
These mines will generate approxiately Rs 5000 crores of annual revenue for Odisha and a wide variety of employment opportunities.