Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Malaria caused over 400,000 human deaths in the year 2019. It is said to be causing highest number of deaths among all vector-borne diseases.
Researchers from Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), and Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology have released the detailed genome of the malaria mosquito vector.

Notes:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has virtually launched the ‘Maa’ scheme under which the state government would provide meal at Rs 5 to poor people.
A platter of food including vegetable and egg curry is to provided at Rs 5 with the state bearing a subsidy of Rs 15 per plate.

Notes:
The final production batch of Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) was recently flagged off at DRDL, A P J Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, Hyderabad.
The missiles have been designed and developed by DRDO in collaboration with various industry partners and integrated by Bharat Dynamics Limited. The missile system provides defence against aerial targets including fighter aircrafts and missiles.

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:
Iran and Russia are organising a two-day navy exercise called “Iran-Russia Maritime Security Belt 2021” in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
India has joined the exercise with a select group of vessels and forces. The drill will cover an area of 17,000 square kilometres and will include shooting at sea and air targets and liberating hijacked ships, as well as search and rescue and anti-piracy operations.

Notes:
Researchers of United Kingdom have proposed to start the world’s first Covid-19 human trials on a healthy immune system.
The study is expected to give an understanding on how a health immune system would respond to the virus infection and bring about various metabolic changes in the body

Notes:
The TIME magazine’s annual list of 100 “emerging leaders who are shaping the future”, named the “2021 TIME100 Next”, was released recently.
Chandrashekhar Azad, the leader of the Bhim army, which runs school to educate Dalit children and works to curb caste-based violence, featured in the list. Other 5 Indian origin personalities are UK finance minister Rishi Sunak, Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde, Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta, ED of nonprofit Get Us PPE Shikha Gupta and founder of nonprofit Upsolve Rohan Pavuluri.

Notes:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States would pay the World Health Organization (WHO) USD 200 million.
The U.S. is the largest funder of the World Health Organisation, contributing over 15% of its total funds. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had begun the process of withdrawing from the WHO, which has been stopped now by the incumbent President.

Notes:
The RBI Act was amended, under which inflation target is set by the Central government, in consultation with the RBI, once every five years.
As the five-year term for the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC’s) inflation-targeting framework is to end this March, the inflation target band of 2-6 per cent is also to be reviewed.

Notes:
Special Window for Completion of Construction of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects’ (SWAMIH) fund was set up by the Government of India with a corpus of Rs.250 billion. The fund was established to complete stalled housing projects in India.
SBICAP Ventures Ltd is the fund manager. This fund is set to deliver its 1st finished apartment soon. It is proposed to handover 16 projects in the current financial year.