Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
India’s leading cement maker ACC has launched a new low carbon range of ready mix concrete, in order to cut down carbon emissions.
This has been named as ECOPact. It has been launched in Mumbai and Hyderabad initially and would be rolled out in the entire country in some time.

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:
Twitter has started rolling out the voice messages feature, under which recorded voice message can be sent via Direct Message in India.
This new voice message feature is being launched in select countries in a phased manner. The voice message feature is already present in various instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and others.

Notes:
India is set to host a virtual South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meet to discuss on management and response of Covid-19 pandemic.
This health secretary-level meet virtually with other SAARC countries, will be conducted as a virtual workshop to exchange best practices amid the pandemic. In 2014, Nepal hosted a SAARC leaders’ summit, which was the most recent meeting of the countries.

Notes:
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed that the G-20 association set up an emergency task force to prepare a “Global Vaccination Plan” against Covid-19.
As per the UN, this task force should include all countries that are capable of developing vaccines or to produce them, along with vaccination organisations, other technical organisations and international financial institutions.

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:
Perseverance is the name of the rover sent by NASA to the Mars. The rover, which has been a nearly 300-million-mile journey since it left the Earth over 6 months ago, safely landed at the Martian surface.
The rover is set to experiment a series of activities for the first time: the search for signs of ancient life on Mars, the first helicopter fly on another planet and yhe first recordings of sound on the Mars, etc.

Notes:
25-year-old Manika Batra defeated Reeth Rishya to win the 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championship.
The top-ranked Indian player and the World no 63 is set compete at two WTT Contender events this month followed by the World and Asian Olympic qualifiers in Doha in the month of March. She received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2020.

Notes:
Israel recently announced that it is developing a new ballistic missile shield, the Arrow-4, in collaboration with the United States.
Israel’s Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 anti-missile systems are already functioning, which can be deployed in a multi-layered module to destroy incoming missiles.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Agriculture has obtained approval from DGCA for use of drones to implement Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
The Agriculture Ministry has planned to fly drones over 100 districts of the country to capture images of rice and wheat fields for assessing crop yields. It would also be used for claim settlement under the crop insurance scheme.