Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Yoshiro Mori resigned from the post of the President of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
After being criticised for his sexist comments he had made earlier. Yoshiro Mori is 83 years old and he is also the former prime minister of Japan. He also served as the president of the organizing body by the previous Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Notes:
Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system present in the planet of Mars. It is a large shield volcano, which is over two times the height of Mount Everest above sea level.
The UAE’s “Hope” Mars probe sent back its first image of Mars, after the spacecraft successfully entered the planet’s orbit. The probe recently captured the Olympus Mons volcano, taken from an altitude of 24,700 kilometres above the Martian surface.

Notes:
A group of six black storks (Ciconia nigra), were spotted recently in the Sigur plateau in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.
The species is classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the “Least Concern” category. The sighting of the black stork in this region is considered to be extremely rare.

Notes:
The Union Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has launched the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) programme.
This nation-wide programme has been launched in partnership with nine Indian Institutes of Management across India. It has been launched under the SANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion) scheme.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs is to organise a ‘Mushaira’ event, in which renowned poets from across the country will recite their poems.
The event is to be conducted on February 20, 2021, on the theme ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat’. Mushaira, which is regarded as a poetic symposium is part of the Culture of India and Pakistan. It aims to make younger generation aware of the country’s art and culture.

Notes:
Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar is to launch software applications for five all India surveys, being conducted by the Labour Bureau.
The Ministry will also release instruction manuals with questionnaire for five All India Surveys including All India Survey on Migrant workers, All India Survey on Domestic Workers, All India Survey on Employment Generated by Professionals, All India Survey on Employment Generated in Transport Sector, and All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey.

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:
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:
According to the Institute of International Finance, the total amount of global debt stood at USD 281 trillion at the end of 2020.
It also revealed that the countries, companies and households raised USD24 trillion last year to tackle the economic crisis created due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The total debt was over 355 per cent of global GDP.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eased the listing norms for large companies in the Initial Public Offering (IPO).
It announced that large companies can now divest a minimum 5 per cent in the IPO, instead of 10 per cent. The companies also get five years, as agaisnt three years to raise the public float to 25 per cent.