Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
The World Health Organization (WHO) in association with the European Union are launching the 40-million-euro COVID Vaccine programme in six former Soviet republics.
These countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. Also, it has been observed that the number of COVID positive cases in this region has been declining in the past.

Notes:
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has associated with a UK-based space agency for flood forecasting.
The national space innovation programme (NSIP) is a collaborative effort between the Government of JK, Oxford University, Sayers & Partners (SPL) and D-Orbit. This is expected to help predict fluvial flood risk.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs have recently released the data pertaining to the literacy levels of prison inmates in India.
As per the data, 1,32,729 out of 4,78,600 prison inmates in the country are illiterate. This constitutes 27.37 per cent of the total inmates.

Notes:
24-year-old Priyanka Goswami of Uttar Pradesh won the women’s 20-km walk event with a time of 1:28:45, at the National Open Race-Walking Championships in Ranchi. Sandeep Kumar broke the record in the corresponding men’s event.

Notes:
As per the press release issued by the Indian Embassy, India is to provide Nepalese Rupee 142 million to Nepal for the restoration and conservation of three cultural heritage sites.
These projects are being implemented under USD 50 million grant assistance committed by India earlier. The three sites in the Kathmandu Valley include Seto Machindranath Temple, construction of Dharamshala at Budhaneelkantha and conservation of Kumari Home.

Notes:
Union Finance Ministry is set to infuse Rs 3,000 crore capital into state-owned general insurance companies, during the current quarter.
The cabinet decided to increase the authorised share capital of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) to Rs 7,500 crore and that of United India Insurance Company Limited (UIICL) and Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL) to Rs 5,000 crore each.

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 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:
As per the recent report released by Tracxn, a company which tracks investments and financials, the number of start-ups founded in Bengaluru has been higher than in San Francisco, United States in the past five years.
In 2015, 3,080 firms were founded in the Indian city, as against 2,040 companies in San Francisco. Similarly, in 2020, 805 firms were founded in Bengaluru, whereas the US city’s count was 619. Bengaluru has around 13,000 active start-ups, at present.

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.