Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

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.

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:
Global Ratings major “S&P Global Ratings” has projected Indian economy to grow at 10% for the next financial year 2021-22.
This is 1% less than the growth projections made by the Economic Survey (11%) for the next financial year. S&P’s projections is based on continued normalisation of economic activities in India.

Notes:
The three-day Mandu Festival began at Mandu, the historic town of Madhya Pradesh. The state also inaugurated Dino Adventure Park & Fossils Museum.
During the Mandu Utsav, Handicrafts related to handmade art are displayed to encourage local artisans. Dinosaur Park is the country’s first modern fossil park to display 24 eggs and various fossils of dinosaurs.

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 Union Cabinet recently approved a Rs 12,195-crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for domestic manufacturing of telecom and networking products.
The products include switches, routers, radio access network, wireless equipment and other internet of things (IoT) access devices. With this, the total number of sectors stand at 13, for which incentives of 4 to 6 per cent would be provided by the Government.

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.

Notes:
While addressing a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said 130 countries have not received a single dose of vaccine.
As only 10 countries have administered 75 per cent of all vaccinations, the UN slammed the uneven and unequitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines. He also called for a global effort to get all people vaccinated as soon as possible.