Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) announced that 247 central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) earned profit of Rs 1.78 lakh crore during 2018-19.
Out of the total profit, 73% was contributed by 63 companies in the fields of petroleum, coal and lignite and power. It also revealed that 189 CPSEs had suffered losses of Rs 1.4 lakh crore as on March 31, 2019.

Notes:
HDFC Bank announced that it is inviting applications from start-ups and entrepreneurs for its SmartUp grants under Parivartan, its corporate social responsibility (CSR) brand.
The bank is to focus on start-ups in the education (edtech) and skill development sector this year. HDFC bank has partnered with nine start-up incubators registered with the Electronics and IT Ministry, to mentor the start-ups selected for the grant.

Notes:
Veteran novelist and screenwriter from France, Jean-Claude Carriere passed away recently, at the age of 89.
He was a prolific writer with a long career spanning six decades. He also won the Oscar award for Best Live Action Short Film and the Oscar Honorary Award (2014) for lifetime achievement. Indian government awarded Padma Shri to him in 2015.

Notes:
As per the data given by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, as many as 66,692 manual scavengers have been identified across the country.
As of February 2021, the highest number of manual scavengers have been identified in Uttar Pradesh at 37,379. It is followed by Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Assam. It was also announced that 340 people have died while cleaning sewers and tanks in the last five years.

Notes:
Global payment major Mastercard has announced that it will support some select cryptocurrency directly on its network.
It highlighted that it will give preference to ‘stable coins’ or cryptocurrencies that are linked to fiat currencies like the dollar. It also laid down four conditions for stable coins to be accepted including consumer protection, compliance among others.

Notes:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is set to launch ‘NPCI PayAuth Challenge’, a global-level hackathon.
The hackathon is supported by the world’s first open architecture API marketplace, APIX. It is a cross-border sandbox platform. The hackathon aims to get alternatives for the authentication of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.

Notes:
Maguri-Motapung Beel is a wetland and lake located near the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Assam.
Recently, it was making news because, Maguri-Motapung Beel, a rare duck species was spotted in the lake along with a flock of Indian spotbill duck. The duck, whose primary habitat is in eastern China and southern Japan, was spotted after 118 years in the state.

Notes:
The state cabinet of Odisha approved the implementation of ‘Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD)’ project.
The 500-crore project aims to improve the watersheds through science-based management for six years from 2021. The World Bank is to provide a loan assistance of Rs 350 crore for the project.

Notes:
Punjab National Bank (PNB) has signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation to provide up to Rs 2 crore to the dealers of the Oil company.
Under the MoU, the bank would provide credit facilities at lower interest rates, nil margin, and with minimum or zero collateral requirements. These measures are to be undertaken under the PNB e-Dealer scheme.

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.