Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Grand Anicut Canal, also called as ‘Kallanai’ is said to be the oldest water regulating structure in the world, constructed in the 2nd century A.D by the Chola King Karikal Cholan.
Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the extension, renovation and modernization of the Grand Anicut Canal System. The project is to be taken up at a cost of Rs 2,640 crores. He also inaugurated the 1000-Crore Discovery Campus in IIT, Chennai.

Notes:
Members of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) endorsed the first-ever voluntary guidelines on food systems and nutrition.
CFS is an international and intergovernmental platform, hosted and co-funded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It enables all stake holders to work towards ensuring food security and nutrition for all.

Notes:
The Kerala state Government announced that it is set to launch an initiative, to set up and modernise mini-museums.
This project is spearheaded by Keralam Museum, an organisation which builds and modernises museums. The state has also launched the ‘District Heritage Museum’ and aspires to be a museum hub of the country.

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:
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched e-Chhawani portal, which aims to provide online municipal services to citizens across 62 Cantonment Boards.
Through the portal, application for renewal of leases, online registration of births and deaths and online application for water and sewerage connection can be made easier. Residents of the cantonment areas can also lodge complaints on civic issues online.

Notes:
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, is scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021.
The event is to be held under the presidency of the United Kingdom. British MP and President-designate of COP-26, Alok Sharma called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Notes:
The Joint Conference of the 11th World PetroCoal Congress and World Future Fuel Summit was organised in New Delhi.
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan addressed the joint conference. HE highlighted that the Public sector companies in the oil industry have invested Rs 34,000 crore to upgrade plants for producing BS-VI fuel.

Notes:
Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot released the third edition of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary.
This edition has 10,000 terms of daily use and technical terms including academic, legal, medical terms. The second edition of the dictionary released in 2019 had 6,000 terms and the first edition released in 2018 had 3,000 terms.

Notes:
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has granted recognition to Mallikarjun Kharge as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
The Indian National Congress Leader succeeds Ghulam Nabi Azad whose term has ended recently. Mallikarjun Kharge was a former Union minister and had been Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, earlier.

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.