Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Taipei is the capital city of Taiwan and has New Taiwan dollar as its official currency. The Government of Taiwan has proposed to establish its first office in Lithuania, a European Nation, using its own name “Taiwan”.
All the other diplomatic outposts are operational under the name “Taipei”. This move is set to have angered China and has been welcomed by the USA.

Notes:
The Assam Cabinet announced that Gaon Buras, village-level functionaries of the district administration, will hereefter be called ‘Gaon Pradhans’.
The British appointed the oldest person in the village as the head, who would oversee matters relating to land and revenue. They were called as ‘Gaon Bura’ in Assam. As several youngsters are becoming the village-level functionaries, Bura (meaning Old in Assamese) has been replaced.

Notes:
WHO launched its first Regional Status Report on Drowning Prevention in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions.
As per the report, nearly two-thirds of global drowning deaths occur in the Asia Pacific. Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, at 7 per cent of all injury-related deaths. Low and middle-income countries account for more than 90 per cent of unintentional drowning deaths.

Notes:
Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) which is a group company of the Adani Transmission Ltd has proposed to set up Global Medium-Term Notes bonds programme for $2-billion.
This along with sustainability-linked bond issuance is a part of the company’s plan to raise capital of the company.

Notes:
As of February 2026, India’s foreign exchange reserves totaled USD 717.064 billion. Foreign currency assets comprised USD 570.053 billion, making it the largest component. Gold reserves accounted for USD 123.476 billion. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were USD 18.821 billion, while the reserve position with the IMF stood at USD 4.715 billion. FCAs are held in major international currencies.

Notes:
NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), to provide launch services for Europa Clipper Mission. It is the Earth’s first mission to conduct detailed investigations of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
The mission will launch in October 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Notes:
According to the third annual report on periodic labour force survey (PLFS), conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) between July 2019-June 2020, the unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in 2019-20.
The unemployment rate in 2018-19 was 5.8% and in 2017-18 was 6.1%. Labour indicators recorded an increase in 2019-20, as compared to previous years.

Notes:
Chinese scientists have launched plans for a first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor that does not need water for cooling. It is dubbed as the ‘World’s first Clean Nuclear Reactor’.
The molten-salt nuclear reactor, is set to run on liquid thorium rather than uranium. It is expected to be safer than traditional reactors as the molten salt cools and solidifies quickly when exposed to the air, insulating the thorium, so that any leak would cause lesser radiation.

Notes:
India’s chief hydrographer Vice Admiral Vinay Badhwar received the Alexander Dalrymple award by the British government, in recognition of his works in areas of hydrography and nautical cartography.
The award has been named after the first hydrographer of the British Admiralty and was instituted in 2006. Vice Admiral Badhwar was conferred with the award in 2019 but the award ceremony was held recently, due to the pandemic.

Notes:
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) launched the first technology innovation hub to find cyber security solutions for anti-drone technologies.
It also provides solutions for intrusion detection system, block-chain and cyber physical system. 13 start-ups and 25 research and development investigators were selected. These start-ups, supported by C3iHub at IIT Kanpur, will innovate in design and development of services and products.