Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
The Government of India has hiked the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in pension fund management under the national pension system (NPS) from 49% to 74%. This move is expected to make more players available in this sector.
Presently the 4 out pension fund managers of NPS – HDFC Pension Management, ICICI Prudential Pension Funds, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life have significant foreign investments in them.

Notes:
The Marine Aids to Navigation Bill has been recently introduced in the upper house of the parliament by the Union Minister of Ports Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal.
The bill seeks to repeal the colonial era legislation of the Lighthouse Act of 1927 and is aimed to strengthen the marine aids for navigation across the country.

Notes:
The Oxfam International recently released a report titled ‘Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story’.
As per the report, the states attempting to reduce existing inequalities between the general category and SC and ST populations had lower confirmed cases of Covid-19, such as Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. Also, states that have had higher GDP expenditure on health, such as Assam, Bihar and Goa, have higher recovery rates of Covid cases.

Notes:
Union Minister for Minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been appointed as the deputy leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha.
Naqvi takes over from Piyush Goyal who has been elevated as the leader of the house in the Upper House. Naqvi is a former minister of state for parliamentary affairs minister, and is well versed in Parliamentary affairs. Former leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Thawarchand Gehlot has been named as Governor of Karnataka.

Notes:
Jeff Bezos – the founder of Amazon owns the privately funded space agency Blue Origin. The agency’s spaceship named “New Shepard” has made a successful trip to space and back to earth, with Jeff Bezos and three others on board.
The booster rocket touched down seven minutes after lift-off and the capsule containing the astronauts landed back to earth after 10 minutes after lift-off.

Notes:
The Russian Multipurpose Research Module (MLM) named the Nauka has been launched into space, towards the International Space Station.
This module is intended to service the Russian segment of the International Space Station. This is said to be the largest Russian component of the ISS.

Notes:
The O.P. Jindal Global University has organized the World Universities Summit 2021 (WUS 21), titled “Universities of the Future: Building Institutional Resilience, Social Responsibility and Community Impact’ today”.
The event was inaugurated by the Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu. This summit has brought academicians and technical experts of more than 25 Countries onto a common platform.

Notes:
Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal introduced the Inland Vessels Bill, 2021 in the Lok Sabha.
It seeks to provide safety of navigation, protection of life and cargo and prevention of pollution that may be caused. It also seeks to bring in transparency in administration of inland water transportation, strengthen procedures governing inland vessels. inland waterways of 4000 km  are operational in India.

Notes:
Union Government is implementing Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2020-21.
It aims to promote traditional indigenous practices. The scheme focusses on exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling. Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs 12200 per hectare for 3 years is provided for cluster formation.

Notes:
Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Santanu Sen was suspended from Rajya Sabha for the rest of the ongoing Monsoon Session for unruly behaviour, after he snatched papers from IT minister Ashwani Vaishnaw while he was reading a statement on Pegasus software.
The Government sought Sen’s suspension under Rule 256 (2). It says a lawmaker, who disregards the authority of the Chair or abuses the rules of the Council, through wilful disruptions can be suspended from the House, for up to the remainder of the parliamentary session, if the Rajya Sabha chairman deems it necessary.