Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
The Government has launched the National Logistics Excellence Awards. The awards are in two categories, the first group includes logistics infrastructure/service providers and second one is for various user industries.
Organisations will be invited to submit entries through the Ministry of commerce and industry website. Shortlisted entrants will present their case to a National Jury panel, and the winners will be announced on 31 October 2021

Notes:
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Jairam Gadkari announced that the Government had signed loan agreement with the World Bank to develop Green National Highway Corridors (GNHCP).
The project includes upgradation of about 781 km length of various National Highways passing through the states of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Out of total length of 781 km, work on 287.96 km with an outlay of Rs. 1664.44 cr. has been awarded. The project is estimated to be completed by December, 2025.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank, headquartered in the Philippines, has released the Asian Development Outlook (ADO).
The report has downgraded India’s economic growth for the financial year 2021-22 to 10 per cent from its earlier projection of 11 per cent. This downgrade is on account of the severe impact of Indian economy due to wave 2 of COVID 19 pandemic. The projection for 2022-23 is upgraded from 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

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:
As on June 25, 2021, India’s forex reserves stood at US$ 608.99 billion, making India the fifth largest foreign exchange reserves holder in the world. China, Japan, Switzerland and Russia are ahead of India in the list of largest forex reserves holdings.
India’s forex reserves comprise of Foreign Currency Assets, Gold, Special Drawing Rights and Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) in IMF.

Notes:
Tripura has initiated steps to promote commercial cultivation of Agar, by launching the ‘Tripura Agar Wood Policy 2021’. It aims to double agar wood plantation by 2025
The state has over 50 lakh Agar trees in the state and has a potential of agar trade of Rs 2000 crore. Agar is used in perfumeries and other industries. Agar Chips and Agar Oil have high demand in the market. Under the policy, testing labs and trade centres would be set up and new technology for artificial inoculation would be introduced.

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:
The Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar has developed a first-of-its-kind Oxygen Rationing Device, named AMLEX.
The device will help to supply a required volume of oxygen to the patients while inhaling and trips when the patient is exhaling Carbon dioxide. This process would help to save oxygen which gets unnecessarily wasted usually. The device can be operated on both battery as well as line supply.

Notes:
India has sent a large contingent of 127 participants for the Tokyo Olympics 2021, who will be participating in 18 sport events. These include two alternate players and one reserve goalie in men’s and women’s hockey squads.
In the previous Olympics of 2016, 117 athletes participated in 15 sporting events.

Notes:
The Quality of Life (QoL) survey, based on a WHO questionnaire and additional tools, was conducted between May and June 2021 among Indian adults in several cities. It marks the launch of fifth year of Protein Week.
As per the survey, nearly 46.2 per cent of adults in India lead a poor quality of life. While Kolkata recorded the highest percentage of adults (65 per cent) with poor QoL score, Mumbai topped the list with high score. The Protein Week is celebrated annually between July 24-30, by Danone India in collaboration with CII.