Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

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:
Russian aircraft makers unveiled a prototype of the stealth fighter dubbed “Checkmate”, as per the statement from Rostec, the state-owned military giant which is responsible for exporting Russian technology.
The sneak peek of the new fifth-generation lightweight single-engine fighter jet, was unveiled to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. With a combat radius of 1,500 kilometers and seven tons of combat load, this unique fighter prototype has not been developed before in Russia.

Notes:
Russia has invited India for the first time to the Russia-US-China Troika Plus meet on Afghanistan. The meeting aims to discuss the role of Taliban and the future of the landlocked country, among other issues.
As per media reports, Iran has also been invited for the meeting. Pakistan and representatives from Afghanistan are also expected to take part in the meeting.

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:
Bhilar, a village in Maharashtra’s Satara district, was declared a ‘village of books’ by the State government in 2017.
India’s second village of books, has been set up in the small Kerala village, Perumkulam, five kilometres from the Kottarakkara town in Kollam district. A library has been started in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, to promote readers from the village to read more books.

Notes:
Meghalaya Cabinet approved the Meghalaya Youth Policy 2021. Drafted by the Sports and Youth Affairs Department, Government of Meghalaya, the final policy is to be notified soon.
The Meghalaya state Government has fixed a target of transforming the state to be amongst the top 10 states in 10 years in GSDP per capita and SDG ranking. 45 programmes would be implemented and would be measured by 54 performance monitoring indicators. These indicators have been mapped to 10 departments and is planned to measured quarterly, bi-annually and annually.

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:
The Government of India has proposed to establish 42 virology research and diagnostic laboratories across the country, at a total cost of Rs324 crore. These would be established during the 15th Finance Commission period of 2021-22 to 2025-26.
These would be established through a scheme under the Department of Health Research (DHR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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:
The Indian Space Research Organisation launched a customised space-themed merchandise programme. Recently eight companies have registered for partnership with ISRO, to undertake this programme.
Interested persons will be able to purchase authorised products related to ISROs missions and work, such as scale models, T-shirts, space-themed educational games, science toys, among others. This brand promotion exercise will create awareness and interest among students, children and public, in space science and technology.