Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Indian and Sri Lankan Navies and Maldives National Defence Force held a tri-nation table top anti-narcotics and maritime search and rescue exercise, ‘Exercise Shield’.
The Table top Exercise (TTX) held virtually, aims to share best practices and fine-tune procedures to curb narcotics smuggling in the region. Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command was the lead agency and the exercise was coordinated by Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai.

Notes:
China has recently fire tested its reusable suborbital space vehicle, which is a part of its mission to develop a reusable space transportation system.
The vehicle is reportedly launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and has landed safely in an airport 800 kilometers away. No other details of the spacecraft have been shared by the country.

Notes:
Hilsa, the pricey fish has been caught in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand for the first time in three decades. The fish lives in the seas but spawns in the rivers.
This has been witnessed after the gates and fish locks of Farakka barrage were changed to allow the upstream migration of the fish. Hilsa or ilish, has been the favourite gift to Indian leaders from the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It depleted after the Farakka barrage was constructed in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal and nets were put on the Bangladesh side.

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:
Russia has delivered the commercial offer for delivery of 21 MiG-29 fighters to India, which would be commissioned to the Indian Air Force.
The decision to procure 21 MiG-29 fighters from Russia was made by India’s council for defense purchases in the year 2020. Presently, Indian Airforce has three squadrons of the MiG-29s, which are operational.

Notes:
The official motto of the Olympic games 2021 has bene updated from “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”. This was done to reflect the solidarity towards COVID 19 pandemic. The Latin version of the new motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius, Communiter.”
“Faster, Higher, Stronger” had been the motto of the Olympics since 1894.

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:
Union Cabinet has been approved Rs 6,322 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for speciality steel.
It is expected to attract an additional investment of about Rs 40,000 crore and capacity addition of 25 million tonnes in the segment. Out of a production of 102 million tonnes of steel in 2020-21, only 18 million tonnes of value-added steel/speciality steel were produced in the country.

Notes:
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director General virtually conducted the last blast of escape tube of the Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, which is under-construction.
This blast will enable its faster completion, as per the Defence Ministry notification. The tunnel is being constructed to provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh through the Balipara-Charduar-Tawang Road.

Notes:
The Energy and environment ministers meeting of the G20 countries, hosted by Italy was held at Naples. This meeting has assumed significant importance since it has been convened 100 days ahead of the UN Climate conference – COP 26 at Glasgow.
But this meeting has been criticized since the member nations have failed to agree on the wording of key climate change commitments in their final communique.