Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has come out with “Green Deal: Fit for 55” plan, which aims to reduce the dependence of Europe on fossil fuels and impose new national limits on emissions.
This also seeks to produce 40 per cent of the Europe’s energy from wind, wave and solar sources by 2030.

Notes:
‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) was launched by the Ministry of Tourism in the year 2014-15. The scheme aims for integrated development of selected pilgrimage and heritage destinations.
Union Minister of State (IC) for Tourism & Culture Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the “Tourist Facilitation Centre” facility constructed under the project “Development of Guruvayur, Kerala” under PRASHAD Scheme. Prime Minister also inaugurated PRASHAD projects in Varanasi (UP).

Notes:
Microblogging platform Twitter announced to shut down its Fleets feature from August 3. The reason for discontinuing is its failure to attract more users.
Twitter introduced the disappearing stories feature in November last year, similar to Instagram. Unlike normal Tweets, Fleets disappear after 24 hours and do not get Retweets, Likes, or public replies, and people can only react to the Fleets with Direct Messages.

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:
New Zealand is the revolving host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. It is headquartered in Singapore.
Recently, New Zealand chaired an extraordinary meeting ahead of a formal meeting in November. US President Joe Biden, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and other world leaders met virtually. They discussed on collective actions to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tourism has formulated a Draft National Strategy and Roadmap for Development of Rural Tourism in India – An initiative towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The Ministry has also invited feedback from all the State Governments/UT Administrations regarding the policy. The strategy focusses on new ideas like Digital technologies, Developing clusters among others. It has also identified Rural Circuit as one of the thematic circuits under Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Notes:
Punjab government launched an automated auditory brainstem response system (AABR) under universal new-born hearing screening programme.
Punjab has become the first state in the country to introduce the AABR system to manage hearing loss in new-born and young children. This is done under the Universal new-born hearing screening programme.

Notes:
The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully flight tested indigenously developed low weight, fire and forget Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM).
The DRDO also successfully flight tested the New Generation Akash Missile (Akash-NG), a surface to air missile, from Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the coast of Odisha.

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 Hong Kong’s legislature has proposed legislation on tackling “doxxing behaviour”. This legislation, if implemented, is feared to have a huge impact on technology giants operating in the country.
It is also said that such legislation could be used by the people in power, targeting civil society.