Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
The “Monk Fruit”, which is originally grown in China, is known for its property of “non-caloric natural sweetener.
The CSIR has commenced its field trials of growing the Monk Fruit in Himachal Pradesh at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Kullu. The trials commenced three years after the seeds were imported from China.

Notes:
The Indian Navy has received two MH-60R multi-role helicopters from the US. The Indian Navy formally received the choppers from the US Navy in a ceremony held at a naval air station in San Diego.
The helicopters were manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation. They are all-weather helicopters, which are designed to support diverse missions with modern avionics and sensors.

Notes:
Bashar al-Assad has won the recent election held in Syria and has sworn in as the President of the country for the 4th time. He has been serving as the 19th president of Syria since 17 July 2000. He would serve as the President for a seven-year term.
He has won the recent elections with more than 95% votes favouring him, while his opponents claim the election to be illegitimate.

Notes:
NASA recently announced that its new spacecraft, named NEA Scout (Near-Earth Asteroid Scout) has completed all required tests and has been safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
NEA Scout is one of several payloads that will ride on Artemis I, which is expected to be launched in November. Artemis I will be an uncrewed test-flight of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket. Under the Artemis programme, NASA has aimed to land the first woman on the Moon in 2024.

Notes:
The Project 75I is the Defence Ministry’s ambitious project to design and construct submarines for Indian Navy, indigenously.
Recently, the Defence Ministry has issued a tender amounting Rs.50,000 crore for building six conventional submarines under the project 75I and the tenders have been issued to Mazagon Dockyards Limited and Larsen and Toubro.

Notes:
There are 135 Centrally Protected Monuments/Sites in Andhra Pradesh. Monuments at Nagarjunakonda, Budhhist Remains at Salihundam and Veerabhadra Temple have been identified as ‘Adarsh Smarak’ in Andhra Pradesh.
The Government provides additional facilities at Adarsh Smarak including Wi-Fi, Cafeteria, Brail signages, etc. Fort at Gandikota has been included in Government’s Adopt-a-Heritage scheme.

Notes:
Ariel Henry was recently appointed as the new Prime Minister of Haiti, amid political turmoil caused by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon and former cabinet minister was chosen as Prime Minister by the President, days before he was assassinated at his home. Ariel Henry will lead the nation until a new President is chosen in an election scheduled in September.

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 New Generation Akash Missile (Akash-NG), which is India’s advanced Surface-to-air missile has been recently tested by the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) at its Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the Odisha coast.
This missile system has been designed and developed by the DRDL, Hyderabad.

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.