Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH) have developed COVIHOME, an artificial intelligence-powered Covid-19 test kit for self-testing at home.
As per the team, the kit can produce Covid test results within 30 minutes at home, for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. This Artificial Intelligence-powered kit is affordable and is also approved by ICMR.

Notes:
As per the recent framework introduced by SEBI, Credit rating agencies will now be required to provide expected loss-based ratings for projects and instruments associated with the infrastructure sector.
The expected loss-based rating is divided into a scale of seven levels, spanning from lowest to highest expected loss. Instruments rated ‘EL (Expected Loss) 1’ will be considered to have the lowest expected loss compared to the life of the ‘EL 7’ rated instruments, which will indicate highest expected loss.

Notes:
Julia Ducournau’s Titane has been adjudged as the best movie and has been awarded the Palme d’or award, at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. She becomes the first female director in 28 years, whose movie has made it to the prestigious award.
Prior to this, it was Jane Campion who was the female director, whose movie ‘The Piano’ made it to the top list in 1993.

Notes:
The Government of India has hiked the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in pension fund management under the national pension system (NPS) from 49% to 74%. This move is expected to make more players available in this sector.
Presently the 4 out pension fund managers of NPS – HDFC Pension Management, ICICI Prudential Pension Funds, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life have significant foreign investments in them.

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:
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:
China has launched a high-speed train that works on magnetic levitation (maglev), which is designed to achieve a top speed of 600 kmph. This is stated to be the world’s fastest ground vehicle.
This project was launched by China in the year 2016 and the prototype was made ready in the year 2019. The model was tested in 2020 and now it is made 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:
Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal introduced the Inland Vessels Bill, 2021 in the Lok Sabha.
It seeks to provide safety of navigation, protection of life and cargo and prevention of pollution that may be caused. It also seeks to bring in transparency in administration of inland water transportation, strengthen procedures governing inland vessels. inland waterways of 4000 km  are operational in India.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of a central university in Ladakh, at a cost of Rs 750 crore.
The jurisdiction of this university will cover the regions of Leh and Kargil. The Education Ministry is expected to bring two amendments to the Central Universities Act, 2009 for this matter. The government has identified a location near village Khaltsi, which is located between Leh and Kargil.