Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the International Cooperation and Convention Centre – Rudraksh in Varanasi. It has been constructed with the financial assistance from Japan.
The objective of the project is to provide opportunities for social and cultural interactions between people at the international convention centre. It is said to be an environment-friendly building, fit for level 3 of Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA).

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:
Gira Sarabhai, veteran Architect and Designer, passed away recently at the age of 97, due to age-related illness.
The architect played a pivotal role in founding the National Institute of Design (NID), by bringing in top most people of the world as faculty. She also established Calico Museum of Textiles, which houses some of the rare specimens of textile from different parts of the country and the world.

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:
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:
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:
Russia has conducted a successful test of its S-500 air defence missile systems. During the test, the missile system hit a high-speed ballistic target.
The S-500 is said to have a maximum firing range of 600 kilometres and is the most advanced anti-missile system in the world. It is also capable of countering attacks from space.

Notes:
The United States President’s “nuclear football” or the Presidential Emergency Satchel is said to contain the codes needed for a nuclear strike. One such briefcase nearly came within range of rioters storming the US Capitol on January 6, this year.
The Pentagon’s watchdog said that it would evaluate the safety protocols surrounding the issue and find if it were “lost, stolen or compromised.” Any nuclear strike order would be confirmed and processed only by the Military.

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.

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.