Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
India’s chief hydrographer Vice Admiral Vinay Badhwar received the Alexander Dalrymple award by the British government, in recognition of his works in areas of hydrography and nautical cartography.
The award has been named after the first hydrographer of the British Admiralty and was instituted in 2006. Vice Admiral Badhwar was conferred with the award in 2019 but the award ceremony was held recently, due to the pandemic.

Notes:
John Abraham, a veterinary-doctor-turned-inventor, has received the patents for inventing biodiesel from slaughtered chicken waste.
The biodiesel offers mileage of over 38 km per litre at around 40 per cent of the current price of diesel. It is also expected to lower the air pollution by half. The Indian Patent Office granted the patent for inventing ‘biodiesel produced from rendered chicken oil’.

Notes:
Skateboarding player, 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya became the youngest gold medallist from Japan as she won the women’s street skateboarding event of the 2020 Olympics.
Another Japanese player Yuto Horigome had won the first ever men’s gold in the sport recently. Nishiya dominated Aori Nishimura, the reigning world champion, in the final. 13-year-old Brazilian Rayssa Leal was second and Japan’s Funa Nakayama bagged the bronze.

Notes:
The UN General Assembly approved its first-ever resolution on vision. The “Vision for Everyone” resolution was sponsored by Bangladesh, Antigua, and Ireland, and co-sponsored by over 100 countries.
UNGA called on its 193 member nations to ensure access to eye care for everyone in their countries to help at least 1.1 billion people with vision impairment who currently lack eye services, by 2030. According to the resolution, at least 2 billion people are living with vision impairment or blindness.

Notes:
The International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 2015. UNESCO celebrates International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem on July 26 annually.
It aims to raise awareness about mangrove ecosystems and to promote their sustainable management and conservation. According to UNESCO, mangroves are disappearing at a rate that is three to five times faster than overall losses of global forest cover. The main reasons are infrastructure development, urbanisation and agricultural land conversion.

Notes:
The Ministry of Science and Technology is setting up a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence in the Northeast, at Kimin in Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The project to establish the Centre for Bio-Resources and Sustainable Development as a Centre of Excellence was sanctioned by the Department of Biotechnology. The construction of the new building and other infrastructure has been completed at a cost of nearly Rs 50 crore.

Notes:
The Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence has approved a central sector scheme viz. Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX).
The budgetary support for the scheme is Rs. 498.80 crore for the next 5 years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The objective of the scheme is to provide financial support to around 300 Startups/ MSMEs/ innovators and about 20 Partner incubators through Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO). Grants under the grant mechanism of iDEX is provided by Support for Prototype and Research Kickstart (SPARK).

Notes:
Shehroze Kashif – a 19-year-old Mountaineer from Pakistan has become the youngest person to reach the summit of K2 – the world’s second-highest mountain peak, which is at an altitude of 8,611-metre from mean sea level.
Recently in May 2021, he scaled Mount Everest and became the youngest person from Pakistan to scale the world’s highest peak.

Notes:
Intel, CBSE and Ministry of Education announced the launch of the “AI For All” initiative on July 29, 2021.
The main aim of this initiative is to create a basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for everyone in India. AI for All is a 4-hour, self-paced learning programme. It is applicable to students, a stay-at-home parent or the professionals and working parents, Senior citizens. This programme is divided into two sections :
AI Awareness (2.5 hours) and AI Appreciation (2.5 hours).

Notes:
UN Food Systems Pre-Summit 2021 was organised recently by United Nations and Government of Italy in Rome. Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare represented India in this Pre-Summit. Narendra Singh Tomar delivered the Ministerial statement which highlighted the importance of Agriculture in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. Out of 17 SDGs, 12 SDGs are directly dependent on agriculture.