Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
Germany and Norway have opened the operations of a 623-kilometer undersea power cable between the two countries. This project is called the NordLink and is aimed to exchange green energy between the two countries.
The project has cost more than $2.2 billion and is seen as a major initiative to shift to green energy.

Notes:
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting urged the private TV news channels to display four new national helpline numbers to help the citizens during the COVID-19 awareness initiative.
In a letter to all private TV news channels, the said these national helpline numbers should be displayed in appropriate way: The National helpline number of Health Ministry -1075, Child helpline of the Ministry of Women and Child Development-1098, Senior citizens helpline of the Social Justice Ministry – 14567 and helpline of NIMHANS for psychological support – 08046110007.

Notes:
New Zealand has entered into an agreement for space exploration with NASA.
With this, New Zealand becomes the eleventh country to sign the Artemis Accord, which is an agreement with NASA to be a part of its plans to send humans to the moon by 2024 and further to Mars.

Notes:
The National Statistical Office (NSO) released the provisional estimates of annual national income and quarterly estimates.
As per the release, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.6 per cent in the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2020-21. Last quarter, there was 0.5 % growth. The GDP contracted to a record low 7.3 per cent, for the full financial year 2020-21. This was a marginal improvement from the earlier estimate of 8 per cent contraction.

Notes:
Microsoft has launched the first Asia Pacific Public Sector Cyber Security Executive Council. It aims to build a strong communications channel for addressing cyber threats.
It also aims to share best practices across the participating countries by accelerating public-private partnerships in cybersecurity. The council has policy makers from many Asian countries, supported by cybersecurity professionals.

Notes:
The US administration headed by President Joe Biden has proposed to suspend the oil and gas leases at Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This decision has been welcomed by environmentalists and Arctic tribals.
This move is reversal of the lease brought about by earlier US administration by President Trump.

Notes:
China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has set a new record in the latest experiment.
The experiment achieved a plasma temperature of 216 million Fahrenheit for 101 seconds. The scientists working on the “Artificial sun” project also achieved 288 million Fahrenheit for 20 seconds. The Tokamak device has been designed to reproduce the nuclear fusion process, natural to the Sun and stars.

Notes:
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 was launched recently by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).
The organisations also launched a report titled ‘#GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for People, Nature and Climate’, to mark the launch of the decade. The report urges the countries to restore at least 1 billion degraded hectares of land in the next decade.

Notes:
The Pakistani Army has conducted a military exercise named ‘Taskheer-e-Jabal’ near Kotli in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) region. Under this exercise, the troops rehearsed various defensive and offensive manoeuvres in mountain terrains.
The exercise was overseen by its Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. It was aimed to enhance the operational preparedness, defensive and offensive formations of various contingencies.

Notes:
INS Sandhayak, the Indian Navy’s oldest Hydrographic Survey Vessel, was decommissioned from the Navy at Visakhapatnam on July 4, 2021.
The vessel is 40 years old and has conducted more than 200 major hydrographic surveys. It has also been a part of important operations like ‘Operation Pawan’ in Sri Lanka (1987), Operation ‘Rainbow for Humanitarian Assistance’ (2004) etc.