Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
June 17 is celebrated as World Crocodile Day to highlight the plight of endangered crocodiles and alligators around the world. Three crocodilian species are found in India viz. mugger or marsh crocodile (Crocodylus palustris); Estuarine or saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and gharial (Gavialis gangeticus). Of these, Gharial is endangered.

Notes:
Zambia’s founding president Mr. Kenneth Kaunda passed away recently at the age of 97. The Government of Zambia has declared a 21 days of mourning for the former President.
Kaunda headed Zambia as a President since its independence in 1964 till 1991, after which he turned into activism against HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Notes:
Milkha Singh, who is also called as the “Flying Sikh”, passed away recently due to COVID. He was 91 years old. Milkha Singh won India’s first individual gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, in 1958 in Wales.
Milkha Singh was a soldier and a track and field sprinter, who represented India in various international events and brought laurels to the country.

Notes:
The Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari recently said that the Government’s target is to reduce road accident deaths by 50% by year 2024. He announced this during FICCI webinar on ‘Role of Corporates in Arresting Road Fatalities’.
The World Bank and ADB have sanctioned a scheme by which the Government is allocating Rs.14,000 crores for states and NHAI to remove accident black spots.

Notes:
The International Yoga Day has been celebrated every year on June 21 since 2015. PM Modi proposed to observe an International Yoga Day, in his address during the opening of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
This year, the theme of the International Day of Yoga is ‘Yoga For Wellness’. The focus will be on practicing yoga for physical and mental well-being.

Notes:
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven lost a no-confidence vote recently, which made the leader to resign in a week to resign.
With this scenario, the Speaker is given the job of finding a new Government or call a snap election. The Left Party withdrew support for the centre-left government over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments.

Notes:
British scientists have warned of “miserable winter” ahead for the country due to the emergence of new respiratory viruses.
The experts describe it as the “fourth wave winter. As the social distancing reduced people’s exposure to usual endemic respiratory viruses such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis, these new viruses emerge after every pandemic.

Notes:
The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) won the Airport Council International’s (ACI) Director General’s Roll of Excellence honour for Airport Service Quality.
Those airports which have consistently delivered excellent services in the Airport Service Quality Survey, in the opinion of the passengers, are provided with the Roll of Excellence recognition by ACI.

Notes:
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced the ‘Gujarat Electric Vehicle Policy 2021’, which aims to provide subsidies of up to Rs 1,50,000 on EVs.
The policy is expected to benefit nearly 2 lakh buyers over the next four years. It provides a subsidy of up to Rs 20,000 on electric two-wheelers, Rs 50,000 on electric three-wheelers and Rs 1.50 lakh on electric four-wheelers. The subsidy will be credited to the buyer’s bank account through DBT.

Notes:
Moody’s Investors Service released a report titled ‘Macroeconomics India: Economic shocks from 2nd COVID wave will not be as severe as last year’s’.
In the report, it slashed India’s growth projection to 9.6 per cent for 2021 calendar year, from its earlier estimate of 13.9 per cent. It also observed that faster vaccination progress will be important in restricting economic losses to June quarter.