Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2021

Notes:
According to the provisional data from the Union Commerce Ministry of India, the two-way trade stood at USD 77.7 billion last year.
With this, China regained its position as India’s top trade partner in 2020, with the higher reliance of India on imported machines. The bilateral trade with the United States stood at USD 75.9 billion. The UAE remains the third trade partner.

Notes:
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh approved the Indian Army’s proposal to buy 118 Arjun Mark 1-A ‘Hunter Killers’.
With this approval, Indian Army will soon have 118 indigenous Arjun Mk-1A Main Battle Tanks, manufactured by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Notes:
Australia has passed a new law, which will require digital platforms like Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or search results.
The “News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code” aims to remunerate the news media businesses for the content they generate. Earlier, Google agreed to pay the publishers for news content in France.

Notes:
B.1.526 – a new highly contagious Covid-19 mutant is fast spreading in New York of the United States of America.
As per a study by researchers of Columbia University, this new variant carries a highly dangerous mutation that can weaken vaccine efficacy.

Notes:
As per the second advanced estimates of GDP released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the GDP for the financial year 2020-21 is recorded as -8 per cent.
NSO, MoSPI also released the quarterly estimates. After two consecutive quarters of contraction, India’s GDP for the October-December quarter (Q3) grew by 0.4 per cent. With this the country is said to have exited recession.

Notes:
China celebrates its traditional Lantern festival, on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month.
The festival also marks the final day of the Chinese New Year or ‘Spring Festival’ period. This year, the country entered the ‘Year of the Ox’ on February 12, 2021. This Festival also falls the first full moon night in the Chinese calendar.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh approved a law to give life imprisonment to food adulterators, with the cabinet recently approving a Penal Law (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2021.
In 2019, a massive rally was organised in the state against food adulteration, with the participation of several citizens of all age groups.

Notes:
The virtual meet of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors was organised recently under the chairmanship of Italy. India was represented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The meeting was aimed to discuss policy actions for economic recovery. Discussion on impact of climate change on financial stability was also made in the meeting.

Notes:
The ISRO’s 53rd space mission using the PSLV C51 rocket will launch Amazonia-1 as the primary satellite.
This satellite belongs to Brazil. In addition, the launch vehicle will also carry 18 co-passenger payloads. The rocket would be launched from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
The winners of the 78th Golden Globes were recently announced with the “Nomadland” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” bagging many awards.
While “Nomadland” won the award for the drama category, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” won for the comedy or musical division. Chloe Zhao, the director of “Nomadland,” became the first woman to win the best director award since 1984.