Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2021

Notes:
The Russian Space Agency has launched its satellite Arktika-M. This satellite is intended to monitor the climate in the Arctic region.
A Soyuz rocket took off from the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying Russia’s first satellite launched for monitoring the Arctic’s climate. Russia seeks to utilise the energy-rich region for the nation’s developmental interest.

Notes:
The U.S. Department of Commerce is set to tax aluminium sheet exporters from 18 countries as it claims that they had benefited from subsidies and dumping.
It has determined that the imports from Germany benefited from dumping ranging from 40% to 242%. The investigation was initially launched under the Donald Trump administration.

Notes:
The US government funded NGO “Freedom House” published its annual report on global political rights and liberties recently.
The report titled “Freedom in the World 2021 – Democracy under Siege” published the report on political freedom across the world. It has downgraded India’s status from free to partly free, citing the country’s entry into authoritarianism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Notes:
Bao dhaan is a variety of red rice that is rich in iron. It is cultivated in the alluvial soil in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam.
Recently, the first consignment of ‘red rice’ was flagged off to the United States of America (USA). The unique feature of the rice is that it is grown without the use of any chemical fertilizer.

Notes:
OPCW or Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is the international chemical weapons watchdog, headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.
It is the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention. It also oversees the global effort to eliminate the use of chemical weapons.

Notes:
The Union Women and Child Development Ministry has classified all its major programmes under three umbrella schemes, for their better implementation.
Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Vatsalya and Mission Shakti are the umbrella schemes. While Mission Shakti will consist of schemes for protection of women, Mission Vatsalya will include childcare schemes.

Notes:
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has released the “Overall Business Confidence Index”.
India’s score in the index improved to of 74.2 during the current round of survey as compared to a value of 59 during the survey conducted in previous year. The improved score is on account of improved demand situation in the country.

Notes:
The Delhi government presented a Rs 69,000-crore budget themed on patriotism, for financial year 2021-22.
Deputy Chief Minister and state’s Finance Minister Manish Sisodia presented the budget for the seventh consecutive time in the Assembly. It was proposed to allocate one-fourth of the total budget.

Notes:
The European Union under its plan of ‘2030 Digital Compass’ released its plan to produce a fifth of the global output of front-line semiconductors.
It seeks to achieve the status at the end of this decade and aims to make its first quantum computer in five years. The plan aims to reduce the reliance on key technologies owned by Chinese and U.S. companies

Notes:
India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has topped the list of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeitY) Digital Payment Scorecard for 3 consecutive months.
The Digital Payment Scorecard tracks the performance of Commercial Banks on various digital parameters. SBI registered the highest UPI transaction volume of nearly 64 crores, and it has processed 67% of the bank’s total transaction volume digitally.