Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2021

Notes:
The Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni is a premier institute under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
It is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Recently, the first-ever electric tractor in the country has been tested at the institute. This new electric tractor will be more environmentally friendly than other types of tractors.

Notes:
Tvasta Manufacturing Solutions which is a start-up firm formed by alumni of IIT Madras in 2016, has constructed India’s first 3D-printed house.
Concrete 3D Printing technology is an automated and computerised manufacturing method, which creates real time 3D structures from a design file.

Notes:
The Litani River is an important water resource located in Lebanon. It rises Beqaa Valley and gets into the Mediterranean Sea.
Recently, tonnes of dead fish have washed up on the banks of the Qaraoun lake on Lebanon’s Litani river. Environmental Activists have been warning of water pollution caused by sewage and waste, near the lake for several years.

Notes:
The Benin Bronzes are a group of over a thousand metal plaques and sculptures which were placed in the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, the present-day Nigeria.
Germany announced that it would start returning the artefacts known as the Benin bronzes that are held in its museums to Nigeria from next year. British soldiers seized thousands of the sculptures in 1897 during a raid on the Kingdom of Benin. They were then auctioned to many other countries.

Notes:
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter had demonstrated powered, controlled flight on the Red planet. Now, the helicopter is to demonstrate a new activity.
The Ingenuity experiment will function in a demonstration phase, after the helicopter completes its next two flights. It will start exploring how aerial scouting and other aerial functions could benefit future exploration of Mars and other regions.

Notes:
In India, 100% FDI has been allowed for roads and highways sector allowed under the automatic route.
Recently, Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has set a target of road construction worth Rs 15 lakh crores in next two years. The Ministry also aims to achieve the target of 40 kilometres per day of highways construction, in the current year.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation, through its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) procedure, allows countries to use their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.
It also enables UNICEF and Health Organizations to procure the vaccine for distribution to needy countries. WHO has recently given the approval for emergency use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Notes:
The Indian Navy has launched the Operation Samudra Setu-II, under which Indian Naval warships would ship liquid oxygen filled cryogenic containers from foreign nations.
As a part of the operation, two naval ships INS Kolkata and INS Talwar have been deployed to bring oxygen from Bahrain to Mumbai.

Notes:
‘Putola Nach’ is a traditional form of string puppetry, practised in the state of Assam. It has become a near-forgotten art form.
Recently, an Assam based trust ARMT has created three short videos using string puppetry for creating mass awareness on COVID appropriate behaviour. This project was undertaken in association with UNICEF- Assam.

Notes:
Indian Army inaugurated the First Green Solar Energy harnessing plant of 56 KVA in North Sikkim, at an altitude of 16000 ft.
The project, which uses Vanadium based battery technology, was completed in collaboration with IIT Mumbai. India has fixed a target of producing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022.