Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2021

Notes:
Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) regained market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 50,000 crore. It also entered into the league of top 100 most valued companies in terms of market capitalisation.
The state-owned steel major has 5 large integrated steel plants (Bhillai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro and IISCO) spread across 4 states in eastern India. In addition, SAIL also has 3 special steel plants (Salem Steel plant, Alloy Steel plant and Visvesvaraya iron and steel plant) and a Ferro Alloy plant at Chandrapur.

Notes:
Mamata Banerjee was sworn as Bengal Chief Minister for the third time. She has been the Chief Minister of the state since 2011.
Veteran leader Sheila Dikshit is the longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state. She served for a period of 15 years since 1998.

Notes:
The International Confederation of Midwives in association with UNFPA, WHO and Novametrics, has recently released a report titled “The State of the World’s Midwifery (SoWMy) 2021”.
The report details the Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent Health (SRMNAH) workforce from about 194 countries. It also identifies the barriers and challenges in future advancement.

Notes:
The United States commemorates the month of May as the ‘Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month’.
It recognizes the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. Large organisations including NASA and Google celebrate the heritage month.

Notes:
An MoU was signed by the Oil and Gas PSUs and Shri Badrinath Utthan Charitable Trust, to redevelop Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand as a ‘Spiritual Smart Hill Town’.
The Oil and Gas PSUs include Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and GAIL.

Notes:
Colombia is witnessing violent days of protests against a tax reform proposal, made by the government of conservative President Ivan Duque.
The protests have left at least 19 people dead and 846 injured in clashes between the police and demonstrators. The proposal sought to increase the taxes of businesses, remove some exemptions given to individuals and decrease the limit of salaries that would be taxed.

Notes:
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder characterised by less oxygen-carrying protein- haemoglobin and less red blood cells in the body than normal.
May 8 is observed as World Thalassemia Day every year. The day commemorates the struggles of the patients suffering from this genetic disorder.

Notes:
A technical group on social stock exchanges (SSEs) was constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), under the chairmanship of Harsh Bhanwala, former chairman of NABARD in the month of September.
Recently, the group has recommended that political and religious organisations, professional/trade organisations and infrastructure and housing companies (except affordable housing) should not be allowed to raise funds through SSEs.

Notes:
The California condor is a vulture species belonging to ‘New World’ vulture species. It is the largest North American land bird. The bird is said to have become extinct in the wild in 1987.
Recently, a flock of over 15 endangered California condors has reportedly descended on a house in the city of Tehachapi in California. There are believed to be fewer than 500 such condors in the US, and as many as 160 are recorded in California.

Notes:
Researchers have found an 18.5-million-year-old fossil in Panama. It is said to be the oldest reliable species of a climbing plant.
The new species is named as ‘Ampelorhiza heteroxylon’., belonging to the climbing vine known as a liana from the soapberry family. This discovery is expected to shed more light on the evolution of climbing plants.