Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2021

Notes:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Okeanos Explorer departed for a two-week expedition led by NOAA Ocean Exploration. NOAA is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce.
The new class of submersible robot called Orpheus, will showcase a system to identify scientific features on the seafloor. This Terrain-relative navigation was used in NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Mars rover, for the precision touch down on the Mars.

Notes:
Piramal Enterprises (PEL) subsidiary Piramal Capital and Housing Finance (PCHFL) has received an approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to take over Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).
PCHFL’s Rs 34,250-crore bid has already been approved by the Reserve Bank of India in February 2021.

Notes:
In order to curb the price of pulses from further moving up, the Government of India has permitted for free import of tur, urad and moong pulses.
These pulses have been placed in the non-restricted list of imports, since their prices were on the higher side in the recent past.

Notes:
A piece of the Winchcombe meteorite that touched down in the town of Winchcombe, UK in February 2021 will be displayed at the National History Museum.
In February, a fireball was spotted blazing across the sky in western UK for about six seconds. A 103-gram fragment of black rock was then found by a team of Glasgow University. The meteorite dates back to the birth of the solar system nearly 4.5 billion years ago.

Notes:
Bihar government launched ‘HIT Covid App’ to ensure regular monitoring of home-isolated Covid-19 patients across the state.
HIT stands for Home isolation tracking. Health workers would visit the patients at home and feed data in the app after measuring their temperature and oxygen level, which will be monitored at the district level.

Notes:
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been providing Tele Counselling to children through the SAMVEDNA service, through a network of qualified medical professionals / Doctors.
SAMVEDNA stands for “Sensitizing Action on Mental Health Vulnerability through Emotional Development and Necessary Acceptance”. It is a tele counselling service for psychological support to children to address their stress and fear regarding COVID.

Notes:
Darwin’s Arch is a rock formation south-east of Darwin Island in the Galápagos archipelago, Ecuador. The structure has recently collapsed due to natural erosion.
At present, only two rocky pillars are left at the northernmost island of the Pacific Ocean archipelago. Darwin’s Arch is made of natural stone that would have been part of Darwin Island. This site is considered one of the best places to dive and observe sharks and other aquatic species.

Notes:
The US House passed the legislation to counter a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The legislation, known as the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, it would create a new position at the Justice Department to fast-track review of potential Covid-19-related hate crimes.

Notes:
The Archaeological Survey of India have submitted six Indian sites to the tentative list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites, as per the recent announcement of Culture Ministry.
The six sites are namely Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Iconic riverfront of the historic city of Varanasi, Megalithic site of Hire Benkal in Karnataka, Maratha Military Architecture in Maharashtra, Bhedaghat-Lametaghat in Narmada Valley- Jabalpur, and temples of Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu).

Notes:
Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. It is also the world’s most consumed drink, after water.
International Tea Day is celebrated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on May 21. This is because the season of tea production begins in May in most of the tea producing countries.