Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2021

Notes:
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed setting up a gold exchange. Under the proposed framework, gold would be traded in the form of electronic gold receipts and would have a domestic spot price discovery mechanism, which is transparent.
Under the proposed framework, gold would be denominated in 1 kilogram, 100 grams, 50 grams. Under special cases, they may even be denominated in 5 and 10 grams.

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:
Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment Dr Thaawarchand Gehlot virtually launched a 6- month Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) Program on rehabilitation of Divyangjan.
This course has been co-designed by Rehabilitation Council of India and University of Melbourne as a joint initiative under the MoU signed between the Governments of Australia and India. The program aims to create a pool of rehabilitation workers at community level who can work alongside ASHA and Anganwadi workers.

Notes:
Under the terms of the Open Skies Treaty, 34 members can conduct unarmed observation flights over each other’s territories to collect data.
Russia’s parliament has recently voted to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, which was signed in 1992 and came into force in 2002. Last year, US former President Trump administration said the U.S. would leave the accord.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed that all prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) or wallets that are fully KYC-compliant should be made interoperable by March 31, 2022.
The PPI issuers must provide interoperability through authorised card networks (for PPIs in the form of cards) and UPI (for PPIs in the form of electronic wallets).

Notes:
India has reported cases of White Fungus infections, which is caused due to low immunity or if people come in contact with bodies containing these fungi.
Affected patients are diagnosed Covid negative, but the fungal infection can be detected only by a CT scan. The fungus affects lungs, nails, skin, stomach, kidney etc.

Notes:
Veteran environmentalist and Padma Vibhushan awardee Sunderlal Bahuguna, recently passed away at the age of 94.
He was regarded as the pioneer of the Chipko movement which was a Gandhian form of protest against deforestation by locals in the Himalayan region. The first action of the movement took place in April 1973 in a village in Uttarakhand.

Notes:
Air India’s passenger service system provider SITA faced a massive cyberattack recently, leading to leak of the personal data of a certain number of passengers. SITA is based at Geneva, Switzerland.
Data of 4.5 million passengers across the world has been was registered between August 11, 2011, and February 3, 2021, has been affected due to the cyberattack on SITA.

Notes:
“Clyde’s Spot” was discovered on Jupiter in 2020 by an amateur astronomer. It appeared as an oval-shaped feature near the planet’s famous “Great Red Spot.”
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which is orbiting the Jupiter has revealed a photo of the spot in April 2021. In the recent photo taken during the craft’s 33rd close pass over Jupiter’s clouds, that oval structure looks more like a swirling, chaotic blob.

Notes:
May 22 is marked every year as the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) globally, to celebrate natural diversity and spread awareness on conservation.
Earlier, December 29 was designated as the International Day for Biological Diversity but after 2000, the UN General Assembly chose May 22 to mark the day. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) announced the theme of this year as “We’re part of the solution”.