Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2021

Notes:
The USA has announced that it would provide USD 144 million assistance to the people of Afghanistan who have been facing hardships and humanitarian crisis under the Taliban.
USA has proposed to provide the assistance directly to international and non-governmental humanitarian organisations like UN HCR, UNICEF, WHO etc.

Notes:
The Government of Madhya Pradesh has announced to provide Residential Lands, free of cost to people of the state, who do not own any land. The land can be used for building own houses by the people.
The free plots would be provided under the scheme named “Mukhyamantri Awasiya Bhu-adhikar Yojna”.

Notes:
US wildlife researchers have discovered that two California condors, a critically endangered bird, have given birth without any male genetic DNA.
Virgin births are formally called parthenogenesis or asexual reproduction, are recorded in other bird species, also in lizards, snakes, sharks, rays and other fish. Around 500 California condors remain in the US south-west region and Mexico.

Notes:
The Quality Council of India (QCI) has established a team of experts for execution of a proposed project – Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Several small and medium enterprises have been on-boarded as volunteers for execution of a project, as per the Commerce and Industry ministry. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has initiated this project, to democratise electronic commerce, by moving it from a platform-centric model to an open-network.

Notes:
India has applied a USD 2 billion loan to purchase COVID-19 vaccines, from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) along with the Asian Development (ADB).
Manila-based ADB is expected to finance USD 1.5 billion and Beijing-based AIIB is considering to provide USD 500 million. About 667 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were expected to be procured through the loan.

Notes:
The small island nation of Tonga has recently confirmed its very first case of COVID-19. Tonga has a population of about 105,700 people
Five hundred and ninety-seven days after the World Health Organization first identified the novel coronavirus as a pandemic, the country has reported its first case, from a traveller who arrived in the country on a flight from Christchurch, New Zealand. The Pacific nations of Tuvalu and Nauru are the only countries in the world to have not reported any COVID-19 cases.

Notes:
Amit Shah, Union Minister Cooporation   launched the “Dairy Sahakar” scheme at Anand, Gujarat, during the celebration of 75th Foundation Year of Amul.
The Dairy Sahakar scheme will be implemented by NCDC, under Ministry of Cooperation, with a total investment of Rs 5000 crore. Under the scheme, financial support will be extended to eligible cooperatives for various activities such as milk procurement, processing, quality assurance, value addition, branding, packaging, marketing, transportation and storage of products and exports.

Notes:
Cook Strait separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast.
Recently, Freedman, who founded the company ElectricAir, crossed the strait for the first time in an electric plane. This 40-minute solo flight was held 101 years after the first person flew a conventional aircraft over the strait.

Notes:
Punjab is set to commence the census of the Indus river dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor). It is a freshwater dolphin that is found in river Beas.
The Indus river dolphin is classified as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 2007, the dolphins were discovered in Punjab’s Harike wildlife sanctuary. The Indus river dolphin was declared the State aquatic animal of Punjab in 2019.

Notes:
In the COP26 climate summit’s first major deal, as many as 110 world leaders promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Named ‘Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use’, the pledge includes 12 billion in public funds and 7.2 billion of private investment of public and private funds. A previous deal in 2014 had failed to slow deforestation at all.