Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2021

Notes:
The Mullaperiyar dam is located in the state of Kerala and is in control of Tamil Nadu. There has been a long dispute since it presents a threat to lakhs living downstream in Kerala and it irrigates over 2 lakh hectares in five districts of Tamil Nadu.
Recently, the Supreme Court directed that the maximum water level in Mullaperiyar dam should be 139.50 ft until November 10. The dam is located in the upper region of the river Periyar, which originates in Tamil Nadu and flows into Kerala

Notes:
The Governor of Georgia, Brian P. Kemp, has announced that November 1 will be observed as ‘Kannada Language and Rajyotsava Day’.
Georgia had become the first state in the U.S. to issue such a proclamation for Kannada. Karnataka is set to celebrate Kannada Rajyotsava. Georgia houses one of the biggest Indian diaspora in the U.S. Kannada is one of the longest-surviving classical languages, with a rich literature and inscriptions dating back to 450 BCE.

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 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was established in the year 1997 with its headquarters as Vienna, Austria.
The institution is in news recently, as it has launched Data Disclosure Framework (DDF) in association with the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate. The DDF is a tool which describes the practices developed to handle and respond to the data requests from foreign criminal justice authorities for counter-terrorism investigations.

Notes:
The United Nations Development Progrmme (UNDP) has released a report titled “The State of Climate Ambition”, which has observed that close to 93% of Least developed countries (LDCs) have submitted enhanced national climate pledges. The report is released ahead of the upcoming COP26 climate negotiations.
The report makes a comparative study between the current climate trends and the assessment made in the 2019 NDC Global Outlook report.

Notes:
According to a release issued by the Union Health Ministry of India, “Har Ghar Dastak” (Knock Every Door) campaign is scheduled to start soon in districts with low vaccination rates.
It aims to motivate people to get vaccinated. As per the Health Ministry, there were more than 10.34 crore people in the country who had missed the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine that they were due to take while more than 12 crore unutilised doses were available with the States.

Notes:
The Centre’s fiscal deficit hit a four-year low of Rs 5.26 lakh crore, or 35% of the budget estimates, at the end of the first half of FY22.
At the same stage last year the fiscal deficit was Rs 9.1 lakh crore or 114.8% of budget estimates. The government managed to collect over 60% of the budgeted revenue receipts in the first six months of the fiscal, which is the highest ever H1 collection, as per the official data.

Notes:
During the recently concluded G20 Summit, the leaders adopted the Rome Declaration and emphasised on Covid-19 immunisation across the globe
World leaders had discussions on issues of global importance such as fighting the pandemic, improving health infrastructure, boosting economic cooperation and furthering innovation. The countries agreed that the COVID-19 immunisation is a global public good.

Notes:
Independent researchers from India have conceptualized and developed an online dashboard named “Climate Equity Monitor” on Global climate policy.
The Climate Equity Monitor dashboard provides an online dashboard for assessing equity in climate action, inequalities in emissions, energy consumption across the world, and climate policies of several countries. It aims to monitor the performance of Annex-I Parties under the UNFCCC (developed countries).

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.