Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2021

Notes:
Mannu Bhandari a famous author in Hindi literature, passed away recently at the age of 90. She is the author of classic works such as ‘Mahabhoj’ and ‘Aapka Bunty’.
Some of her most famous works include ‘Yeh Sach Hai’, ‘’Ek Inch Muskaan’ and ‘Hung’ and stories for children like ‘Aankhon Dekha Jhooth’, ‘Asmata’ and ‘Kalava’. She published her autobiography in the title -‘Ek Kahani Yeh’. She received several prominent literary awards in the country including Vyas Samman.

Notes:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released new advice on ‘transgender athlete rules’. The new advice seeks to shift the focus from individual testosterone levels.
It also called for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed. It highlighted that ‘No athlete should be excluded from competing based on an unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status’.

Notes:
Leading national daily – The Hindu has been awarded the Project SIREN Award for Newspapers 2021. The award has been given for consistent high performance on Project SIREN’s scorecards.
Project SIREN is initiated by India Mental Health Observatory (IMHO) under the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy (CMHLP), which tracks and scores media reports on suicide.

Notes:
The record of all the transactions happening between a country and the rest of the world in a given time is termed as Balance of Payment.
Recent data shows that India’s trade with the USA has registered a strong increase from approximately $20 billion in 2001 to just over $145 billion in 2019. USA is one of India’s largest trading partners and is a major source of FDI to India.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top 10 global health threats.
This year during the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (November 18-24), ‘Go Blue’ campaign aims to raise awareness on AMR. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microbes such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites don’t respond to medicines, which makes infections difficult to treat.

Notes:
Pochampally, a small weavers’ hamlet in the state of Telangana, in the outskirts of Hyderabad, has bagged the ‘Best World Tourism Village’ tag awarded by United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
The village is known for silk sarees and cotton fabrics. The fabrics have traditional geometric patterns in ‘Ikat’ style of dyeing.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first global innovation summit of the pharma sector via video conferencing.
The two-day event was attended by more than 40 national and international speakers covering a range of subjects such as funding for innovation, industry-academia collaboration, and innovation infrastructure.

Notes:
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, along with a research team have identified potential blood-based biomarkers to predict disease progression and survival times in those with late-stage brain tumours.
The team analysed tumour and blood samples from individuals with gliomas to identify surface proteins on immune cells in the blood, whose levels were closely linked to tumour progression.

Notes:
A report ‘Fight Against Smoking’ has been released by ‘The International Commission to Reignite the Fight Against Smoking’.
As per the report, India is among countries with the lowest quit rates for smoking. The quit rates for men are less than 20%. China and India have more than 500 million tobacco users between the ages of 16 and 64. India ranks second with over 250 million smokers between the age of 16 and 64.

Notes:
NASA and the top federal nuclear research lab of the United States invited proposals for a fission surface power system.
NASA is collaborating with the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon. As per NASA, Fission surface power could provide sustained power no matter the environmental conditions on the moon or Mars.