Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
France and Greece announced a multibillion-euro Defence deal, which includes the decision of Greece to buy three French warships.
Greece will boost its Defense capacities in the Eastern Mediterranean amid tensions with Turkey. President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a Defense and security strategic partnership in Paris. Greece has already bought 18 French Rafale fighter jets.

Notes:
Najla Bouden Romdhane has been named Tunisia’s first female prime minister. Before two months President Kais Saied assumed executive authority, sacked the prime minister and suspended parliament.
The President had said that during the emergency period, the government would be responsible to the president. Hence, the new Prime Minister would have less direct power than previous Prime Ministers.

Notes:
AU Small Finance Bank (SFB) has inked an MoU with NABARD for rural development initiatives in the state of Rajasthan.
The MoU involves initiatives by AU SFB and NABARD for benefit of farmers, FPOs, self-help groups (SHG), joint liability groups (JLG), rural artisans, agri-entrepreneurs, agri start-ups among others. It will also increase lending in the state especially in areas related to agriculture and rural development.

Notes:
NITI Aayog recently released a performance assessment report of district hospitals in India, titled Best Practices in the Performance of District Hospitals.
The report is made with collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and WHO India. The assessment framework covers 10 Key Performance Indicators and a total of 707 district hospitals across all States and UTs participated in the assessment. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) data for the year 2017–18 was used as baseline. 75 district hospitals across 24 States and UTs emerged as top performers.

Notes:
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment organised VAYO NAMAN Programme on the occasion of International Day of Older Persons. Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu presented Vayoshreshtha Samman-2021 to senior citizens.
Vice President also launched two portals – SAGE (Seniorcare Aging Growth Engine) and SACRED (Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity). The SAGE portal, designed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, aims to encourage entrepreneurs in the area of elderly care. SACRED portal will connect the senior citizens with job providers in the private sector.

Notes:
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is an infra development bank headquartered at Beijing. The Bank has recently approved financial assistance in the form of a loan amounting $356.67 million to support the Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL).
The financial assistance would be utilised for construction of CMRL’s Phase-II development which aims to provide an integrated connectivity between suburban rail, bus stations and the airport.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has mandated all banks to make Additional Factor Authentication (AFA) by way of OTP for all recurring or repetitive payments of value Rs.5000 and above, especially for the ones made through credit and debit cards. This has come into effect from 1st October 2021.
RBI has also mandated that customers are notified about the scheduled payment 24 hrs in advance by the bank.

Notes:
Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP), is an initiative of the Andhra Pradesh government launched by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Gandhi Jayanti. It aims to make the state clean with public participation.
Under the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) mission, over 4000 garbage collecting vehicles will be deployed across 13 districts in the state. The state government will distribute 3 colour coded dustbins (Red, Green and Blue) to all 40 lakh households. People ought to use them for waste disposal after segregating the waste.

Notes:
Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Award is the Government of Assam’s highest civilian award for National Integration and National Contribution. Gopinath Bordoloi was a freedom fighter, Assam’s first Chief Minister after independence and Bharat Ratna awardee.
The award carries a prize of Rs.5 lakh, a citation and an Angabastram. This year’s award was presented by the Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Notes:
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recently approved the administration of third booster shots of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine to people of European Union, who are above the age of 18 years.
The test data by EMA has shown that, injecting the third booster shot in a span of 6 month after the second dose raises the antibody levels.