Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Power has recently released the “Framework for Implementation of Market Based Economic Despatch (MBED) Phase 1”. This framework aims to lower the cost of power purchase to consumers.
Under this framework, the state distribution companies (DISCOMs) will now be able to plan power purchases from the day-ahead market at power exchanges.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has increased the fund transfer limit from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh under the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). This decision has been made by the Reserve Bank keeping in view the instant domestic payment which can be made using IMPS and to enhance convenience of users.
The IMPS facility is provided by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Notes:
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope recently announced Mission Kavach Kundal from October 8-14 to carry out 15 lakh vaccinations daily.
The State has a target to vaccinate 9.15 crore people out of which about 6 crore people have taken the first dose of the vaccine and 2.5 crore people have taken both doses of vaccine. Hence, about 65 per cent of the eligible population have taken the first dose while 30 per cent, their second dose.

Notes:
From the images captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers led by Timothy Hamilton have discovered an unusual gravitational lensing configuration.
Named as ‘Hamilton’s Object,’ it consists of two images of a spiral background galaxy in a fold configuration and a third resolved image of the same spiral galaxy. Together, they create a tangential point configuration.

 

Notes:
The Aerial Archaeological Mapping Explorer has been launched to offer virtual flights over ancient landscapes. The digital aerial archaeology tool will allow users to see landscapes from England’s past.
Historic England, the agency that looks after the tool, enables people to discover previously unknown details through virtual flights over England, about local landscapes, including prehistoric hill forts, Roman settlements and cold war military stations etc.

Notes:
During Brexit negotiations, all parties agreed that protecting the 1998 Northern Ireland peace deal, also called as the Good Friday agreement, was a priority.
Recently, the European Union has set out its proposals to change the way the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland (NI Protocol) is implemented. It was designed to prevent checks along the border between Northern Ireland (in the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (in the EU), after Brexit.

 

Notes:
BrokerChoose, a broker discovery and comparison platform has released its annual proliferation index. As per the index, India has the highest number of individuals owning cryptocurrency with 10.07 crore users.
The second position is occupied by USA with 2.74 crore crypto and Russia is placed at the third position.

Notes:
The Department of Posts has launched the digital version of the Postal Life Insurance policy bonds, also termed as “ePLI bond”.
The bond has been launched in collaboration with Digilocker. All Postal Life Insurance subscribers would be able to download the digital copy of their policy bond from digilocker. Both the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) policy bonds are available in digital form. It shall be treated at par with the original policy bond issued by the Department of Posts.

Notes:
Every year, 14th of October is celebrated as the World Standards Day, to commemorate all the experts who have contributed to develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards. This year’s World Standards Day is observed under the tag line “our shared vision for a better world”.

Notes:
The eighth ministerial meeting of the India-U.S.A. Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue held at Washington D.C.
The meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States Dr. Janet Yellen. During the meeting, discussions were held on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, financial regulatory and technical collaboration, multilateral engagement, climate finance and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.