Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
Global ratings agency Moody’s recently changed India’s sovereign rating outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’.
It highlighted that India’s downside risks from negative feedback between real economy and financial system are disappearing. The agency also affirmed the country’s foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings at Baa3.

Notes:
The State Election Commission of Telangana is about to conduct a dry run of the voting using their smartphones. This trial has got approval from the state government.
The trial would be run in Khammam district on October 20th 2021 and would be the country’s first e-voting process using mobile smart mobile phones.

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:
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development have released the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index for the year 2021, under the tag line “Unmasking disparities by ethnicity, caste and gender”.
The index measures poverty by considering various deprivations experienced by people across the globe. The 2021 report has stressed that Disparities in poverty among ethnic groups are very high in many countries.

Notes:
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with the top Kyrgyztan leadership to boost bilateral ties, including defence cooperation.
India also agreed to provide a USD 200 million Line of Credit for development projects in the country. Jaishankar is on his four-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia with an aim to further expand bilateral ties with the three Central Asian countries.

 

Notes:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) releases a new report every three years. Titled ‘Mental Health Atlas’, is a compilation of data provided by countries around the world on mental health policies, financing, human resources, availability and utilization of services and data collection systems. It also has new targets for 2030.
It serves as a guide for countries for the development and planning of mental health services. It includes data on newly-added indicators on service coverage, mental health integration into primary health care, preparedness for the provision of mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies and research on mental health. It also includes

Notes:
World Arthritis Day (WAD) is observed every year on October 12 to spread awareness about the existence and impact of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.
The Day was first observed in 1996 and this year the theme of the day is Don’t Delay, Connect Today: Time2Work. As per EULAR (European Alliance of Associations For Rheumatology), there are an estimated one-hundred million people who are undiagnosed and trying to cope with overlooked symptoms.

Notes:
The ‘Dhole’ (Cuon alpinus) is an animal native to Central, South, East, and Southeast Asia. Other names for the species include Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, and mountain wolf. It is a Schedule II species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
A recent study has identified 114 priority tehsils where habitats can be consolidated to enhance population connectivity for the dhole or Asiatic Wild Dog. The animals are found in three clusters across India namely the Western and Eastern Ghats, central Indian landscape and North East India.

 

Notes:
Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, known as ASKAP, is a radio telescope situated at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Australia. It is run by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australian Government agency.
Recently, using this telescope, Astronomers have discovered unusual signals coming from the direction of the Milky Way’s center. This new signal had very high polarisation and varying brightness. It was named as ‘ASKAP J173608.2-321635’.

Notes:
Former bureaucrat Amit Khare, who retired recently as higher education secretary, has been appointed as advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He has been appointed for two years on contract basis, as per a personnel ministry order issued. Mr Khare is a 1985 batch (retired) IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre.  The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment in the rank and scale of secretary to government of India.