Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
A floral festival celebrated mainly in Telangana and some parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bathukamma is celebrated for nine days.
To mark the beginning of the nine-day festival, women carry thalis containing flowers and incense sticks. The goddess is created each year, and immersed in local water bodies, on the 10th day of the festival.

Notes:
A set of 136 countries including India have set a minimum global tax of 15% for big companies. This sets a floor tax rate for these countries to attract investment and prevents countries from levying tax at a lower rate to multinational companies.
By many countries including the USA, this move is seen as a level playing field and this rate is lower than the corporate tax rate of 23.5% in many countries.

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:
As per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), India’s consumer price inflation fell sharply to 4.35% in September from 5.3% in August.
This five-month low inflation is due to a favourable comparison with last year and moderating food prices, which offset a rise in the cost of crude oil and fuel. This also marks the third consecutive month within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance band of 2%-6%.

Notes:
Paralympian Deepa Malik – Indian athlete and a silver-medallist at the 2016 Paralympics has been appointed as the independent director of the Hospitality firm Oravel Stays Ltd (OYO), in its board.
OYO is an organisation which brings travellers and hotels / homes on a single platform.

Notes:
Allium negianum, a plant discovered in Uttarakhand in the year 2019 has been recently confirmed as a new species of Allium, in journal PhytoKeys.
Allium is the genus that includes many foods such as onion and garlic, among 1,100 species globally. It was discovered in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. It grows at 3,000 to 4,800 m above sea level. The scientific name Allium negianum honours late Dr Kuldeep Singh Negi, an explorer and Allium collector.

Notes:
Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan became the highest wicket-taker in T20 International cricket after he surpassed Lasith Malinga’s tally of 107 wickets.
Shakib has 108 wickets from 89 T20 International games. He is also the only cricketer to have a double of 100 wickets and 1000 plus runs in this format. The third cricketer in the list is New Zealand’s Tim Southee, with 99 wickets.

Notes:
The Border Roads Organization (BRO) is constructing a 500-metre tunnel near Nechiphu pass in Arunachal Pradesh.
It aims to cut down the travel time for vehicles going towards the forward base near China border. It primarily aims to bring down the time taken by military vehicles by six kilometres and 20 minutes. The Nechiphu tunnel is being constructed at an altitude of 5,600 feet under Project Vartak of BRO.

Notes:
Government think tank NITI Aayog launched the ‘Geospatial energy map’ of the country. It captures data on all sources of energy, in a comprehensive way.
As per the NITI Aayog, the energy maps available in the country were fragmented and scattered across multiple departments or ministries. It can be used by policymakers, investors, environmentalists, financial institutions and disaster management authorities.