Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has unveiled the “Bhoodan Grove” plaque at Jerusalem Forest of Israel.
This is in recognition of Jayaprakash Narayan’s visit to Israel in 1958 and a 27-member Sarvodaya team in 1960 to Israel, to study the social structure of Israel’s communal and cooperative institutions.

Notes:
The 8th India-U.S.A. Economic & Financial Partnership Dialogue was held at Washington D.C recently, in which India was represented and Chaired by the Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary of the Treasury of the United States Dr. Janet Yellen.
Discussions on macroeconomic outlook and economic recovery from COVID, financial regulatory and technical collaboration between the two countries were held.

Notes:
The first meeting of the Foreign ministers of India, Israel, the UAE and the USA held recently. It is dubbed as the New QUAD.
The virtual meeting discussed on increasing trade, enhancing cooperation in maritime security and global public health, as well as joint infrastructure projects in transportation and technology. Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar held discussions with his counterparts.

Notes:
The Delhi government is set to begin its ‘Red Light On, Gaadi Off’ campaign, which aims to reduce pollution in the national capital.
The campaign urges commuters to switch off the engines of their vehicles as soon as they stop at a red light. This was first introduced by the government last year. This year, the first phase of the campaign will run for a month till November 18. It will take place in two shifts – from 8am-2pm and then 2pm-8pm.

Notes:
The UN En­v­­i­ron­ment Programme (UNEP), along with the leading rese­a­r­ch institutes released the 2021 Production Gap Report.
The report measures the gap between governments’ plan­ned production of coal, oil, and gas and the global production levels consistent with meeting Paris Agreement limits. As per the new report, governments plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than the consistent level to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched a web-based project monitoring portal for military engineer services (MES).
The portal has been developed by the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-G). It will enable real time monitoring of projects along the process. All stakeholders not only from MES but also the Armed Forces can gain access to the project information.

Notes:
Hardoi MLA Nitin Agrawal was recently elected Deputy Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, which has five months left in its tenure.
Agrawal became the MLA from Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2017, later switched to the BJP. In 2019, SP sought his disqualification from the Assembly under the anti-defection law and was rejected by the Speaker. Article 178 contains the position for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of a state. More than two years of constitution in 2019, the 17th Lok Sabha remains without a Deputy Speaker.

Notes:
Cumbre Vieja is an active volcanic ridge, is located in Spain’s La Palma Island, a part of Canary Islands. Recently, as the volcano started erupting, a total of around 7,500 people have been forced to be evacuated.
As per the Scientists, the eruption could continue for three more months. The molten rock has already covered more than 866 hectares and damaged around 2,185 buildings. The economy of La Palma is largely based on tourism and banana plantations.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1 crore on Paytm Payments Bank recently.
The penalty was for submitting information that did not reflect the factual position. It is an offence under Section 26 (2) of the Payments and Settlement Act. RBI also imposed a penalty of Rs Rs 27.78 lakh on Western Union Financial Services for non-compliance with Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS) directions.

Notes:
South Korea has launched its first homegrown rocket. It is named as the Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle II, also known as Nuri.
The vehicle took off from Goheung, about 500km (310 miles) south of Seoul. Though it completed its full flight sequence, the vehicle failed in its goal of putting a dummy satellite in orbit. South Korea plans to carry out four more launches of the Nuri until 2027 to increase reliability.