Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
The 17th edition of “Ex Yudh Abhyas”, which is a joint military exercise between India and USA is held from October 15 to 29, at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska, the United States. This is the largest joint military exercise for India.
This is a part of the Indo-US Defence Cooperation. The 16th edition was held at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Bikaner, Rajasthan in Feb 2021.

Notes:
‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’ scheme, which was launched by the Punjab Government for providing proprietary rights to people living in villages.
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi extended the ‘Mera Ghar Mere Naam’ scheme those living within ‘lal lakir’ in cities also. ‘Lal lakir’ refers to land that is part of the village habitation and is used for non-agriculture purposes only.

Notes:
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance of 6 full time members (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan) and two non-member observer states (Afghanistan and Serbia).
Recently the CSTO has proposed to hold a military drill near the Afghan border in Tajikistan from October 22-23.

Notes:
Kudumbashree is a flagship community-oriented programme of Kerala. Recently, the Kerala Government has planned to start an online platform to deliver products manufactured by Kudumbashree and other micro, small and medium production units.
The state also inaugurated the State-level seed capital financial assistance scheme, in which assistance will be given to self-help Groups as part of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) project.

Notes:
Every year, 16th October is observed as International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN), which is an event marking the night when moon is near the first quarter phase.
On this date, the moon will be in waxing gibbous, an intermediate phase in which it is not yet full. Celebration of this event is sponsored annually by the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA.

Notes:
India’s Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath have been awarded life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
They have joined sixteen other cricketers who were given the honour this year. Harbhajan is India’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests (417 wickets) and more than 700 plus international wickets.  Srinath is an ICC Elite Panel Match Referee at present. He is a fast bowlers with 315 ODI wickets and 236 Test wickets.

Notes:
Tech Major Microsoft has launched a start-up program called AI Innovate along with an AI Playbook that will help start-ups in the country adopt the technology.
Microsoft has also been involved in two similar programs for agri-tech and health-tech startups. As per a 2020 report by Nasscom, data and AI have the potential to add $500 billion to the economy by 2025 and can account for 10% of the country’s GDP.

Notes:
The Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Earth Science, and is located at Pune.
The institution has developed and launched a new ‘Decision Support System’ (DSS) aimed to enhance the existing ‘Air Quality Early Warning System’, for air quality measurement and management in Delhi – NCR.

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:
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.