Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
Egyptian-Sudanese Joint Exercise “Guardian of the South – 1” began recently at Egypt’s Mohamed Nagib Military Base.
The exercise is being executed by Egyptian Border Guard Force elements, and Sudanese infantry elements trained on border security. It includes lectures, practical exercises on achieving integration among forces, Exhibition of arms and equipment used in border security is also held.

Notes:
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated Ayush Van, a dedicated forest for Ayurvedic plants, at Gandhidham, Gujarat.
The Ayush Van was set up in 30 acres of land allotted by the Deendayal Port Trust (DPT). Tree plantation is being done to improve greenery in urban area and increase density of tree cover in the Kutch region.

Notes:
According to a new report released by climate tech startup Blue Sky Analytics, India is at the top in emissions related to crop burning.
India was responsible for 13% of total global emissions for the 2015-2020 period. India also contributed to 12.2 % to cropland fire emissions in 2020. Blue Sky Analytics, an Indian climate tech startup founded by an IIT alumnus, is also a part of global coalition “Climate TRACE”.

Notes:
India is ranked at 71st position out of 113 countries in the Global Food Security (GFS) Index 2021, with an overall score of 57.2 points. It is a global report released by Economist Impact and Corteva Agriscience.
Ireland, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, France and the US shared the top rank with the overall GFS score in the range of 77.8 and 80 points on the index. The GFS Index considers 58 unique food security indicators including income and economic inequality.

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:
Union External Affairs Minister Jaishankar had his first visit to Israel as External Affairs Minister. He visited the country at the invitation of Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
The Minister unveiled a plaque at Ra’anana in northern Israel, in the memory of Indian soldiers who laid down their lives in the Battle of Tabsor during World War I.  The battle was fought in September 1918. India and Israel elevated bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during the visit of PM Modi to Israel in July 2017.

Notes:
A micro-snail species named Georissa mawsmaiensis has been discovered in Mawsmai, a limestone cave in Meghalaya.
Before 170 years, Georissa saritta, a member of the same genus, was collected and described from the Musmai valley near Cherrapunjee. The researchers involved in the discovery are from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru.

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:
The United Nations has recently set up a special trust fund for Afghanistan, amidst its economic crisis.
The primary aim of the trust fund is to inject liquidity into Afghan households. As per the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP), Germany had pledged 50 million euros ($58m) to the fund. International Monetary Fund announced that Afghanistan’s economy is set to contract up to 30 percent this year.

Notes:
The Ministry of Power announced new rules to sustain economic viability of the sector and to promote clean energy, under Electricity Act, 2003.
It includes Electricity (Timely recovery of costs due to Change in Law) Rules, 2021. The other rule is Electricity (Promotion of generation from renewable sources of energy by addressing Must Run and other matters) Rules, 2021. It also aims to ensure timely recovery of costs involved in electricity generation.