Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
China has launched a 3-person manned mission to its space station, for a duration of 6 months in the spaceship named Shenzhou-13. The spaceship was launched by Long March-2F rocket. The crew members are missioned for the setting up of the orbiting structure of China’s own space station.
The activities of the crew include spacewalks and installation of key equipment.

Notes:
India defeated Nepal 3-0 for its eighth SAFF Championship title. During the match, Sunil Chhetri equalled the ace footballer Lionel Messi with his 80th international strike.
Second half goals from Chhetri (49th minute), Suresh Singh (50th) and Sahal Abdul Samad (90th) helped India win the title. Chhetri became the second highest goal-scorer in international football among active players.

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:
The Finance Minister of Germany “Olaf Scholz” belonging to the Social Democrats, the ecologist Greens and liberal FDP have announced a preliminary deal to form a new government in Germany. If successful, he would succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany.
Earlier in September, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the general elections but could not have a clean majority.

Notes:
India has ranked 40th out of 43 pension systems across the world in the 2021 Mercer CFS Global Pension Index survey.
In 2020, India was placed at 34th position out of 39 pension systems. Iceland was ranked highest with an overall index value of 84.2 while Thailand had the lowest overall index value at 40.6.
The index analyses the strengths of retirement pension systems around three sub-indexes – adequacy, sustainability and integrity.

Notes:
In a first, doctors at a health centre in New York temporarily transplanted a pig`s kidney onto a human.
It is considered as a significant step toward Animal-to-human organ transplants, known as xenotransplantations. The doctors altered the pig`s genes, to avoid immediate rejection from the human immune system due to the presence of a sugar molecule in pig cells called Glycan.

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:
Konkan Shakti 2021 is the first-ever tri-services joint exercise between India and the UK. The week-long exercise has begun recently.
The exercise will be a platform to share each other’s experiences and to showcase the cooperation between the two countries. The maritime component of the exercise will be conducted off India’s west coast and the Harbour phase will be held in Mumbai. The land phase of the exercise will be held at Chaubatia in Uttarakhand.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the U.N. climate summit (COP26) in Glasgow, as per Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav.
India is the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States. India and China have not yet made stronger pledges to cut emissions, known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs.

Notes:
The United States has recently released the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on climate. As per the report, India has been categorised as a ‘country of concern’ along with 10 other countries.
The other countries on the list are Afghanistan, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Colombia, Myanmar and North Korea. The report has also named two regions of concern, countries on the African continent.