Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

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:
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:
Blue Flag exercise is a biennial Defence Exercise involving Air Force missions from eight countries. As many as 85 Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel are taking part in the exercise along with five upgraded Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Israel’s Ovda Airbase to meet the Indian contingent participating in the exercise. The US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Israel are the other participating countries.

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:
International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath will return to Harvard University in January. She was the IMF’s first female chief economist, when she joined the fund in October 2018.
She led IMF’s analytical research on the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination targets and on climate change mitigation. She was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. Now the economist is set to join the University again.

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 world-renowned Kung Fu Nuns of the Drukpa order of Buddhism has won the prestigious Martial Arts Education Prize 2021 from the UNESCO International Centre for Martial Arts for their brave acts of service.
Through martial arts, the Drukpa nuns empower young girls to defend themselves, build confidence, and take on leadership roles in their communities.

Notes:
Nabard has recently entered into a MoU with the Assam government for facilitation of Rs 13,200 crore infrastructure projects in the state over a period of three years.
NABARD has also sanctioned Rs 608 crore for different infrastructure projects in rural areas in Assam. The infrastructure projects include rural roads, rural bridges, flood protection projects and soil conservation projects under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) – XXVII.

Notes:
The Kinnow is a high yield mandarin hybrid cultivated extensively in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.
Around 100 farmers in Punjab, especially in the kinnow belt, have started making Bio Enzymes from this Kinnow fruit. It is usually considered as a waste by farmers. But this fallen fruit can improve soil, water, air and depleting ground water. It also helps prevent excess usage of chemical sprays of fungicides and bacterial diseases on crops, especially vegetables and cereals.

Notes:
The ‘Police Commemoration Day’ is observed every year in India on October 21. The day is observed memory of 10 police personnel who died at Hot Springs in Ladakh while fighting Chinese troops in 1959.
The Police Forces across the country paid tributes to 377 martyrs from the police and Central Armed Police Forces from last year. They also paid tributes to the warriors, who lost their lives during the times of the Covid-19 pandemic.