Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
Union Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated 250mm Seer Water supply scheme in Kashmir. The project would benefit around 10000 people and will be completed under the ambit of Jal Jeevan Mission.
The Union Minister also inaugurated tourist hut of Pahalgam Development Authority at Golf Course Pahalgam. He also inaugurated Forest Departments Deodar sapling plantation drive being conducted under the banner of Green JK Drive, under which a total of 1 lakh saplings will be planted as part of the drive.

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:
As per media reports, China’s military conducted two hypersonic weapons tests recently. China first tested a rocket using ‘Factional orbital bombardment system (FOBS), to launch a hypersonic glide vehicle capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
China is also reported to have conducted a second hypersonic test in August. However, the Foreign Ministry of China cited the test as a routine spacecraft test to verify the technology of the spacecraft’s reusability.

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:
NASA has selected a new space telescope proposal to study the recent history of star birth, star death, and formation of chemical elements in the Milky Way.
The gamma-ray telescope, called the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), is set to be launched in 2025 as NASA’s latest small astrophysics mission. COSI will study gamma rays from radioactive atoms produced when massive stars exploded. It will also probe the origin of our galaxy’s positrons, also known as antielectrons.

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:
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:
As per the Union Budget 2021-22, the total public health sector allocation stood at 1.2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
The FICCI and KPMG in India released a report titled ‘COVID-19 Induced Healthcare Transformation in India’. As per the report, India needs to raise public health spending to 2.5 – 3.5 per cent of GDP to support healthcare transformation. The report also suggests to set up a district level Health System Index.

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:
Tech major Intel has recently launched a skill development program named “Intel Unnati”, which is designed to upskill and equip Engineering students with industry relevant data.The company has planned to establish 100 Intel Unnati Data Centric Labs under the program in next one year.