Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
World Students’ Day is observed every year on October 15, in honour of former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, who was born on the same day in 1931.
The day aims to acknowledge the efforts of the President towards education and students. The United Nations declared October 15 as World Students’ Day in 2010. This year, the theme for World Students’ day is “Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace”.

Notes:
World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF jointly released the 2021 State of The World’s Hand Hygiene report.
As per the report, all households in the world’s 46 least developed countries could have handwashing facilities by 2030 if the world invested less than $1 per person per year, in hand hygiene. An annual cost to governments on promoting handwashing with soap at home comes to 2.5% of the average government health expenditure in these countries.

Notes:
Every year, 14th of October is celebrated as the World Standards Day, to commemorate all the experts who have contributed to develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards. This year’s World Standards Day is observed under the tag line “our shared vision for a better world”.

Notes:
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has launched “U Fill” which is an automated fueling technology at the fuel outlets.
The technology is said to eliminate manual intervention during vehicle fueling enhance the customer experience. The company has launched the technology in 65 cities.

Notes:
‘International Day for the Eradication of Poverty’ is observed every year on October 17, to raise awareness about people living in poverty.
The UN General assembly declared October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 22 December 1992. This year’s theme is “Building forward together: Ending Persistent Poverty, Respecting all People and our Planet.”

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:
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:
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:
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.