Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
A National Steering Committee (NSC) has been recently formed for the implementation of National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission.
It will be chaired by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi would be the vice-chairperson. The Department of School Education and Literacy had launched the Mission in July 2021, to achieve the goal of universal proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by end of Class 3 by 2026-27.

Notes:
Ministry of Textiles has approved the Pilot Project on skilling of Design and Commissioning technical personnel associated with the application of geotextiles in infrastructure projects.
The project will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The faculty will look after the implementation of the special courses in consultation with the other concerned centres.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched a new market segment named Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM).
It will enable electricity generation and distribution companies to buy or sell renewable energy through open access. With this, the Indian government is aiming to gradually shift from long term power purchase agreement (PPA)-based contracts to market-based models.

Notes:
A rare butterfly species, called the Silver Forget-Me-Not (FMN), has been spotted twice inside the Srivilliputhur-Meghamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu.
With this new addition, there are 318 recorded species in the list of butterflies in the State. The Silver FMN was recorded in Kerala, in 2019; in Andaman & Nicobar Islands between 2015 and 2017 and in Sikkim, West Bengal and the in some Northeast States between 2005 and 2020.

Notes:
East Asia Summit (EAS) is an intergovernmental forum comprising of 18 members – ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the USA.
The 16th meeting of the EAS was held recently in a virtual format, in which India was represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Notes:
Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 6th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) via video conference from New Delhi.
The Meeting has been jointly organized by AIIB and the Government of United Arab Emirates on the theme of “Investing Today and Transforming Tomorrow”. India is a Founding Member and the second largest shareholder in AIIB.

Notes:
Scientists have recently discovered 28 new species of beetles. One of them has been named Trigonopterus corona, marking the large impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this project.
In April, a new species of caddisfly was collected near a stream in Kosovo by a team of scientists, and was named Potamophylax coronavirus. Before that, some insects were named P. coronavirus, A. quarentnus, S. Covida.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched the Krishi UDAN 2.0, which aims to integrate agriculture harvest and air transportation, thereby helping to improve the Agri Value Addition Chain.
The scheme incentivises the movement of Agri-produce by air transportation, by providing full waiver of Landing, Parking, TNLC and RNFC charges for Indian freighters.

Notes:
Baldev Prakash has been appointed as the Managing Director and CEO of Jammu and Kashmir Bank. The Reserve Bank of India has approved this appointment recently.
Presently, Baldev Prakash is the Chief General Manager (Digital and Transaction Banking Marketing Department) at State Bank of India. The Government of Jammu & Kashmir holds majority shareholding of 68.18% in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

Notes:
The 16th Edition of East Asia Summit was hosted recently by Brunei in a virtual format, in which the India Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated.
During the meeting, the Indian Prime Minister affirmed India’s commitment and focus on cooperation, international order and territorial integrity of all the nations.