Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

• India’s Sumit Antil won gold in men’s javelin (F64) at the Tokyo Paralympics with a new world record throw of 68.55m.
• Sumit Antil broke the world record thrice during the final in Tokyo.
• Devendra Jhajharia and Sundar Singh Gurjar won the silver and bronze in the men’s javelin (F46) final earlier.
• India’s Yogesh Kathuniya also won silver medal in men’s discus throw F56.
• India has registered its best-ever count at the Paralympic Games, already.

• The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has appointed former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar as an Independent Director.
• He has been appointed as a member of Audit Committee and Risk Committee of HSBC- Asian entity.
• Rajnish Kumar served as the Chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI) for three years from 2017 to 2020.
• Dinesh Kumar Khara is the present Chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI).

• Singapore has introduced a new concept called ‘Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL)’.
• VTLs are an extension of travel corridors but are only for fully vaccinated travellers.
• Singapore has established VTLs with two jurisdictions as of now, Germany and Brunei Darussalam
• Persons travelling to Singapore are required to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP), prior to their date of entry into Singapore.

• India’s state-owned PSU – Coal India Limited (CIL) has commenced the process of retrofitting LNG kits in trucks engaged in transportation of coal.
• This move is aimed to reduce its carbon footprint and bring a positive impact on the environment.
• The company uses over 4 lakh kilolitres of diesel per annum, which costs about Rs.3500 crore

• Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) is an annual meet held in Vladivostok, Russia.
• It aims to encourage foreign investments in Russia’s resource-rich but underdeveloped Far East regions.
• In 2019, PM Modi had announced a $1-billion line of credit for the Far East in 2019.
• The proposed Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor will promote tbe bilateral relationships together.
• Mazagon Docks Limited will partner with the Russian ship-building facility at Zvezda to build important commercial ships.
• India and Russia are partners in space exploration through the Gaganyaan programme.

• Amazon India has launched the Kisan (farmer) store a store on its platform, meant exclusively for farmers.
• The Amazon Kisan store was launched by Agriculture Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar.
• Farmers can now buy farming tools, seeds, crop protection and other farming tools on the Amazon platform.
• This aims to make agri-inputs available to buyers at competitive prices with the added convenience of delivery at their doorstep.

• World-Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have joined hands to develop a platform to promote a circular system for plastics.
• The new platform is called, the ‘India Plastic Pact,’.
• India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 40 per cent is not collected.
• About half of all plastics produced in the country are used in packaging, most of it is single use in nature.
• The pact has time-bound targets for reducing, innovating and re-imagining plastic packaging.

India’s SDR allocation is in proportion to its IMF quota of 2.75%. Foreign currency assets, Gold, Special drawing rights and the reserve position with IMF are the components of Forex reserves of the Reserve Bank

This deal would enhance HDFC Life’s agency business by 40 per cent and agent base by 30%. Also, it would raise the assets under management of the company to over Rs 2 trillion.