Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:

• 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.

Notes:

• New Delhi is preparing the ambitious Draft Regional Plan-2041 (DRP-2041), which aims to evolve it into a “future ready” and economically prosperous area with citizen-centric infrastructure.
• The NCRPB covers entire Delhi, eight districts of Uttar Pradesh, 14 districts of Haryana and two districts of Rajasthan.
• The regional plan says that population in National Capital Region (NCR) is expected to grow to around 7 crore by 2031 and to about 11 crore by 2041
• The draft plan envisages on making multilevel parking complexes, peripheral parking, Superfast trains and heli-taxi services, Trauma centres on highways and Helipads for high-rise buildings.

Notes:

• The GDP of India has registered a growth of 20.1% in Q1 of FY 2021-22.
• India has registered a Gross Value Addition (GVA) growth of 18.8%. in Q1 of FY 2021-22.
• This accelerated growth in GDP figure is primarily on account of low base effect, since the GDP contracted by 24.4 per cent in Q1 of FY 2020-21 (previous year).
• In comparison to the pre pandemic GDP (2019-20), the Q1 2021-22 GDP is 9.2% lower.

Notes:

• UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published a report titled ‘Uncertain Pathways’ recently.
• As per the report, more girls and boys than ever are migrated, with 35.5 million having lived outside their country of birth in 2020 and an additional 23.3 million displaced internally.
• The report found that over the course of the year, there were almost 15 million new displacements or 41,000 each day, and that boys outnumber girls.
• Afghanistan is on the top of the list of the top 10 countries of origin, with the largest number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe.
• In camps, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys.

Notes:

• 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

Notes:

• Slovenia currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met Slovenian President Borut Pahor and discussed the challenges facing India and the European Union.
• The Minister is set to visit Slovenia, Croatia and Denmark to boost bilateral ties and strengthen India’s cooperation with the EU.
• Slovenia has invited Jaishankar to attend the informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU states.
• Jaishankar will also attend the Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) being held in Slovenia.

Notes:

• The Central banks in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa are set to conduct a cross border payments trial using different central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
• Bank of International Settlement (BIS) Innovation Hub is leading the scheme.
• This latest project aims to develop prototype shared platforms for cross-border transactions using multiple CBDCs
• Another BIS-led project exploring using CBDCs for cross border payments is also underway involving central banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE.

Notes:

• NASA’s Mars rover have successfully collected its first rock sample for return to Earth.
• The rock sample, which is about the thickness of a pencil, could have slipped deeper into the tube during a series of planned vibrations.
• Perseverance arrived in February at Mars’ Jezero Crater, in search of rocks to find evidence of ancient life.
• The crater is believed to be the home of a lakebed and river delta, billions of years ago.
• NASA plans to launch more spacecraft to retrieve the samples collected by Perseverance.

Notes:
Exercise Bright Star is a multinational military exercise, held once in two years at Egypt. This year’s exercise would witness participation from 21 countries including the USA.
The first such exercises were held in the year 1980 after signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The last Bright Star exercise was conducted in 2018, with 16 participating nations.

Notes:
The State Government of Chhattisgarh has implemented the scheme named ‘Patrakar Kalyan Kosh’. Under this scheme, the families of journalists who lost their lives in COVID, would be provided with financial assistance.

Further, under this scheme, a sum of Rs 2 lakh would be given to journalists for treatment of COVID disease. The state has also decided to increase the monthly pension to senior journalist from Rs.5000 to Rs.10,000, under the Senior Journalist Samman Nidhi scheme.