Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:

• IIT Roorkee, in a joint venture with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), has built an app that can predict natural disasters.
• The app will alert about the probable natural calamities beforehand.
• The expert committee will intimate about the amount of rainfall that will be received in every area.
• The Doppler radar in Mukteshwar has started functioning and will also be set up at Surkanda Devi shortly.

Notes:

• Navies of India and Germany carried out a joint exercise, in Gulf of Aden near Yemen.
• The exercise included helicopter landings and search and seizure operations.
• The Indian Navy’s frigate ‘INS Trikand’ exercised with German frigate ‘Bayern’ in the Gulf of Aden.
• INS Trikand is currently deployed in the Gulf of Aden region for anti-piracy patrol.

Notes:

• The Reserve Bank releases a quarterly house price index (HPI) based on transaction-level data received from housing registration authorities in ten major cities.
• The cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Mumbai.
• According to RBI data, the growth in all-India House Price Index (HPI) slowed to 2 per cent in the first quarter this fiscal against 2.8 per cent in the last year.
• The HPI growth ranged from an expansion of 8.8 per cent (Ahmedabad) to a contraction of (-) 5.1 per cent (Chennai).

Notes:

• South Korean lawmakers passed the world’s first law to force tech giants such as Google and Apple to offer alternative payment systems on their app stores.
• The country is set to amend the ‘Telecommunications Business Act’, the nation’s primary telecommunications law.
• The legislation would allow developers to bypass the tech giants’ proprietary payment systems and could help shape how the firms collect fees and exert power over developers and users.

Notes:

• Ladakh Lieutenant Governor RK Mathur recently inaugurated a 2-Day Ladakh Nomadic Festival at Korzok Phu, Changthang region of eastern Ladakh.
• The festival is organised by Ladakh Cultural Academy in collaboration with Ladakh Tourism Department.
• It aims to highlight the distinctive culture of Changthang region.
• The Changthangi is a breed of cashmere goat native to Ladakh, reared by the nomads of the region for fine-grade Pashmina wool.

Notes:

• Dr Firdausi Qadri, a vaccine scientist from Bangladesh and Muhammad Amjad Saqib, the microfinance pioneer from Pakistan are among the five recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award.
• Established in 1957, the award is Asia’s highest honour and regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.
• The other winners are Filipino fisher and community environmentalist Roberto Ballon, American Steven Muncy for humanitarian work and refugee assistance and Indonesian torchbearer for investigative journalism, Watchdoc.
• The award is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who provide significant service to the society.

Notes:

• 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.

Notes:

• Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh virtually launched the e-ILP platform for effective regulation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in the state.
• The e-ILP platform aims to regulate the entry, exit and tracking of visitors who are overstaying beyond the permitted duration.
• The ILP system came into effect in Manipur on January 1, 2020.
• ILP is a document that Indian citizens from other states are required to possess in order to enter states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur.
• It aims to protect the local populations from large-scale migration.

Notes:
The Government of Gujarat has launched a scheme named ‘Vatan Prem Yojana’, under which NRI Gujaratis who are willing to donate for development of their native village, would get financial support from the state government.

Under this scheme, the government encourages donations for development of social infrastructure like schools, drainage, sports complex etc in rural areas.

Notes:
The Union AYUSH Ministry has launched a campaign named AYUSH AAPKE DWAR. This campaign aims to distribute medicinal plant saplings to 75 lakh households in one year.

This campaign has been launched in more than 45 locations across India. The medicinal plants include Tejpatta, Stevia, Ashwagandha, Lemongrass, Tulsi, Sarpagandha, Amla etc.