Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:
Union Minister of Culture Kishan Reddy Gangapuram has launched the program ‘Bujurgon ki Baat–Desh Ke Saath’ with Union MoS for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal, at IGNCA, New Delhi. The programme aims at enhancing the interaction between the youth and the elder persons who are 95 years and above and thus have spent around 18 years in India before independence.

Notes:
UCO Bank has partnered with Finwizard Technology, which runs Fisdom, to offer wealth management products and services via its mBanking Plus App. Under this collaboration, customers of UCO bank can make seamless investments in mutual funds via its mBanking Plus App. Kolkata-based UCO Bank is one of the leading public sector banks in India with over 3 crore customers Currently, the bank has around 22,000 employees and 3,069 pan India branches with overseas presence in Hong Kong, Singapore and Iran.

Notes:
Bank of Baroda has topped the MeitY Digital Payment Scorecard for 2020-21 with a total of 86% marks on the scorecard. The scorecard ranks 44 banks (Public Sector Banks, Private Banks, Foreign Banks, Payments Banks, Small Finance Banks) on various parameters on the digital business.

Notes:
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar inaugurated and presided over the Seminar on Population, Human Capital and Sustainable Development (healthy people – healthy future), in New Delhi on September 10, 2021. She also inaugurated a digital population clock at the Institute for Economic Growth nestled inside the University of Delhi. She also launched a book titled “Infant and Child Mortality in Assam – Demographic and Socio-Economic Interrelations” on the occasion. The book was written by Dr Dipanjali Haloi and Dr Suresh Sharma. During the event, a HMIS Brochure or Ready Reckoner was also launched.

Notes:
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has resigned. Mr. Rupani met the Governor Acharya Devrat and submitted his resignation. Mr. Rupani had taken over as the Chief Minister in August 2016 after the sudden resignation of the then C. M. Anandiben Patel, who is now the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
In Odisha, Nuakhai, an important agrarian festival in the state was celebrated on 11 September 2021. As per the customary practice, people offer the new grains of crops to the deities before their own consumption. As per rituals, a porridge prepared from a new paddy crop, which is called ‘Nabanna’ is offered to Goddess Samaleswari and blessing is sought for a bumper harvest.

Notes:
Fourteen districts of Chhattisgarh have signed MoUs with the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Millets Research to boost production of millets in their respective areas. These millets will be procured through Van Dhan societies of the Chhattisgarh Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Federation, and after processing, will be used in mid-day meal schemes, public distribution system and nutrition programmes. The 14 districts are Kanker, Kondagaon, Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon, Kawardha, Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi, Balrampur, Koriya, Surajpur and Jashpur.

Notes:
Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted conditional exemption from Drone Policy to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. ICMR, the apex biomedical research body in India, has been allowed to use drones for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) vaccine delivery in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Manipur, and Nagaland up to a height of 3,000 meters. In a separate order on the same date, the civil aviation ministry mentioned that IIT Bombay has been granted exemption from drone rules for research, development and testing of drones in its own premises.

Notes:
India’s largest open-air fernery has been inaugurated in Uttarakhand’s Ranikhet. The fernery is home to a large number of fern species, some of which are endemic to the state, some hold medicinal value while some are threatened species that demand care and conservation. This center has been developed for conservation of fern species and also to create awareness about their ecological role and promote further research. The newly inaugurated fernery is one of the biggest ferneries in India. The fernery has the largest collection of fern species, second to only Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), Thiruvananthapuram. However, it is the country’s first open-air fernery in natural surroundings which is not under any poly-house/ shade house.

Notes:
Punjab National Bank has appointed Rekha Jain as a shareholder director after Asha Bhandarker stepped down as shareholder director after completing her tenure of three years. Rekha Jain has over 37 years of diverse experience and special knowledge in information technology, payment and settlement systems, business management and risk management. Previously, she has served as an independent director on the board of Telecommunication Consultants of India Ltd. (TCIL) from 2015 to 2019. Jain has also chaired the audit committee of the TCIL board.