Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

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The National Level Exhibition and Project Competition for INSPIRE Awards – MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) has commended, under the aegis of Dept. of Science and Technology – Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

The INSPIRE Awards – MANAK scheme has been launched to motivate students in the age group of 10-15 years of class 6 to 10th standards, to become future innovators.

 

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Max Verstappen won the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix for Red Bull on September 5, 2021 at Zandvoort, Netherlands followed by Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in second and third places respectively.

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NITI Aayog and Gujarat University has signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to Promote Cooperation in Agriculture. The SoI focuses on technical collaboration between the two institutions with the aim to strengthen knowledge-sharing and policy development in India. The SoI is expected to give a thrust to India’s efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Union environment minister, Bhupendra Yadav has launched a portal called PRANA on September 7, 2021. PRANA Portal will be used to track the progress of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in order to comply with India’s commitment to ensure clean air and blue skies to everybody. This portal was launched on the occasion of ‘International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’ in non-attainment cities (NAC). Non-attainment cities are those cities that failed to meet the National air quality standards in a five-year period.

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El Salvador has become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, although it suffered teething problems when the government had to unplug a digital wallet to cope with demand. President Nayib Bukele, who pushed for adoption of the cryptocurrency, said using bitcoin will help Salvadorans save $400 million a year on commissions for remittances, while giving access to financial services to those with no bank account.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India has signed a $300 million loan as additional financing to scale up improvement of rural connectivity to help boost rural economy in the state of Maharashtra. The additional financing for the ongoing Maharashtra Rural Connectivity Improvement Project will help improve an additional 1,100 rural roads and 230 bridges for a total length of 2,900 kilometres (km) in 34 districts.

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Coal India Ltd. (CIL), under the Ministry of Coal has signed a MoU with the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Assam for strengthening the health infrastructure at the Silchar Medical College & Hospital, Silchar, the only Medical College and Hospital in Barak Valley Region, Assam. In this new CSR initiative, CIL will contribute Rs. 5 crores towards setting up of an ICU facility and medical gas pipeline in the Silchar Medical College & Hospital which will benefit over 40 lakh people of the State.

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Retired IPS officer RN Ravi has been shifted from Nagaland to Tamil Nadu as its new governor. He was an IPS 1976 batch officer from Kerala cadre who had retired as Special Director in Intelligence Bureau in 2012. From 2014, he is the interlocutor for talks between NSCN-IM and the government of India.

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India and the United States have agreed to expand their energy partnership by adding emerging fuels to the list of areas of cooperation that previously included power and energy efficiency, oil and gas, renewable energy and sustainable growth. Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri co-chaired a virtual Ministerial meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to launch the revamped U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP).

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British government has announced to introduce legislation in 2021, under which all the newly built homes and offices will require to feature electric vehicle chargers in England. Under the legislation, all new homes and offices will be required to feature smart charging devices which can automatically charge vehicles during off-peak periods. According to it, new office blocks will require to install a charging point for every five parking spaces. This law will make England the first country in the world that requires all new homes to have EV chargers. The legislation is part of the movement that seeks to rapidly boost the number of chargers in England ahead of UK’s 2030 ban of new fossil-fuel vehicles. Home and office EV charger proposal is expected to start in 2022.