Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:
Carlos Alcaraz recently became the youngest player in the Open era to reach the quarter-finals of the US men’s tournament.

The 18-year-old Spaniard beat Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk in five sets. He is eight days younger than Andre Agassi when the American reached the 1988 U.S. Open quarter-finals and semi-finals. He is also the youngest to reach this stage in New York since Thomaz Koch of Brazil did in 1963.

Notes:
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav has virtually inaugurated the first functional smog tower in India at Anand Vihar, Delhi. A smog tower is a structure designed as large/medium scale air purifiers to reduce air pollution, usually by forcing the air through filters. The tower has been built by Tata Projects Limited with NBCC (India) Ltd. as the project management consultant.

Notes:
Cuba has become the first country in the world to vaccinate children from the age of two against Covid-19, using home-grown jabs not recognized by the World Health Organization. The communist island of 11.2 million people completed clinical trials on minors with its Abdala and Soberana vaccines.

Notes:
The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has signed a MoU with Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO). Under the MoU, IREDA will extend technical expertise & support to TANGEDCO for Renewable energy project development, to bid process management, and provide implementation support. IREDA will also assist TANGEDCO in debt raising by developing financial models, assistance in the understanding market instrument, underwriting services for the proposed debt requirement, conducting pre-market surveys, and road shows to evoke interest amongst potential investors. TANGEDCO is planning to undertake 20,000 MW of Solar Power Project, with adequate Battery Storage, 3,000 MW of Pumped Storage Hydro Electric Project, and 2,000 MW of Gas Based Power Plant for efficient Renewable integration.

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:
Central government has approved the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme of worth Rs 10,683 crore for the textiles sector. This PLI scheme was approved in order to boost domestic manufacturing and exports. This scheme will help in creating direct additional employment of more than 7.5 lakh people and several supporting activities. As a part of incentives approved for textiles sector, the payout will be spread over a period of five years. This PLI scheme was approved for textiles, MMF (man-made fibre) fabrics, MMF apparel and 10 segments or products of technical textiles. This PLI scheme will impact and benefit special states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha.

Notes:
The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into rock started running in Iceland. The plant, named Orca, after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes, similar in appearance to the containers used for maritime transport. World’s Largest Plant Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air Starts In Iceland A facility for capturing carbon dioxide from air. (Reuters File) 3 Reykjavik: The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into rock started running on Wednesday, the companies behind the plant said. The plant, named Orca, after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes, similar in appearance to the containers used for maritime transport. Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air every year.

 

Notes:
British writer Susanna Clarke won the prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction for her mind-tweaking fantasy novel ‘Piranesi’.  Clarke, 61, was awarded the 30,000 pounds ($41,000) prize for her novel.

Notes:
Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh, who retired as the Deputy Chief of Army, was appointed the Governor of Uttarakhand, a post which fell vacant after Baby Rani Maurya resigned from the post.

Notes:
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, chaired the 13th BRICS Summit virtually on September 9, 2021. India chose the theme of the Summit as “BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus”. The Summit was participated by all other BRICS Leaders namely, President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, President of Russia Vladimir Putin President of China Xi Jinping and President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. Under India’s chair ship, BRICS took several new initiatives, which includes First BRICS Digital Health Summit, First BRICS Ministerial Joint Statement on multilateral reforms, BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan, Agreement on cooperation in field of remote-sensing satellites, Virtual BRICS vaccine Research & Development Centre, BRICS Alliance on Green Tourism etc.