Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:
Kasai River is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was seen in the news because the Kasai River had turned red recently.

The bodies of hippos and dead fish were seen floating in the river. The pollution was first detected in a tributary of the Kasai River, named the Tshikapa. The Kasai is a tributary of the Congo River. The pollution originates from a major spill at three mining facilities around in Angola. Researchers also fear the potential for lasting contamination of groundwater.

Notes:
Guinea, the west African nation is a major global supplier of bauxite, which is crucial for the manufacturing of aluminum and iron ore.

Guinea exported 82.4 million tons of bauxite in 2020, making it the world’ largest exporters. Almost all bauxite is used to make alumina, which is used primarily to make aluminum. Aluminum prices rose to their highest level in 10 years after a military coup in Guinea threatened to damage the supply chain.

Notes:
Karnataka has decided to ban online gambling or betting, and to amend the Karnataka Police Act, 1963. The ban does not include lottery or betting on horse races as mentioned by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy. This decision was undertaken after the Karnataka High Court repeatedly asked the State Government to take a stand on online betting.

Notes:
Some 28% of the 1,38,374 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival watch list are now at high risk of vanishing forever. The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 is being held in Marseille, France from September 3 to 11, 2021. Habitat loss, over-exploitation and illegal trade have hammered global wildlife populations for decades, and climate change is now kicking in as a direct threat as well as reported by the IUCN. The event was originally scheduled in June, 2020 but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes:
The National Mission for Clean Ganga organised Himalayan Diwas in association with Naula Foundation on September 9, 2021. This year’s theme is ‘Contribution of Himalayas and our responsibilities’. Himalaya Diwas is celebrated every year on 9th September in the state of Uttarakhand. It is celebrated with the aim to conserve Himalayan ecosystem and region. It was officially declared as Himalaya Day in 2015 by the then Chief Minister.

Notes:
India’s first indigenously designed high ash coal gasification based Methanol Production Plant has been inaugurated at BHEL R&D Centre, Hyderabad. The plant was funded by Department of Science and Technology at the initiative of NITI Aayog, PMO-India and Ministry of Coal.

Notes:
India and Australia hold first ever 2+2 talks with focus on strategic ties and situation in Afghanistan. India and Australia on Saturday began a high-level foreign and defence ministerial dialogue to boost the overall strategic cooperation between the nations. External affairs minister S Jaishankar and Union defence minister Rajnath Singh held the ‘two-plus-two’ talks with their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton.

Notes:
In a bid to encourage decentralised renewable energy (DRE) Smart Power India (SPI), a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Foundation and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) joined hands with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to elucidate the role of DRE for the overall development of the nation. This partnership came as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

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.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Air Force have joined hands in their endeavor to build robust technologies both in the academic and research front in the domain of Aerospace Technology. The partnership is to establish long term relationship for academic and research-based interactions and interchange of technical knowledge to foster knowledge development and promote breakthrough innovations in the domain of Aerospace Technology. This significant partnership between the IITK and IAF will create new forefronts and strengthen the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Mission and pave the way towards a self-reliant India.