Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2021

Notes:
World First Aid Day is observed on the second Saturday of September annually. So, this year the day was celebrated on 11 September across the globe. The special day is marked to encourage people in first aid training which helps in preventing injuries and saving lives in critical situations. The theme for World First Aid Day 2021 is ‘First aid and road safety,’ according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Notes:
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) of India, Noida won the prestigious UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2021. This organization is run by the education ministry and has bagged global recognition from UNESCO for its innovative approach towards education. The recognition is for educating differently-abled people through technology-enabled inclusive learning material with a specific focus on Indian Sign language-based. The UNESCO International Literacy Prizes focus on a specific theme. This year, the focus was on inclusive distance and digital literacy learning. Along with NIOS, this year’s UNESCO International Literacy Prizes was awarded to other five outstanding literacy programs from Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, and South Africa.

Notes:
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has launched its account on social media platform Telegram to counter fake news. It was launched as ‘PIB Fact Check’, which is one of the few government entities to have a telegram channel, and aims to verify information related to the Centre and disseminate to its subscribers. Earlier, fake channels were being run on Telegram in the name of fact check.

Notes:
In order to promote door to door digital banking and financial services in remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched Mission ‘One Gram Panchayat-One DIGI-Pay Sakhi’, at Jammu & Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) in Pampore. nitially, the DIGI-Pay facility will be provided in 2000 remote villages of the UT and in the first phase, 80 women from Self Help Groups from across Jammu and Kashmir have been selected as DIGI-Pay Sakhis. On the occasion, the Lietenant Governor distributed 80 Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems (AEPs) among the DIGI-Pay Sakhis under JKRLM. He also inaugurated a week-long training program for Krishi Sakhis and Pashu Sakhis on sustainable agriculture and livestock management.

Notes:
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has pegged India’s economic growth rate to hit a four-year high of 7.2% for 2021. It had predicted a contraction of 7% in 2020. At this rate, India would be the fastest growing economy after China, which is projected to grow by 8.3%. Calculations are based on GDP at constant dollars in 2015.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working to develop the technology which is required to reuse GSLV MkIII launch vehicle. This new technology will help ISRO to vertically land its GSLV MkIII launch vehicle. This technology will be similar to what SpaceX is doing. ISRO also intends to use this technology to restore the first and second stages of the launch vehicle. The development of the reusable GSLV MkIII transmitter will help ISRO save money.

Notes:
Power Finance Corporation (PFC), a non-banking financial company (NBFC) which comes under the ministry of power, has successfully issued its first 300-million-euro 7 year Euro Bond issuance. The Euro Green Bond is the first green bond denominated in Euro issued in India. This is also first-ever Euro issuance by an Indian NBFC. With this issuance, PFC also entered the European market for international fundraising.

Notes:
Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited (KMBL) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have announced a partnership to establish a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI-ML) center (Kotak-IISc AI-ML Center) on the IISc campus in Bengaluru. Kotak Mahindra has partnered in this project under its Corporate Social Responsibility on Education & Livelihood. The aim of this project is to boost Research & Development in this field of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning.

Notes:
Paytm and HDFC Bank have partnered to launch a range of credit cards which will be powered by Visa and will be launched in October. These credit cards will be customized to meet the specific needs of the customers and will offer one best-in-class rewards along with cashbacks. This card will also offer EMIs and Buy Now Pay Later options.

Notes:
Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, released Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s third state food safety index (SFSI) to measure the performance of states in five food safety parameters. In this year, Gujarat was the highest ranked state among the larger states, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Among the smaller states, Goa appeared first, followed by Meghalaya and Manipur. In UT, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and New Delhi topped the list. 19 Mobile Food Testing Vans (Food Safety on Wheels) were also flagged off by the minister to supplement the national food safety ecosystem, bringing the total number of these mobile inspection vehicles to 109.