Test: March 2021 Weekly Current Affair - 3 - UPSC MCQ

Youth Affairs & Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that the government is working to set up a Winter Sports Institute in Gulmarg, Kashmir.

El Salvador has become the first country in central America and the third in all Americas to get the malaria-free certificate from the World Health Organization (WHO) in recent years.

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, known for transforming and revitalizing neglected buildings across France, have been named winners of Pritzker Architecture Prize equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will set up a Space Technology Incubation Center (S-TIC) at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) to carry out research and product development in space technology field.
ISRO will provide an annual grant-in-aid of ₹2 crore for a period of up to two years to NIT Rourkela as seed money for setting up the S-TIC.

JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle), a commercial real estate and investment management company, released the Human Performance Indicator (HPI), a new formula that gives a comprehensive view of how different aspects of the workplace function. The report found that India is leading with 81 percent of high performers practicing flexible working, including flexible hours and work-from-home, in comparison to other APAC countries.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has approved IPO application requests via Paytm UPI handle. This will help enable fast and seamless applications for the IPO, Paytm Payments Bank Ltd said.

India has been ranked 139 out of 149 countries in the list of UN World Happiness Report 2021 released which is topped by Finland. In 2019, India was ranked 140th. 138th — Sierra Leone. 139th – Burundi.
People in war-torn Afghanistan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Zimbabwe (148), Rwanda (147), Botswana (146) and Lesotho (145).

After contracting by 7.1 per cent in 2020, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow 12 per cent in 2021 as near-term prospects have turned more favourable, Moody’s Analytics said.

The Jharkhand government announced the launch of SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction) campaign to tackle malnutrition in the state.

Twenty-two of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi being ranked as the most polluted capital city globally, a new report said. The report is prepared by the Swiss organization, IQAir, in the form of the ‘World Air Quality Report, 2020’, which has released globally. It said that despite the improvement, Delhi ranked as the 10th most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world.
Delhi is followed by Bangladesh’s Dhaka, Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar, Afghanistan’s Kabul, and Qatar’s Doha.
As per the report, the top most polluted city is Xinjiang in China followed by nine Indian cities. Ghaziabad is the second most polluted city in the world followed by Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow and Bhiwari.

Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer who is credited with the invention of the audio cassette tape, has passed away. He was 94.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has passed away at a hospital in Dar es Salaam. He was 61.

Former Bangladesh PM and eminent lawyer Moudud Ahmed passed away while undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital.He was 81.

Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has a memoir, titled ‘My Life in Full,’ will hit the stands on September 28 and will be published by Hachette India.

Samsung India has inaugurated a Samsung Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University (DTU) under the Samsung Innovation Campus initiative, strengthening its commitment towards the Government’s Skill India initiative as part of its new vision #PoweringDigitalIndia.

The government has constituted an experts advisory committee which will be responsible for the overall execution and monitoring of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme. The committee would be chaired by H K Mittal from the Department of Science and Technology.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) has appointed Standard Chartered Bank as one of its IATA EasyPay service providers in India enabling greater payment flexibility to travel agents.

Legendary cricketer Kapil Dev was inducted as one of the board members of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that he is hopeful that the construction work on Rs 8,662-crore Dwarka Expressway will be completed before 15 August 2022.
The 29-km expressway, which connects Dwarka in Delhi to Gurugram, is being constructed under the Bharatmala Project.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan has been appointed as the Chairman of the international body Stop TB Partnership Board. He was appointed in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the movement to eradicate Tuberculosis from India by 2025.

The cabinet has approved a detailed proposal for setting up the developmental finance institution (DFI) that was announced in the budget last month, clearing the decks for a dedicated government-owned infrastructure financier.
The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) will be set up with a corpus of ₹20,000 crore and an initial grant of ₹5,000 crore from the government.

Over 200 students from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women will mentor 1,000 girl students of Delhi government schools in grades 9 to 12 under the AAP dispensation’s “Education Mentoring Programme” launched.

Samia Suluhu Hassan made history when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president after the death of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.

The 63rd edition of the annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles on March 14, 2021. Album Of The Year:“Folklore” by Taylor Swift.

LT Foods Limited has become the first Company globally to be certified with highest level of verification – L3, by UN-backed Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) ecolabel.