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

Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Shri Giriraj Singh virtually launched “Climate Resilience Information System and Planning” (CRISP-M) tool for integration of climate information in Geographic Information System (GIS) based watershed planning under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Scheme (MGNREGS).

Pakistani nuclear scientist and metallurgical engineer Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (85), also known as the ‘Father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program’, passed away in Islamabad, Pakistan.

• Khan founded the Engineering Research Laboratory, or ERL in Pakistan, for the purpose of developing a uranium-enrichment capability.

As per the department of public enterprises (DPE) (under Ministry of Finance) for 2019-2020, only 25 of the 144 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) were tagged as ‘excellent’. The survey was done for Improving the performance of CPSEs and also to boost investor interest in these firms.

Atul Kumar Goel (A K Goel), MD & CEO of UCO Bank. was elected as the Chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for 2021-22. He replaces Rajkiran Rai G, MD & CEO of Union Bank. He is set to take over as the CEO of Punjab National Bank (PNB) with effect from January 2022.
About Indian Banks’ Association (IBA):
Chief Executive– Sunil Mehta
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra

RailTel Corporation of India Ltd(RailTel), under the Ministry of Railways signed an MoU with the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a research centre the Ministry of Communications, to cooperate in diverse areas of telecom with a focus on boosting modernisation and expansion of community networks in India.

International E-Waste Day (IEWD) is annually celebrated across the globe on October 14th to create awareness about the hazards of Electronic-waste (e-waste) and to promote the proper way to dispose of e-waste.
i. Theme of IEWD 2021 is “Consumer is the key to Circular Economy!”.

The Central Government has kept the interest rates on ‘Small Savings Schemes’ (SSS) unchanged for the third quarter of Financial Year 2022.

• Public Provident Fund (PPF) – 7.1%
• National Savings Certificate (NSC) – 6.8%
• Senior Citizens Savings Scheme – 7.4% (5-year scheme, where interest is paid quarterly)
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account – 7.6%

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century. It was the 1st capital of Vijayanagar Empire followed by Penukonda.

NITI Aayog along with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the Geospatial Energy Map of India which will provide a holistic picture of all energy resources of the country. This map identifies and locates all primary and secondary sources of energy and their transportation.
i. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface.

The RBI Act of 1934 established it as the banker for the central government. The official logo of the apex bank includes a palm tree & a tiger.

India was ranked 79th out of 139 countries and jurisdictions in the World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2021 report, where Pakistan was positioned 130 with a poor score and the last spot was occupied by Venezuela.

• The top 3 positions were held by Denmark, followed by Norway & Finland.

• Cubit – 18 inches
• Astronomical Unit – 1.496 * 10^11 m
• Light Year – 9.46 * 10¹⁵ m
• Parsec – 3.086 * 10¹⁶ m

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 28th National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) foundation day programme virtually.

• NHRC was established on 12th October 1993. It was established under the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) unveiled ‘Our Goal for All’ as the official tagline for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022.

• The tournament will be held in 3 cities in Maharashtra – Navi Mumbai, Mumbai & Pune

India signed a long term MoU with Russia for DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) fertilizer supply. After urea, Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer is the most widely used fertilizer in the country.
i. The Central Government allocated around Rs 79,600 crore for fertilizer subsidy in the budget for 2021-22.

The Central Government gave Navrang Saini, Whole Time Member, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), an additional charge as the Chairperson of IBBI. He will succeed S. Sahoo who retired on September 30, 2021 after a five-year 

i. The Union Cabinet approved the restructuring of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) into 7 wholly government-owned DPSUs with an objective to transform & improve expertise in the product range, with ‘AVANI’ being the largest among the 7.
ii. E. R. Sheikh was appointed as 1st Director-General of this Ordnance Directorate.
iii. The Ministry of Defense set a target of achieving a turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in aerospace, defence goods & services by 2024, including exports of Rs 35,000 crore.

i. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won the 14th Edition of IPL under the Captaincy of MS Dhoni who became 1st player in the World to Captain 300 T20 games.
ii. Ruturaj Gaikwad won the ‘Orange Cap’ for scoring a massive runs in all matches while ‘Purple Cap’ was given to Harshal Patel for picking up the most number of wickets.
iii. Virat Kohli became 1st Indian Player to Score 10,000 T20 runs while Harshal Patel became the 20th IPL bowler to take hat-trick wickets.

As per the ‘World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2021 report’ released by International Energy Agency (IEA), around USD 4 trillion is required in clean energy investment by 2030 to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
i. The analysis in WEO-2021 is premised upon ‘Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector’, published earlier this year.

The UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is annually observed across the globe on October 17th to create awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and to ensure that the human rights of those living in poverty are not violated.
i. The theme of the 2021 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is “Building Forward Together: Ending Persistent Poverty, Respecting all People and our Planet.”

The Central Government constituted a Working Group (WG) to be headed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PMFBY, currently Ritesh Chauhan to roll out an overhauled Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from Kharif 2022.
About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):
Initiated– 2016
Parent Ministry– Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW)

Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma & Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei won Men’s & Women’s title respectively in the 2021 London Marathon. The London marathon is annually conducted in London, United Kingdom, since its inaugural event in 1981.
i. Olympic 10,000m Silver medalist, Kalkidan Gezahegne (Bahrain) created a new World record timing in 10K race.

Chairman of DRDO, Dr G Satheesh Reddy has been conferred the prestigious ‘Aryabhata Award’ by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) for his outstanding life-time contribution to the promotion of astronautics in India. The award ceremony was held at UR Rao Satellite Centre Bangalore, Karnataka.

The government of Madhya Pradesh (MP) has announced the implementation of the scheme ‘‘Mukhyamantri Ration Apke Dwar Yojana”, which will start from November 2021. Under this scheme, ration will be provided at the doorstep of the villagers where there are no Fair Price Shops (FPS).

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Captain Alok Mishra as the Managing Director of India Ports Global Limited(IPGL). Alok Mishra has been appointed for the full-time role for a term of 5 years.