Test: September 2021 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

The Indian Navy conducted the 1st Ever Maritime Partnership Exercise with the Algerian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea on 29th August 2021, where INS Tabar represented India.
About Algeria:
Capital – Algiers
Currency – Algerian Dinar

Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance has launched the “My Pad My Right” (MPMR) project, at Killa Village, Gomati District, Tripura on the concluding day of her 2-day visit to Tripura. MPMR project is an initiative of NABARD & its subsidiary NABFOUNDATION, to install low cost sanitary pad making machines in more than 700 districts.

The World’s largest and tallest observation wheel named ‘Ain Dubai’ is set to be opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 21st October 2021. The ‘Ain Dubai’ is located at Bluewaters Island.
i. The Ain Dubai is around 2 times taller than the London Eye, which will take the visitors to a height of 250 meters.

The government of UT of Ladakh had declared ‘Snow leopard’ (Panther unica) as its state animal and ‘Black-necked crane’ (Grus nigricollis) as its state bird.
i. Earlier Jammu and Kashmir had the Black-necked crane and Kashmir stag (Hangul) as its state bird and animal.

PM Narendra Modi virtually released a special issue of a ‘Rs 125 commemorative coin’ on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Currently there are six languages that enjoy the ‘Classical’ status in India.
Tamil- 2004
Sanskrit- 2005
Kannada & Telugu- 2008
Malayalam- 2013
Odia- 2014

India’s Ministry of Defence signed a Project Agreement with the US Department of Defence for co-development of Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV), under the Joint Working Group Air Systems in the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative.

CM of Manipur, Nongthombam Biren Singh, launched an electronic Inner Line permit (e-ILP) platform at Imphal, Jiribam and Mao. It will monitor the entry, exit and tracking of visitors to the state under the Manipur Inner Line Permit Rules, 2019.

India signed an MoU with Nepal for the reconstruction of 14 cultural heritage and 103 health sector projects across different districts of Nepal, which were damaged by the 2015 earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake). The projects will be reconstructed at a cost of Rs 420 crore.

Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVN) has got the prestigious ‘Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Award’ for 2021 under the category of Best Growth Performance- Power. Theme of the Event was– ” Laying the Foundation for an Environmental, Social and Governance- Ready Corporate India”.
 

‘SIMBEX 2021‘was held between the Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) in the southern edge of the South China Sea. It was hosted by RSN as ‘at sea only’. INS Ranvijay, INS Kiltan & INS Kora participated in the exercise.
About Singapore:
Capital– Singapore
Prime Minister– Lee Hsien Loong

Red Bull Racing Honda’s Max Verstappen from the Netherlands won the “2021 Formula 1(F1) Heineken Dutch Grand Prix”. Max Verstappen gained 3 points ahead of the defending world champion Lewis Hamilton who finished the race in 2nd.
i. The F1 Championships are organised by Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

PhonePe, the Payments and financial services company, launched India’s 1st interactive geospatial website named ‘Pulse’ to provide data and insights about the evolution of Digital Payments of India.
i. PhonePe has also launched the ‘Pulse Report’ which provides a thorough study on the evolution of digital payments over the past 5 years.

i.The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind has appointed the Acting Chief Justice(ACJ) for the High Courts (HC):
Karnataka HC – Satish Chandra Sharma
Sikkim HC – Meenakshi Madan Rai
Telangana HC – M. S. Sri Ramachandra Rao
ii.The appointment of the 9 Judges including 3 women, takes the total strength of judges of the Supreme court to 33 (including Chief Justice), the maximum possible strength of the Supreme Court is 34.
iii.Justice AM Khanwilkar, was appointed as the Chairman of Supreme Court Legal Services Committee(SCLSC)

PayNearby had partnered with Retailers Association’s Skill Council of India (RASCI) to launch ‘PayNearbyNeoDukaan’, first-of-its-kind holistic store management tool, for the digital empowerment of its retail partners and retail stores.

CM of Goa, Pramod Sawant launched ‘Save Water to Get Free Water’ scheme under which state households will not be charged for water consumption up to 16,000 litres. Goa became the 1st Indian state to give Free Water.

The popular 5-day festival of the Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh namely ‘Solung’ was celebrated. It is a harvest festival performed after sowing of seeds and transplantation, to seek for good crops.
About Arunachal Pradesh:
Governor– Brigadier BD Mishra (retd)
Wildlife Sanctuaries– Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary

“e-Source”, an open source platform for tracking & recovery of electronic wastes is under beta level of testing by the IIT Madras. The initiative was promoted by the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (ICGS) in IIT Madras.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted a 11-member committee to review the existing guidelines of the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS).
i. The Member of Prasar Bharati Board, Ashok Kumar Tandon, was named as its chairperson.

HDFC Life Insurance Company acquired 100% share capital of Exide Life Insurance Company for a total cash consideration of Rs 6687 crore. This is the biggest insurance deal in India.
About HDFC Life Insurance Company (HDFC Life):
MD & CEO- Vibha Padalkar
Headquarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra

The National e-Governance Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology signed an MoU with National Law University(NLU), Delhi & National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal to establish a Cyber Lab.

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, a Maharatna Central Public Sector Undertaking under Ministry of Power won the prestigious global “Association for Talent Development (ATD) 2021 BEST Award”

i. This agreement was signed between the Assam Government & Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council.
ii. Rs 1,000 crore will be invested by the government for development of the Karbi Anglong area in the next 5 years.
iii. Karbi Anglong is an autonomous district under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Prashant Kumar, President of the Bar Association of India was unanimously elected to the board of directors of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC). He became the 2nd Asian to serve on the board of directors of ILAC.
About International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC):
President– Elizabeth Howe, United Kingdom
Headquarters– Enskede, Sweden

As per the data of the Ministry of Textiles, more than 1,500 artisans had been benefited by training in 63 Samarth Training Centres. The Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS) was named ‘SAMARTH’.