Test: February 2021 Weekly Current Affair - 2 - UPSC MCQ

Entrepreneur-author Sangeet Paul Choudary has released his new book titled “Platform Scale: For A Post-Pandemic World”.

The Indian Navy is carrying out a mega war game ‘Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX)’ involving almost all operational assets like warships, submarines and aircraft over a vast geographical expanse in the Indian Ocean Region to test the force’s combat readiness in a complex multi-dimensional scenario.

At just seventeen, young Australian photographer Robert Irwin has been awarded the People’s Choice Award for his image titled Bushfire in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 competition.

Space technology startup Bellatrix Aerospace has partnered with its peer Skyroot Aerospace to ferry small satellites into multiple orbits. Bellatrix Aerospace, which is creating a vehicle that will work as “taxi in space”, will launch on the Vikram rocket of Skyroot Aerospace.

The Maharashtra Cabinet approved the implementation of Chief Minister Water Conservation Programme, costing ₹1,340.75 crore.

The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has released the book titled “Parliamentary Messenger in Rajasthan” at a virtual event. The book is written by Dr K.N. Bhandari

The book titled “The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Good News” has been released recently. The book is written by award-winning writer, journalist and speaker Meghna Pant.

In Kargil Ladakh, Drass Red has won the 13th CEC Cup Ice Hockey Championship beating Hockey Club Chiktan team in the Final match.

The Delhi cabinet approved ‘Mukhyamantri Vigyan Pratibha Pariksha’ in which Rs 5,000 will be provided to Rs 1,000 meritorious students of Class 9 in schools of Delhi as a science scholarship.

The Government of India, the Government of Chhattisgarh and the World Bank signed a $100 million project to develop sustainable production systems that allow tribal households in remote areas of Chhattisgarh to practice round-the-year production of diversified and nutritious food.
CHIRAAG – Chhattisgarh Inclusive Rural and Accelerated Agriculture Growth Project will be implemented in the southern tribal-majority region of the state where a large population is undernourished and poor.

The Agriculture Credit target for 2021-22 has been enhanced to ₹16.5 lakh crore, an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year’s ₹15 lakh crore. Similarly, the corpus for micro-irrigation has been doubled to ₹10,000 crore from ₹5,000 crore.

Global rating agency Moody’s projected India’s nominal growth at 17% for the coming fiscal, a mark up from the 14.3% earlier, based on the “pro-growth” budget, but highlighted the weak prospects of fiscal consolidation.

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was poised to become the first African and first woman to lead the embattled World Trade Organization (WTO) after a South Korean rival withdrew and the United States reversed its previous opposition.

New Development Bank (NDB), the multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states, has announced a commitment of $100 million into the NIIF Fund of Funds (FoF).

India’s Rishabh Pant won the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for January 2021. South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail was named the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for January 2021.

The India-US joint military exercise “Yudh Abhyas 20” commenced in Mahajan Field Firing Range of Bikaner district in Rajasthan.

India at present is the fourth-largest global energy consumer behind China, the United States and the European Union. The theme for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 is ‘Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19’.

The Ministry of Agriculture has said that the government has launched a new Central Sector Scheme titled ‘Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)’ and it has committed resources in this regard with a budgetary provision of Rs 6,865 crore.

Indian drama “Pebbles”, directed by filmmaker Vinothraj PS, has won the top honour, the Tiger Award for best film, at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notified prohibition regulations called the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Second Amendment Regulations, 2021 to limit the content of trans fat in all food items. This regulation states that all food products in which edible oils and fats are used as an ingredient should not contain industrial trans fatty acids more than 2 per cent by mass of the total oils/fats present in the product, on and from January 1, 2022.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inaugurated the World Sustainable Development Summit 2021 via video conferencing. The theme of the Summit is ‘Redefining our common future: Safe and secure environment for all’.

The 14th International Children’s Film Festival of Bangladesh (ICFFB) concluded in Dhaka. Dutch Film Jackie and Oopjen was awarded the Best International Feature Film Award. The Best Director award went to Ani Oganesyan for his film Stork’s Nest from Armenia. A total of 12 awards were presented to the winners at the concluding ceremony.

Museum of Illusions, New Delhi, a mind-bending “edutainment” experience where guests enter the fascinating world of mental deception, has opened to the public.

Filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari has turned author with her debut fiction novel, titled “Mapping Love”.

Pencilling in a GDP growth in third and fourth quarters, SBI Research revised its contraction forecast for the current fiscal year to 7 per cent. The agency had earlier forecast a 7.4 per cent contraction in 2020-21 GDP numbers.