March 4th Week 2021 Current Affairs Online Test in English

Senior IPS officer M.A Ganapathy was appointed as the Director General of National Security Guard (NSG). The 1986 batch officer is currently serving as the Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). Another IPS officer Kuldiep Singh was appointed as the Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force.

The Tenth Schedule, popularly known as the anti–defection law, was added to the Constitution in the year 1985. As per the anti–defection law, Nominated MP Swapan Dasgupta resigned from Rajya Sabha, a year before completion of his term. He has been named as candidate in the West Bengal Assembly elections. After his nomination to Rajya Sabha in 2016, he did not join a political party within the mandatory period of six months.

The Prime Minister’s Principal adviser, PK Sinha, recently stepped down from his position. In the first tenure of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, he served as the Cabinet secretary.

India's envoy in Sri Lanka has recently handed over training aids worth about Rs 81,00,000 to the country’s Navy for capacity building. High Commissioner Gopal Baglay formally handed over the training aids, during a visit to the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. He also handed over Kindle e–book readers and books to the library of the Naval and Maritime Academy.

The Cabinet recently approved the closure of Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation of India (HHEC), located at Noida, Uttar Pradesh. HHEC is a government–owned company under the administrative control of the Union Textile ministry. It is said to have incurred losses since 2015–16 continuously. The employees in the company will be given the option of Voluntary Retirement.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) publishes the latest edition of the State of the World’s Indigenous People report. As per the report, the world’s indigenous peoples live in areas around 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. But many of them still struggle to maintain their legal rights to lands and resources.

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is a global coalition of countries, UN agencies, multilateral development banks, private sector, and academia, that aims to promote disaster–resilient infrastructure. It is headquartered in New Delhi. CDRI, in partnership with member countries and institutions, hosted the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure – ICDRI 2021.

Under the Project TraceBioMe, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR–NIO) – Goa has initiated to map the genetic diversity of organisms in the Indian Ocean. The project involves large scale sampling of water, sediments, planktons and various organisms in different location of the ocean to arrive at the genetic map.

The IBSA (India Brazil South Africa) Women’s Forum meeting was held recently in a virtual format. This is the 6th edition of the meet. The delegation from India was led by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. A joint declaration was issued during the meet which highlights IBSA goals and commitments for achieving gender equality in all spheres of life.

Pritzker Prize is the highest international honour given in the field of Architecture. The 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize, has been granted to Anne Lacaton and Jean–Philippe Vassal. The French duo winners are the founders of Lacaton & Vassal. Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation announced the winners and Anne Lacaton became the first French female architect to ever win the award.

Punjab National Bank has recently incorporated PNB Cards & Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank. This new entity will carry out non–financial support service related to the credit card business of the bank. PNB Cards & Services has authorised capital of ₹25 crore and paid–up capital of ₹15 crore. The Bank has merged United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce with itself.

State–owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Israeli battery developer Phinergy formed a joint venture to manufacture ultra–lightweight metal–air batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The joint venture will replace lithium with aluminium to make batteries that will charge faster and work for a longer time. The first customers of the company are Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland. IOC had acquired a minority stake in Phinergy Ltd last year.

Venezuela has recently rolled out larger–denomination banknotes due to hyperinflation. The bolivar currency of the South American country is losing its value tremendously. Bills worth 200,000 and 500,000 bolivars, which are worth just 10 and 27 US cents, respectively, began to circulate in the country. Venezuela's central bank has also planned to roll a bill worth 1 million bolivars, worth just 50 US cents.

Recently, researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have developed a system that can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into solar fuel. This process is called Artificial Photosynthesis (AP). This process produces oxygen as by product. This process is said to mitigate the harmful effects of emissions made by use of fossil fuels.

As per the new Vehicle Scrapping Policy announced by the Union Ministry of Road Transport, more than 20 years old personal vehicles would be de registered from June 1 2024, in case they fail in automated physical fitness test. In case of commercial vehicles, 15 years old vehicles would be de registered from April 1 2023.

Scientists from Russia have developed and deployed a telescope named “Baikal–GVD”. The telescope has been placed into the depths of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, which is the deepest lake known in earth. Using this telescope, Scientists are in search of Neutrinos – the tiniest known particles in the universe.

It has been reported that the world's first baby with antibodies against the novel coronavirus is born in the USA. The mother was vaccinated against COVID–19 during 36th week of her pregnancy which resulted in development of antibodies in both mother and the baby.

A new scheme GRAM UJALA Programme for providing LED bulbs at a price of Rs.10 per bulb has been launched by Power and New and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh. The scheme has been launched from Bihar. These bulbs are priced lowest in the world and are manufactured by Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) – a subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) is a central public sector enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The CPSE was seen in news as it has recently released a tender that invited agencies to provide solutions and services related to fact verification and detection of misinformation on social media platforms. BECIL seeks to empanel the agencies.

The World Happiness Report 2021 has been released recently by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The report measures the well–being by relying on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Out of 149 countries, India has been ranked at 139. Finland is adjudged as the world’s happiest country as per the report.

The Indo–US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) launched the US India Artificial Intelligence (USIAI) initiative, in the presence of the Department of Science & Technology Secretary. IUSSTF is a bilateral organisation established by the two countries in 2000, to promote Science, Technology and innovation through mutual interactions. Under the USIAI initiative, new R&D areas and opportunities will be identified.

The Indian Navy inducted a landing craft utility ship L58 at an event in Port Blair. It is the eighth and last of the landing craft utility (LCU) mark–IV class ship. The ship was indigenously designed and built by state–run Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Kolkata. It will be used for several activities like transporting battle tanks and heavy weapons systems.

Indian Navy carried out Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with Royal Bahrain Naval Force in the Persian Gulf under Operation Sankalp. PASSEXs are conducted regularly by the Indian Navy with the navies of friendly foreign countries. Maritime Security Operations, code–named Op Sankalp were initiated in the Gulf in 2019.

The Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was approved by the Rajya Sabha recently. It seeks to increase foreign direct investment limit in the insurance sector to 74 per cent from the current 49 per cent. As per the bill, majority of those in board of directors and key management persons would be resident Indians, with at least 50 per cent of directors being independent directors.

NITI Aayog has partnered with IT major Amazon Web Services (AWS) to train students on the fundamentals of cloud computing through Atal Tinkering Labs. Under the program, AWS will introduce the concepts of cloud computing such as cloud storage, web hosting, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and virtual reality (VR) to students.

The Union Education Minster Shri. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ took a ride in the Energy Swaraj Yatra’ bus. This bus has been designed and developed by Dr Chetan Singh Solanki, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. It is a vehicle that runs on solar energy.

UNESCO has partnered with United Schools Organization India (USO India), Water Digest magazine and Toonz Media Group for water conservation awareness programme. The H2Ooooh! – Waterwise Program is conducted for school students, in partnership with National Mission for Clean Ganga. The animation videos created by students will be launched on March 22, the World Water Day.

The World Happiness Report 2021 has been released recently by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The report measures the well–being by relying on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Out of 149 countries, India has been ranked at 139. Finland is adjudged as the world’s happiest country as per the report.

The state Government of Jharkhand launched a campaign named SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anaemia Reduction). It aims to tackle malnutrition in the state by identifying anaemic women and malnourished children. It would converge various state departments and agencies to effectively reduce anaemia in the state.

The 67th National Film Awards were announced to honour the films from the year of 2019. The event was organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Director Priyadarshan's Malayalam war epic Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea, starred by Mohanlal, won the Best Feature Film. The best actor award was given to Manoj Bajapayee for Bhonsle, Dhanush for Tamil film Asuran.

India is set to conduct airborne radar surveys to estimate the thickness of Himalayan glaciers. A pilot study is to be conducted in Lahaul–Spiti basin of Himachal Pradesh. After the pilot project, similar studies will be conducted in Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra sub–basins. National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences proposed this survey.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched ‘Dial 112’ Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) worth Rs 157–cr. People can call the toll–free number for all emergency services including police, fire and health in the state. The State Emergency Response Centre and the emergency response vehicles fitted with mobile data terminals were also inaugurated.

As per the National Accounts Statistics (NAS) 2021, released by MoSPI, the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) on health, education and restaurants recorded an increase in 2019–20. The highest increase is recorded in the field of health at 9.5%, followed by education and restaurants. The PFCE on Alcoholic beverages, clothing and foot wear recorded a steep fall during the said period.

NDHM stands for National Digital Health Mission. NDHM sandbox is open to everyone from Health care providers to app builders. The sandbox service of NDHM hosts the building block environment that are useful to any one who wishes to create software services and apps meant to be integrated with NDHM services.

Threadit is a standalone website that has been created by Google for its workspaces. This new tool has been built to make remote working more efficient. Threadit enables users to record and send small videos to team members on work related issues. It has been developed in lines of Tik Tok.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently inaugurated three space incubation technology centres in NIT – Nagpur, Bhopal and Rourkela. This is aimed to encourage and give a platform for space entrepreneurs in India. ISRO has already opened three such centres at NIT Agartala, Trichy and Jalandhar.

Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) including India, Pakistan and China will hold a joint anti–terrorism exercise this year. The joint exercise ‘Pabbi–Antiterror–2021’ was announced during the 36th meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti–Terrorist Structure held in Uzbekistan. SAARC is an 8–membered multilateral association headquartered at Kathmandu.

The 116th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission meeting between India and Pakistan was held recently in New Delhi. This meeting took place after a gap of more than two and half years. This meeting coincided with the National Day of Pakistan. It is a 2–day meeting which on the Indian side is headed by Indus Water Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Saxena.

Every year on the March 25th, “International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members” is observed by the United Nations. It is marked every year on the anniversary of abduction of a former journalist – Alec Collett. He was working for the UN – Relief and Works Agency in Palestine when he was abducted by armed gunman in 1985.

The Union Power Ministry’s Maharatna PSU – Power Grid has launched an e–tendering portal – “PRANIT”. This portal is aimed to make the tendering process by power grid more transparent and decreases the paperwork in the process. This portal has been certified by Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate (STQC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The Muzara movement had started in the 1930s in Punjab villages. The province was called PEPSU after Independence before being named Punjab. Muzara means landless farmers who worked on someone’s land. This movement was started to take ownership rights of the land after tilling it for years. Finally, people got ownership rights in 1952 after paying one–time compensation. The movement was remembered in Punjab and farmer protest sites in New Delhi recently.

Mizoram shares a 510–kilometer border with Myanmar. The Chief Minister of Mizoram Zoramthanga asked the Centre to grant political asylum to “political refugees” from Myanmar. Earlier, the Home Ministry had directed that State governments have no powers to grant refugee status to any foreigner and India is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.

India’s young shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan won the gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event at the ISSF World Cup, which is being held in Delhi. Another Indian shooter Ganemat Sekhon won the bronze medal in the women's Skeet event. Earlier, the Indian women and men's teams won gold medals in the 10m Air Pistol events at the ongoing ISSF World Cup being held in New Delhi.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has inaugurated the state's 1st formal indigenous language and knowledge system school. Named as ‘Nyubu Nyvgam Yerko’, the school will help in promoting and preserving indigenous traditions, culture and language. Rs 3 crore has been allocated for the development and maintenance of the school.

The US Navy announced that it is set to hold a major naval exercise along with Belgium, France and Japan in the Mideast. The ‘Group Arabian Sea Warfare Exercise’ will include ships from the four countries to conduct drills in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. This exercise has been planned amid tensions over the nuclear programme of Iran in the region.

For the first time, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently demonstrated free–space quantum communication over a distance of 300 m. It demonstrated live videoconferencing using quantum–key–encrypted signals. The free–space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) was demonstrated at Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.

Israel held its 4th parliamentary election in the last two years. The exit polls conducted did not show any clear winner. This election was triggered in December 2020, when the country’s parliament failed to agree a budget. It ended a seven–month power sharing arrangement between Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz.

Russia successfully launched 38 foreign satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites were from 18 countries including South Korea, Japan and Germany. The Soyuz–2.1a carrier rocket placed all 38 spacecraft in the orbit. Among the satellites was the Challenge–1, the first satellite made completely in Tunisia.

The Union Cabinet approved the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between the Jal Shakti Ministry of India and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan. The MoC was signed for development of a long–term cooperation in the field of Water and Delta management. It also encourages implementation of joint projects between the two countries and exchange of information, knowledge, technology and scientific allied experience.

Indian Coast Guard ship Vajra, the offshore patrol vessel was formally commissioned into service. It was indigenously designed and built by Larsen and Toubro. This is the sixth of the seven offshore patrol vessels. The ship is fit with state–of–the–art navigation and communication systems including Stabilised Remote–Controlled Gun and Pollution response equipment.