Daily Current Affairs Quiz: September 28,2021

ANSWER: A

WHY IN NEWS?

• Rajiv Bansal appointed as Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Bansal is currently Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Air India. He is a 1988-batch IAS Nagaland cadre, Bansal was serving as additional secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas before Air India.
• He will replace the current Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, who retires on 30 September. Last year in February, Bansal was appointed as the chairman and managing director of Air India for a second time.
• His appointment came just days after the government announced 100% stake sale of the debt-ridden Air India.

ANSWER: B

WHY IN NEWS?

• The government of India has hosted the first India-United Kingdom Consular Dialogue in the virtual medium.
• Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Devesh Uttam led the Indian delegation while the UK delegation was led by Jennifer Anderson. Both sides discussed the ways to strengthen people-to-people contacts as part of the India-UK 2030 roadmap.
• At this inaugural Consular Dialogue, the two sides discussed ways to further strengthen people-to-people contacts between the two countries as part of the India-UK 2030 roadmap.

ANSWER: C

WHY IN NEWS?

• The Union education ministry has formed a 12-member committee to develop new curriculums for school, early childhood, teacher and adult education.
• The panel tasked with developing four national curriculum frameworks (NCFs) will be headed by National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) drafting committee chairperson K Kasturirangan.
• The committee will discuss “position papers” finalised by national focus groups on different aspects of the four areas drawing inputs from state curriculum frameworks. The NCFs serve as a guideline for syllabus, textbook and teaching practices for schools in India.

ANSWER: B

WHY IN NEWS?

• The government has set up an asset management company (AMC) named India Debt Resolution Company Ltd (IDRCL) with a paid-up capital of Rs. 80.5 lakh on an authorized capital of Rs 50 crore.
• IDRCL will work in tandem with the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) to clean up bad loans.
• Bank of Baroda (BoB), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India (BoI), Bank of Maharashtra, SBI, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and IDBI Bank are the shareholders of IDRCL.

ANSWER: C

WHY IN NEWS?

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced its annual Goalkeepers ‘Global Goals Awards’ 2021, as part of its annual Goalkeepers campaign. Goalkeepers is the foundation’s campaign to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
• The 2021 Global Goalkeeper Award: Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women.
• The 2021 Progress Award: Jenifer Colpas from Colombia, for her work which centres around improving access to clean water and sanitation.
• The 2021 Campaign Award: Satta Sheriff of Liberia, for her work promoting gender equality.

ANSWER: A

WHY IN NEWS?

• Indian Army will organize “Bijoya Sanskritik Mahotsav” from 26 to 29 September in Kolkata. This Mahotsav will be observed to mark the golden jubilee of the India-Pak war 1971.
• The event will be inaugurated by Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, Army Commander, Eastern Command. Various cultural programs including a film screening, theatre plays, musical concerts, and band performances will be conducted during this event. It will be organized as part of the Swarnim Vijay Varsha celebrations to commemorate the golden jubilee of the India-Pak war.

ANSWER: B

WHY IN NEWS?

• Apple’s co-creator Steve Wozniak has launched a new space start-up called Privateer Space, bringing potential competition to a field dominated by billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.
• Privateer will be represented at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, scheduled to run from September 14-17 in Hawaii.
• The global space economy, which has attracted many top companies such as Tesla and Amazon, involves various activities such as research and development, space tourism and the utilisation of space.
• Bank of America predicts the space economy will have more than tripled in size by 2030, with a $1.4 trillion market value.

ANSWER: C

WHY IN NEWS?

• Supreme Court of India has approved an electronic system named FASTER (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records). The FASTER system will be used for transferring e-authenticated copies from courts to prisons.
• A three-judge bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Nageswara Rao and Justice Surya Kant has instructed state governments, Union territories, prison departments and other authorities concerned to make arrangements at prisons to accept e-authenticated copies.
• Under the FASTER system, courts can send e-authenticated copies of bail orders, stay orders, interim orders and proceedings through secured electronic communication to duty officers at prisons. The apex court was hearing a suo motu case which it took up in July this year after a news report indicated that inmates at a prison in Agra continued to be lodged in jail three days after they had been granted bail.

ANSWER: D

WHY IN NEWS?

• Nagaland’s “sweet cucumber” was awarded a geographical identification (GI) tag as an agricultural product under provisions of The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
• The cucumber is one of the most important crops in the Northeast region. Nagaland has the fifth-highest cultivation of this fruit area-wise and ranks third in production.
• Naga cucumber is recognised for its sweetness and unique green colour. It is rich in potassium and has low calories. The cucumber is not the first product from the small state to receive a vaunted GI tag. Both the regional variants of tree tomato (tamarillo) and the famed Naga king chilli are also GI tagged.