Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2021

Notes:
The Senate of the USA has recently passed a legislative bill to combat the increase in the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific people in the country.
This measure is expected to fasten the review of hate crimes and provide support for local law enforcement agencies to respond to such crimes. The USA has reported several such hate crime incidents in the past.

Notes:
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) shri. GC Murmu has been selected as the external auditor of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He would serve the position for a term of three years. His term as an external auditor commences from the year 2021.
OPCW is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands.

Notes:
BOB Financial, the credit card arm of Bank of Baroda and Mastercard have jointly launched small business-focussed QR code embedded credit card.
Named ‘ConQR’, it enables cardholders/ SMEs to accept cashless payments using their cards. Small businesses can use QR to make payments as well as receive payments with affordable and simple process.

Notes:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 25 countries, with the potential to eradicate malaria by 2025 under its ‘E-2025 Initiative’.
As per a new report of the WHO- Zeroing in on malaria elimination, these 25 countries including three from Africa will have to work by responding to the dual threat of malaria and Covid-19. The WHO will provide support and technical guidance to these countries.

Notes:
As per a statement by APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority), the export of processed food by India has increased by 26.51 per cent during April-February 2020-21. By value, the increase stood at Rs.43,798 crore.
This increase has been achieved despite COVID 19 pandemic prevailing throughout the world.

Notes:
SVAMITVA Scheme is a Central Sector scheme launched on National Panchayat Day i.e 24th April 2020. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) is the Nodal Ministry for implementation of the scheme.
Recently, e-property cards under SWAMITVA have been distributed to 4.09 lakh property owners in 5,000 villages by the Prime Minster of India.

Notes:
The ‘Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leaving no Country Behind’ is a report jointly released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with UNDP and UNESCAP.
As per the report, the richer countries in the Asia-Pacific region would recover quickly from the impact of the pandemic than the poorer countries. This difference is because of variation in degree of immunity, healthcare system and vaccine roll-out.

Notes:
Three number of small Indian civets have been rescued and recovered by the East Godavari Wildlife Management authorities in two separate rescue operations.
The small Indian civet, bearing scientific name Viverricula indica, is native to South and Southeast Asia. It is categorized as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List.

Notes:
A recent study measured antibody responses after vaccination in the people treated with a common drug prescribed for Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
As per the researchers, those people had significantly lower concentrations of antibodies. The study concluded that these people should be considered a priority for a second vaccination. The two main forms of IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank has recently released a report titled Developing Asia’s Economic Outlook.
As per the report, India’s economy is expected to grow 11% in fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. This growth is backed by a strong vaccination drive which is undertaken in India. At the same time, the report warned that the surge in cases may lead to economic risks.