Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2021

Notes:
The Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union) catalyzing investment in research, development and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive and accessible for all. Mission Innovation was launched during 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in November 2015. India, During Phase I played crucial role in MI Activities at global level by participating through DBT, DST and CSIR in eight Innovation Challenges and co-leading three challenges (Smart Grids, Off-Grid access to Electricity and Sustainable Bio fuels). The Ministry of Science and Technology, through Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) have played a key role in developing global Science & Technology partnerships in critical areas including energy, water, health and astronomy.

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Automation Anywhere Inc. announced the IMEA edition of Imagine Digital – the region’s largest Cloud Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence event, has begun on 11th August, 2021. The event features ground-breaking discussions around AI-powered, cloud-native automation fuelling digital transformation innovations. Automation Anywhere is a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

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The Skytrax World Airport Award ranking 2021 was recently published in which Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi has emerged among world’s top-50 best airports in the 2021. Delhi Airport emerged as best airport in India for the third consecutive year. Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have also found a rank among world’s 100 best airports. According to Skytrax 2021 world airport’s awards list, Delhi has been ranked at 45th position. Ranking has improved by five places as compared to number 50 in 2020. Delhi airport is first Indian airport to achieve this mark. Hyderabad has been ranked at 64th Its raking has been improved by seven places against 71st in 2020. Mumbai is at 65th number, 13 places down from 52nd position in 2020. Bengaluru is at 71st number, 3 places down from 68th rank in 2020.

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IIFL Finance has partnered with Bangalore and Gurgaon-based FinBox to offer innovative digital credit products to its merchants. The investment services company will offer digital credit avenues to its merchants, B2B e-commerce traders; using FinBox’s embedded buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and working capital credit products. Through this partnership, IIFL and FinBox will disburse ₹1,000 crore in loans over the next 2 quarters, through a completely digital model. Rajat Deshpande, co-founder and chief executive officer FinBox said that the FinBox Embedded Finance Platform powers credit on multiple B2B, e-commerce and retailer aggregator platforms. FinBox’s artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered underwriting capability will enable to extend credit even to MSMEs with thin-to-no credit history.

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SAP India and Microsoft has announced the launch of a joint skilling programme ‘TechSaksham’ for empowering young women students from underserved communities to build careers in technology. Through the joint initiative, SAP India and Microsoft aims to skill 62,000 women students in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, web design and digital marketing. The programme will work in collaboration with the AICTE Training and Learning Academy-ATAL and state collegiate education departments to support the professional development of faculty at participating institutes.

Notes:
Jammu & Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha has launched PROOF (Photographic Record of On-site Facility) app to monitor timely completion of projects. This app will help in uploading geotagged photographs while preferring bills in the concerned treasuries against the budget allotted through the BEAMS application. It will monitor and timely complete projects in time duration. In this application details of all projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. Bringing more transparency & accountability in the system, the details of all the projects with complete geo-tagged photographs shall now be available for the public through the EMPOWERMENT portal. After the launch of this app, no bills shall be entertained in the treasury unless photographs of projects are uploaded. This new initiative will have a larger impact on monitoring & timely completion of projects.