Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2021

Notes:
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar launched the Indo-French year of Environment along with his French counterpart.
India and France have environment projects being undertaken in Assam, Rajasthan and a project to be started in Jharkhand. The objective of this event is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development.

Notes:
The National Statistical Office (NSO) recently released its revised national account data. As per the data, the economic growth rate for 2019-20 was revised downwards to 4 per cent.
The decrease from the previous estimate of 4.2 per cent was mainly due to contraction in secondary sectors like manufacturing and construction. Real GDP growth of 2018-19 is estimated at 6.5 per cent, against the 6.1 per cent revealed in January estimate.

Notes:
India exported 4.45 million tonnes basmati rice (worth USD 4.33 billion) in financial year 2019-20. It has a 65 per cent share in global basmati trade.
Pakistan makes the rest of the global trade. Recently, Pakistan’s basmati rice has received a Geographical Indication (GI) registration within the country. India has applied to the EU for the GI tag for its basmati rice in September 2020. Both countries are exporting basmati to the EU without a GI tag from it.

Notes:
Bangladesh has sent a third group of Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char Island, which is a newly developed island in the Bay of Bengal.
Around 4,000 refugees have been sent to the island since December. After the third set of 1,778 refugees, the fourth set is also expected to be sent soon. There have been several calls from human rights activists against resettlement of refugees in the island.

Notes:
According to a recent research published in the journal Nature, Scientists have developed a new protein-based biosensor to detect the novel coronavirus.
These devices recognise the unique molecules on the surface of the virus and bind to them. Subsequently, they emit light through a biochemical reaction. This technique does not rely on genetic amplification as used in the RT-PCR method and saves time.

Notes:
The Ministry of Power is set to launch a domestic manufacturing programme for critical power and renewable energy equipment.
The scheme titled ‘Manufacturing Zones under Atmanirbhar Bharat Package’ was announced in the Union Budget. With an outlay of Rs 1,500 crore in the coming financial year, the scheme includes setting up three manufacturing zones per year.

Notes:
India hosted the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Defence Ministers’ Conclave on February 4, 2021 on the side-lines of Aero India 2021 event.
The broad theme of the conclave is ‘Enhanced Peace, Security and Cooperation in the Indian Ocean’. During the conclave, India announced that it is ready to supply missile systems, LCA and other weapons systems to the countries in Indian Ocean Region.

Notes:
The founder of the Indian multinational Software company Zoho, Sridhar Vembu has been appointed to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB). Padma Shri
The board is led by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Other new members are former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, academic member Anshuman Tripathy and former ambassador Arun K Singh.

Notes:
The Serum Institute of India (SII) and UNICEF have recently entered into a long-term supply agreement.
Under the agreement, the UNICEF will have access to 1.1 billion doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and the Novavax vaccines to distribute around 100 countries.

Notes:
The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted former Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Dominic Ongwen led a brigade of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from 2002 to 2004. He was accused of 70 counts of crimes and was found guilty of 61 of them. LRA is a rebel group operating in Uganda for more than 20 years.