Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Union Government is implementing Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2020-21.
It aims to promote traditional indigenous practices. The scheme focusses on exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling. Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs 12200 per hectare for 3 years is provided for cluster formation.

Notes:
A Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021, without any changes.
The Bill amends the term ‘major airport’ to include group of airports. It also increased the threshold of annual passenger traffic in a major airport to 35 lakh. Previously, an airport with annual traffic more than 15 lakh were called as major airports. AERA will regulate tariff and other charges for aeronautical services for major airports and also a group of airports.

Notes:
Around 154 cases of norovirus cases have been reported in England. It is a highly contagious group of the virus.
As per the Central for Disease Control and Prevention, common symptoms of norovirus include diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain. It is also called the winter vomiting bug. Though the people infected with norovirus can shed billions of virus particles, only a few of them can make people sick.

Notes:
As per the RBI data, India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 835 million to touch a record high of USD 612.73 billion in the week ended July 16, 2021.
The foreign currency assets (FCA) is the major component of the overall reserves. It rose by USD 463 million to USD 568.748 billion in the week. Gold reserves were up by USD 377 million and the special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were up by USD 1 million. With this, India became the fourth largest Forex holder.

Notes:
U.S. President Joe Biden authorized up to $100 million from an emergency fund to meet the emergency refugee needs caused from the situation in Afghanistan, including for Afghan special immigration visa applicants.
The funds will support those applying to the Special Immigrant Visas programme. Under the programme as many as 20,000 Afghans who worked for the US and now fear retribution from the Taliban have applied.

Notes:
A report on “Renewables Integration in India 2021” was jointly launched NITI Aayog and the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The report is based on the outcome of three state workshops held with the Governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat to understand the specific energy transition challenges faced by these renewable-rich states. The report highlights that India’s power system requires identification of resources and advance technology initiatives.

Notes:
The non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans of banks were worth Rs 8.34 lakh crore, at the end of March 31, 2021.
‘Gross Loans and Advances – Outstanding’ of Scheduled Commercial Banks rose to Rs 113.99 lakh crore as of March 31, 2021. NPAs have declined by Rs 61,180 crore from Rs Rs 8.96 lakh crore carried at the end of March 2020. Rs 9,33,779 crore was the NPA of the banks in 2019.

Notes:
MyGov, the citizen engagement platform, has recently completed 7 years of its journey on July 26. To commemorate the contribution of MyGov in promoting participatory governance, an event was organised with the theme of MyGov Positive, to promote positive use of social media.
To encourage Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) in India, FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge was announced during the event by the Ministry of Electronics and IT. The challenge calls for implementable open-source product innovations in the fields of Health, Education, Urban Governance, Agriculture etc.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is examining the effective public shareholding in listed companies. It is also planning to introduce special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in the country.
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company with no commercial operations. It is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring an existing company.

Notes:
Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed on July 29 in Rajya Sabha and on July 26 in Lok Sabha. This bill was passed to bring changes in the legislation for helping the MSME (Micro, small and medium enterprises) sector. It will help in improving the availability of working capital for MSMEs.
The contribution of MSMEs to GDP is high. This sector contributes about 30% to GDP and Government is aiming to increase the contribution of MSMEs to 40% to provide benefits to the rural population and poor people.