Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, was launched by NASA, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Recently, an image from this observatory was released by NASA. It shows threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields weaving around each other, at the center of our Mily Way Galaxy. These new observations stretch above and below our galaxy’s plane, where most of the stars are found.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa has launched a portal named Akanksha, which would provide details on all the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in Karnataka.
This comprehensive portal would help the state Government officials, corporates and donors. It seeks to improve transparency in utilisation of CSR funds by the Government.

Notes:
A bill named “Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement” or EAGLE Act has been moved in the USA’s legislative body. This bill is seen as a counter to the policy challenges posed by China.
The bill seeks for increased investment to promote US manufacturing, trade and seeks for increased US intervention to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Notes:
The Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme. The programme has been launched on a pilot basis in 12 clusters covering 11 States/UTs.
This is a central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB), which aims to make identified horticulture clusters globally competitive.

Notes:
Leading rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has pegged India’s GDP growth at 9.3% for the financial year 2021-22. It has further estimated India’s GDP growth at 7.9% for FY23.
The agency has stated that India’s economic activity would be affected by reimposition of lockdown measures along with investment behavioural changes, but the same would not have deep impact on the economy as that during the first wave.

Notes:
The computer networks of world’s largest meat supplier JBS have been hacked and the firm has fallen trap to ransomware attacks. This has forced the company to shut its operations in Australia, Canada and the US.
A ransomware attack involves hacking of computer networks and threatening to cause disruption or delete files unless a ransom is paid.

Notes:
The rate of global unemployment in the year 2022 is estimated to be 5.7% by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
ILO has estimated that nearly 205 million unemployed people would exist around the world, which is higher than the 2019 level of 187 million. Further the ILO has stated that 108 million more number of workers have been categorized as poor or extremely poor.

Notes:
The Singapore based vessel MV X-Press Pearl carrying chemicals sank off the coast of Sri Lanka recently. The 12-day long efforts to put of the ship’s fire and tow it into deep waters went vain after the ship’s stern became submerged and rested on the seabed.
This has posed a great environmental threat to the coast of Sri Lanka.

Notes:
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 was launched recently by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).
The organisations also launched a report titled ‘#GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem restoration for People, Nature and Climate’, to mark the launch of the decade. The report urges the countries to restore at least 1 billion degraded hectares of land in the next decade.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced to create a Special liquidity window of Rs 15,000 crore with a tenor of 3 years at the repo rate to provide liquidity support to the contact-intensive sectors hit by Covid-19.
This encourages banks to provide fresh lending support to hotels, restaurants, tourism, aviation ancillary services, and other services including private bus operators, car repair and rental service providers, event/conference organizers, spa clinics, and beauty parlours/saloons. RBI will extend a special liquidity facility of ₹16,000 crore to SIDBI for on-lending/refinancing.