Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
The ongoing 74th World Health Assembly declared January 30 as ‘World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day’.
The proposal to recognise the day was initiated by the United Arab Emirates and it was adopted unanimously by the member countries. NTDs are a group of infections caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and parasitic worms.

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:
New Zealand has entered into an agreement for space exploration with NASA.
With this, New Zealand becomes the eleventh country to sign the Artemis Accord, which is an agreement with NASA to be a part of its plans to send humans to the moon by 2024 and further to Mars.

Notes:
Leading Tennis champion and world number two Naomi Osaka has announced that she would withdraw from the French Open and would spend some time away from the court.
She had posted that she would boycott the mandatory post-match press conferences on the grounds of mental health reasons. In turn, the organisers imposed a penalty on the player.

Notes:
The State Government of Goa has constituted a Think Tank named Goa Institution For Future Transformation (GIFT).
This institution would assist, advise and guide the state government on various policy matters and welfare decisions. The functions of GIFT would be very similar to that of NITI Aayog.

Notes:
P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 summit is hosted by the Republic of Korea / South Korea and was organised at Seoul.
It is an acceleration event for promoting market-based partnerships to build sustainable and resilient economies. The theme of the event is “Inclusive Green Recovery Towards Carbon Neutrality”.

Notes:
China launched ‘Red Tourism’ in the year 2004 to promote locations with historical and cultural significance to the history of the Communist Party.
It also aimed at promoting tourism and local businesses in the country. Recently, there has been a record high footfall in the historic places under the Red Tourism. Some of them include Nanhu Lake, where the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in 1921, and Mao Zedong’s birthplace Shaoshan.

Notes:
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a first-of-its kind ‘Programmable Digital Fiber’.
This digital fiber contains memory, temperature sensors, and a neural network program to infer physical activity. It was created by placing hundreds of square silicon microscale digital chips into a preform, which was then used to create a polymer fiber.

Notes:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) implemented “National Automated Clearing House (NACH)”, which can be used for making bulk transactions towards distribution and collection of payments.
NACH is a centralised system which consolidates multiple ECS systems running across the country. As per the RBI’s recent monetary policy committee meeting, the NACH facility would be available on all days of the week from August 1.

Notes:
Lakshmi Nandan Bora, a noted Assamese litterateur and Padma Shri awardee belonging to Assam, passed away recently, due to COVID. He was 89 years old.
Lakshmi Nandan Bora has authored more than 60 books in Assamese language. Patal Bhairavi and Kayakalpa are his famous writings. He received the Padma Shri award from the Government of India in 2015.