Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
A team of Australian scientists has discovered a new species of a tree frog from the rainforests of New Guinea.
Also called as the “chocolate frog” due to its chocolate colour, it belongs to the Australasian tree frog genus Litoria. Hence the new species was named as ‘Litoria mira’. The closest known relative of this new species is the Australian green tree frog.

Notes:
Tiananmen Square is located in central Beijing, China. In May 1989 more than a million young Chinese crowded in the square for a protest in favour of greater democracy.
As a repressive measure, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square and fired extensively on the protesters. At least 300 were killed and more than a 1000 arrested. This incident is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Recently, Hong Kong organisers lost appeal to hold Tiananmen vigil.

Notes:
NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the images of the clouds seen above Gale Crater of the Mars. The crater is 154 km in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5-3.8 billion years old.
The image is a combination of 21 individual photographs the rover took recently to study a strange type of cloud over the Gale Crater. The Scientists made the rover watch for the early clouds, as it was observed that the cloud type was forming earlier in the Martian year.

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:
Two Russian cosmonauts named Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov ventured out of the International Space Station on a 7-hour spacewalk to prepare for the arrival of a new Russian module.
It’s the first spacewalk for both the cosmonauts, who arrived at the space station in April. They conducted technical works including replacing the old batteries outside the International Space Station, before the arrival of the new Nauka (Science) multipurpose laboratory module.

Notes:
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) Pune has developed a hybrid technology called “SWASTIIK”, for disinfecting water by using natural oils.
With support from the Water Technology Initiative of the department of science and technology (DST), the team has developed the technology. It involves boiling of a liquid as a result of pressure reduction (cavitation) and also uses natural oils having antimicrobial properties, to disinfect.

Notes:
The US administration headed by President Joe Biden has proposed to suspend the oil and gas leases at Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This decision has been welcomed by environmentalists and Arctic tribals.
This move is reversal of the lease brought about by earlier US administration by President Trump.

Notes:
China recently launched into orbit a new-generation weather satellite named Fengyun-4B (FY- 4B) successfully.
The Fengyun-4B satellite was launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket into the geostationary orbit, to join the network of Fengyun satellites. The first of the Fengyun series, a low-Earth orbit satellite testing machine – FY-1A, was launched in 1988.

Notes:
The UN Sustainable Transport Conference is to be held from 14 to 16 October 2021 in Beijing, China. The Conference aims to encourage sustainable transport to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
To acknowledge the longevity, versatility and environmental sustainability of bicycles, the UN General Assembly declared 3 June as World Bicycle Day.

Notes:
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad has developed nano-fibre based oral tablets of Amphotericin B, called as AmB.
This was the first-ever attempt to fabricate nanofibrous oral tablets of Amphotericin B for curing Kala Azar. As Kala-Azar treatment is being currently used as a treatment for Mucormycosis, this can be used to treat fungal infections post COVID treatment.