Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
The Assam government has recently announced Chief Minister’s Sishu Sewa Scheme for the welfare of those children who lost parents due to COVID-19.
Monthly scholarship of Rs. 3,500 per month would be given to those children who lost their parents but have their extended family members. Free residential educational facilities would be provided to children who don’t have extended family members.

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:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced new labels, using Greek alphabets, for various variants of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
As per the WHO, Covid variant first found in India (B1.617.2) will be referred to as Delta, while earlier found variant in the country (B.1.617.1) will be known as Kappa.

Notes:
The largest warship in the Navy of Iran has recently caught fire and later sank in the Gulf of Oman, according to the media reports.
The support warship Kharg was named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran. Though the firefighters tried to contain the blaze, the vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman. It is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Notes:
President Joe Biden’s administration of the USA has formally ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which denies asylum seekers entry into the USA.
Under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which was brought into force in 2019, individuals who arrived at the Southwest Border of the USA were returned to Mexico to await removal proceedings in US courts.

Notes:
India’s Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan completed his tenure as Chairman of WHO Executive Board on June 02.
During the 149th session of the WHO Executive board, Harsh Vardhan announced that Dr Patrick Amoth, Acting Director-General for Health, Ministry of Health of Kenya has been appointed as the Chair of WHO Executive Board.

Notes:
India and the UK have launched a new workstream to promote industrial energy efficiency, under the Clean Energy Ministerial’s (CEM) Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI).
The 12th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is being organised by Chile in virtual mode. IDDI is coordinated by the by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It is also supported by Germany and Canada.

Notes:
A bipartisan legislation was re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate the per-country cap on employment-based green card.
This new law is called as the EAGLE Act 2021. Currently, there is a 7% per-country limit on Visa issuance by the United States. If this law is cleared by the Senate, this would benefit a lot of Indian professionals and their family members who wish to immigrate to the country.

Notes:
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities including cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.
According to the recent index, food prices in May were 4.8% higher than April. This is registered as the biggest monthly rise since October 2010. The prices was also 39.7% higher than this time last year, May 2020.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) has received a patent for black pepper micronutrient foliar formulation.
ICAR-IISR has developed crop-specific micronutrient foliar formulations for major spices (black pepper, ginger, turmeric, and cardamom) to overcome micronutrient deficiencies.