Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2021

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has announced additional benefits for workers enrolled under ESIC and EPFO schemes, to remove fear and anxiety about the well-being of their family.
As per the new benefit, in case of an employee’s death due to COVID, all dependent family members of the insured person would be entitled to receive the same benefits as in the case of death resulting from employment injury.

Notes:
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting urged the private TV news channels to display four new national helpline numbers to help the citizens during the COVID-19 awareness initiative.
In a letter to all private TV news channels, the said these national helpline numbers should be displayed in appropriate way: The National helpline number of Health Ministry -1075, Child helpline of the Ministry of Women and Child Development-1098, Senior citizens helpline of the Social Justice Ministry – 14567 and helpline of NIMHANS for psychological support – 08046110007.

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 National Statistical Office (NSO) released the provisional estimates of annual national income and quarterly estimates.
As per the release, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.6 per cent in the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2020-21. Last quarter, there was 0.5 % growth. The GDP contracted to a record low 7.3 per cent, for the full financial year 2020-21. This was a marginal improvement from the earlier estimate of 8 per cent contraction.

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:
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:
David Diop has become the first French writer to win the International Booker Prize, as he was selected for the prestigious award in 2021.
His second novel, At Night All Blood is Black, was translated by the US author and poet Anna Moschovakis. The book was inspired by his Senegalese great-grandfather’s silence about his experiences in First World War.

Notes:
The Government has constituted an expert group to provide technical inputs and recommendations on fixation of minimum wages in the country.
The Group would be chaired by Professor Ajit Mishra, director of the Institute of Economic Growth. As per the Labour and Employment Ministry, the group, which is set up for three years, would also recommend on the national floor wage.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) six-member monetary policy committee, headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das, kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged.
The repo rate will continue at 4.00% and reverse repo rate at 3.35%. With this, the repo rate has remained unchanged for a sixth consecutive time. The decision has been taken amid coronavirus uncertainty and fears over inflation.