Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2021

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly, in the year 2012, proclaimed 20 March the International Day of Happiness.
It has been celebrated across the world since 2013, to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. This year, Finland was declared the happiest country in the world, as per the World Happiness report.

Notes:
The United Nations Development Program-UNDP has launched ‘Sahi Disha’ campaign to promote women’s livelihoods and entrepreneurship in rural India.
The initiative is a five-year collaboration between UNDP and the IKEA Foundation. It has already supported one million women to access job and livelihood opportunities across five states including Delhi NCR and Maharashtra.

Notes:
As per a recent data released by Bloomberg, during the current financial year 2020-21, Indian stocks gained the most among the top 10 economies of the world.
Bloomberg data shows that India’s aggregate market capitalization moved by b 88% in dollar terms. This has been achieved amidst turmoil in market conditions due to COVID 19 pandemic.

Notes:
India has entered into an agreement with Japan for allowing each other’s patent offices to act as International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA). This would accelerate the process of drafting, filing and negotiating) of patent applications in both countries.
This has been decided during the 4th review meeting on pilot Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program between the two countries.

Notes:
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently inaugurated three space incubation technology centres in NIT – Nagpur, Bhopal and Rourkela.
This is aimed to encourage and give a platform for space entrepreneurs in India. ISRO has already opened three such centres at NIT Agartala, Trichy and Jalandhar.

Notes:
International Day of Forests is observed by the United Nations (UN) every year on March 21, across the world, to raise awareness of the significance of all types of forests.
The UN General Assembly proclaimed March 21 as the International Day of Forests in 2012. The theme of the International Day of Forests for 2021 is “Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being.”

Notes:
March 21 is observed by the United Nations as the International Day of Forests. This day commemorates the importance of green forest cover around the world.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Forests is “Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being”. This day was first proclaimed by UN in 2012.

Notes:
American credit rating agency Fitch releases the report titled ‘Global Economic Outlook GEO’. In its recent edition, it has revised India’s GDP growth estimate to 12.8% for next fiscal.
Earlier, the ratings agency had estimated a growth rate of 11%. The reasons stated are a stronger carryover effect, a looser fiscal stance, and better virus containment. Fitch also expects GDP growth to ease to 5.8% in Fiscal Year 2023.

Notes:
La Perouse is a French Naval Exercise, in which Indian Navy will be a part of the exercise. The exercise is set to be held in Bay of Bengal.
Along with France and India, the navies of QUAD nations (i.e) Australia, Japan and the United States of America would also take part in the exercise.

Notes:
The torch relay for the Tokyo Summer Olympic games 2021 has commenced from Japan. This relay is set to make its way across Japan for a duration of 121 days and would culminate the start of games in July this year.
The journey will take the torch to 859 municipalities in all 47 Japanese prefectures.