Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2021

Notes:
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has recently released its annual review of India’s actions on climate change. NRDC is an international non-profit environmental organisation.
As per the report, India is largely on track to meet its Paris Climate Agreement targets. It said that the country is to meet its targets of reducing emissions by 33 to 35 per cent of its GDP by 2030 from the 2005 levels and achieve 40 per cent of installed power capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030.

Notes:
Kushagra Rawat of Delhi and Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka are Indian Aquatic champions, who have created new national records in 400m freestyle and 100 backstroke events respectively at the 74th Senior National Aquatic Championships.
Kushagra Rawat has created a new record of 3:53.68 seconds, which is 1.25 seconds lower than the previous record on 400 m freestyle, while Srihari Nataraj finished in 55.10 seconds in 100 m back stroke, there by beating his own national record created in 2019.

Notes:
The social networking giant Facebook is set to change its name and rebrand itself as “Meta”, as announced by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The Company’s CEO has stated that the word “Meta” is derived from the Greek Word “Beyond”. It is stated that the company would not have any change in its corporate structure or functioning of its apps.

Notes:
Scientists have discovered a species of human ancestors called ‘Homo bodoensis’ who lived around half a million years ago, in Africa during the Middle Pleistocene which is now known as Chibanian.
The term ‘bodoensis’ has been derived from a skull found in Bodo D’ar, Ethiopia. International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature allows name changes under strictly defined rules. That age saw the rise of our own species, Homo sapiens as well as our closest relatives Neanderthals.

Notes:
The Quality Council of India (QCI) has established a team of experts for execution of a proposed project – Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Several small and medium enterprises have been on-boarded as volunteers for execution of a project, as per the Commerce and Industry ministry. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has initiated this project, to democratise electronic commerce, by moving it from a platform-centric model to an open-network.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the reconstitution of his Economic advisory council (EAC-PM). Bibek Debroy, President of the Indian Statistical Institute, is the Chairman of the council.
Former RBI deputy governor Rakesh Mohan, along with IIM Ahmedabad Professor T T Ram Mohan, and Director-General of NCAER Poonam Gupta, are the three new members to join the seven-member council. The new advisory council has been appointed for a period of two year. The Chairman of the council and three other members have been retained.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet reappointed Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for three years beyond 10.12.2021 or until further orders.
Shaktikanta Das, a retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, assumed charge as the 25th governor of the RBI effective December 12, 2018. He had also served as a member of the 15th Finance Commission for a year. Benegal Rama Rau served RBI Governor between July 1, 1949, and January 14, 1957 and that is the longest such tenure so far.

Notes:
Punjab is set to commence the census of the Indus river dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor). It is a freshwater dolphin that is found in river Beas.
The Indus river dolphin is classified as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 2007, the dolphins were discovered in Punjab’s Harike wildlife sanctuary. The Indus river dolphin was declared the State aquatic animal of Punjab in 2019.

Notes:
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s coalition has recently secured a comfortable majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election.
Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) claimed 259 seats in the 465-member lower house, which will give an absolute stable majority and control over parliamentary committees. Kishida became Japan’s Prime Minister last month when his predecessor Yoshihide Suga resigned.

Notes:
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Initiative for the Resilient Island States (IRIS) for developing infrastructure of small island nations.
The Prime Minister said that the Small Island Developing States or SIDS face the biggest threat from climate change. India’s space agency ISRO will build a special data window for them to provide them information about cyclones, coral-reef monitoring, coast-line monitoring. through satellite.