Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2021

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved the ambitious Rs. 100 lakh crore PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan. The plan was launched by the Prime Minister on October 13, which aims to create multi modal connectivity in India and bring infrastructure under one common platform.
The master plan envisages to create a centralised portal comprising of all infra-activities in India involving 16 central ministries and departments to achieve coordinated planning and project execution.

Notes:
China has passed a new Education Law to reduce students’ homework and off-school tutoring. It aims to strike a balance between academics, rest and physical education.
China has been making large efforts to exercise strict controls over the citizens’ personal and social lives. There have been several legislations to limit the time kids and youth spend on playing video games.

Notes:
Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos became the first non-human creatures to be legally considered people by US courts.
This has been announced as a measure to save the “cocaine hippos” from being culled. There have been proposals in Columbia to kill these hippos since 2009, citing that they are an invasive species. reportedly compete with local wildlife for food and pollute local waterways with their faeces. The hippos are said to reportedly compete with local wildlife for food and pollute local waterways with their faeces.

Notes:
Recent works on a mummy excavated in 2019 suggests that ancient Egyptians living during the time of the Old Kingdom (between 2700BC and 2200BC) were already carrying out sophisticated burials of dead bodies. This is 1,000 years earlier than the previously known information.
This discovery was featured in a 2020 episode of National Geographic’s Lost Treasures of Egypt. As per the researchers, the development will change the understanding of the evolution of the process of mummification.

Notes:
Australia has recently given in-principle to a target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. This target has been announced by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison when he leaves for a UN summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
It has not moved from its 2015 pledge at Paris climate summit to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Notes:
A National Steering Committee (NSC) has been recently formed for the implementation of National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission.
It will be chaired by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi would be the vice-chairperson. The Department of School Education and Literacy had launched the Mission in July 2021, to achieve the goal of universal proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by end of Class 3 by 2026-27.

Notes:
The Indian Government is set to celebrate Ganga Utsav from November 1 to November 3, this year. It focusses on encouraging stakeholder engagement and public participation towards rejuvenation of the Ganga River.
Several activities, designed for the central and state levels, will be organised in both physical and virtual mode, as per the National Mission for Clean Ganga.

Notes:
A rare butterfly species, called the Silver Forget-Me-Not (FMN), has been spotted twice inside the Srivilliputhur-Meghamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu.
With this new addition, there are 318 recorded species in the list of butterflies in the State. The Silver FMN was recorded in Kerala, in 2019; in Andaman & Nicobar Islands between 2015 and 2017 and in Sikkim, West Bengal and the in some Northeast States between 2005 and 2020.

Notes:
Scientists have recently discovered 28 new species of beetles. One of them has been named Trigonopterus corona, marking the large impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this project.
In April, a new species of caddisfly was collected near a stream in Kosovo by a team of scientists, and was named Potamophylax coronavirus. Before that, some insects were named P. coronavirus, A. quarentnus, S. Covida.

Notes:
The African Union has suspended Sudan from all its activities, after the country’s military overthrew the transitional government in a coup.
The World Bank also followed the United States in suspending aid to Sudan after the widely criticised military takeover. Soldiers seized Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and detained him in the coup and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan imposed a nationwide state of emergency across the country.