Daily GK and Current Affairs Quiz – 1st September 2021

Correct Answer: D. Trikand

Explanation: The Indian Navy and the German Navy carried out a joint exercise in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, in the Indian Ocean leg of Indo-Pacific Deployment 2021. The Indian Navy was represented by frigate “Trikand” while the German Navy was represented by frigate “Bayern”. The exercise included helicopter (cross deck helo) landings and visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operations. The joint exercise aimed at enhancing interoperability and exchange of best practices between the navies of the two countries in the maritime domain.

Correct Answer – A. Maharashtra

Explanation: Maharashtra government launched a special mission called “Mission Vatsalya” in order to help women who lost their husbands to COVID-19. Mission Vatsalya will provide several services and some 18 benefits under one roof to those women. It been designed for widows, with a special focus on widows coming from rural areas, poor backgrounds and deprived sections. Under this mission, schemes like Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana and Gharkul Yojana will benefit those for women.

About the scheme:

Under this scheme, 8,661 women have applied for the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Anudan Yojana, 405 for the Shravanbal Seva State Pension Scheme and 71 for the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme.Applications have been received from 1,209 women for the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme.The Department has received three applications for the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme. So far10349 applications have been received from the women contacted by the department of women and child development.

Important Points:

• Maharashtra Governor: Bhagat Singh Koshyari;
• Maharashtra Capital: Mumbai;
• Maharashtra CM: Uddhav Thackeray.

Correct Answer – D. RuPay

Explanation:RuPay has launched a strategic campaign titled – #FollowPaymentDistancing to promote and encourage contactless payments among customers. Due to COVID-19, customers have been following several norms and measures to stay safe by following healthy habits, self-care routines, and social distancing. RuPay’s #FollowPaymentDistancing campaign encourages consumers to start ‘payment distancing’ and switch to contactless digital payments with RuPay Contactless Cards which is safe as well as time-conserving.

About Contactless payments:

Contactless payments allow merchants to offer their consumers a safer, cleaner way to pay, reduce long queues at checkout counters, and more control over physical space during these tough times. The campaign aims to educate both the merchants and consumers about the benefits of using contactless payments during these unprecedented situations.

Correct Answer – C. 18-70

Explanation: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has increased the entry age for the National Pension System (NPS) from 65 years to 70 years.Earlier the eligible age to invest in NPS was 18-65 years which has now been revised to 18-70 years.As per the revised norms, any Indian Citizen, resident or non-resident and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) between the age of 65-70 years can join NPS and continue or defer their NPS Account up to the age of 75 years. If a person joins NPS after 65 years, then the Normal Exit shall be after 3 years. Exit before 3 years will be considered premature exit. There is also a limit on the amount that can be exposed to equity in case the NPS is open after 65 years. The maximum equity exposure is 15% and 50% under Auto and Active Choice respectively.

Correct Answer – E. 31 August 2021

Explanation: The International Day for People of African Descent is celebrated for the first time on 31 August 2021. The United Nations aims to promote the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of African descent.

History of the day:

The year 2020 marked the midterm of the International Decade for People of African Descent. While some progress has been made at legislative, policy and institutional levels, people of African descent continue to suffer intersectional and compounded forms of racial discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion. On 19 June 2020, the Human Rights Council adopted the resolution on the “Promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers”.

Correct Answer – A. South Africa

Explanation:  South African cricketer Dale Steyn has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket with immediate effect on 31st August, 2021, ending his 20 yearlong cricket journey.He is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and is fondly known as ‘Steyn Gun’ among fans for his express pace.He made his international debut in 2004 and played 93 Tests, 125 ODIs and 47 T20Is.He holds the record for the fastest bowler to 400 Test wickets (80 matches), bagged 439 wickets in the longest format, 196 wickets in ODIs and 64 wickets in T20 internationals.He had also played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL.

Correct Answer – D. 34

Explanation:  For the first time in the history of the Supreme Court, nine new judges, including three women, who had been appointed to the top court, took the oath of office.This was the greatest number of judges of the top court taking oath in one single day.With the latest appointments, the working strength of the top court has risen to 33 judges, against the sanctioned strength of 34.The nine new judges are: Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath, Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Hima Kohli, B V Nagarathna, C T Ravikumar, M M Sundresh, Bela M Trivedi, P S Narasimha.

Correct Answer – C. Parshottam Rupala

Explanation: Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala has launched E-GOPALA web version to aid dairy farmers.It has been developed by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).Alon with this, i-MAP web portal has also been launched that provides real-time information to dairy farmers for better productivity of dairy animals.This portal will facilitate real time checking of coverage and progress of various projects and government schemes and will send alerts on due date for vaccination, pregnancy diagnosis, calving etc.

Correct Answer – A. Pankaj Kumar Singh

Explanation:  Pankaj Kumar Singh (1988-batch IPS officer from Rajasthan cadre) took over as the new Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force.He is considered as the architect of police reforms in the country.He replaced SS Deswal, who was holding the DG post since Rakesh Asthana moved to Delhi Police.Apart from him, Sanjay Arora assumed charge of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).BSF is India’s Primary border guarding organization on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India.

Correct Answer – A. PayU

Explanation: Prosus-backed fintech firm PayU is set to acquire India’s earliest payment gateway BillDesk in an all-cash transaction of $4.7 billion.This will be the largest acquisition in India’s digital payments space.The deal will also give exit to investors General Atlantic, TA Associates, Temasek, Clearstone Ventures, and Visa.The proposed acquisition will help PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus which operates in more than 20 markets, become one of the leading online payment providers globally by total payment volume (TPV). The combined entity will have a total of 4 billion transactions annually.

Correct Answer – B. Amit Shah

Explanation: The Union Minister for Home & Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah launched the web portal for registration of units under the ‘New Central Sector Scheme’ for Industrial Development of Jammu and Kashmir. The web portal would attract investment of more than Rs.50,000 crore in Jammu and Kashmir and would lead to inclusive, all-round development of the Union Territory. The new industrial policy is the fulfilment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise after revocation of Article 370 and 35A and that the Centre aims to create a new horizon for the overall development of the Union Territory. The New Central Sector Scheme for the industrial development of Jammu and Kashmir was cleared by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in August 2021.

The scheme offers four incentives:

• Capital Investment Incentive.
• Capital Interest subvention.
• Goods & Service Tax Linked Incentive (GSTLI).
• Working Capital Interest Subvention

Correct Answer – D. 25

Explanation: The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance has on 31 August 2021 released an amount of Rs. 13,385.70 crore to 25 States for providing grants to the Rural Local Bodies. This Grant-in-aid is the 1st instalment of Tied grants of the year 2021-22. The grants have been released as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. Tied grants are released to the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) for improving two critical services namely 1. Sanitation and maintenance of open-defecation free (ODF) status. 2. Supply of drinking water, rainwater harvesting and water recycling. Out of the total Grant-in-aid allocated for Panchayati Raj institutions, 60 per cent is ‘Tied Grant’. It’s earmarked for national priorities like drinking water supply, rainwater harvesting and sanitation.The remaining 40 per cent is ‘Untied Grant’ and is to be utilized at the discretion of the Panchayati Raj institutions for location-specific felt needs, except for payment of salaries. Tied grants are meant to ensure the availability of additional funds to the Rural local bodies over and above the funds allocated by the Centre and the State for sanitation and drinking water under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes.

Correct Answer – B. Bihar

Explanation: Bihar government has decided to introduce “catch-up” courses for flood-affected students in the state? The move would ensure that students are on track with their studies once the schools reopen. About 35.06 lakh hectares (37.24%) in Bihar state are flood-affected. 29 out of 38 districts are moderate to very high flood-affected.

Bihar:

• Lok Sabha seats – 40.
• Rajya Sabha seats – 16.
• State Animal – Gaur.
• State Bird – House sparrow.
• National Park – Valmiki National Park.

Correct Answer: B. LIC of India

Explanation: Life Insurance Corporation of India has inaugurated the ‘Ananda’ mobile app for the Digital paperless solution for new business processes. The digital application is a tool for the onboarding process to get the life insurance policy through a paperless module with the help of the agent or intermediary. 1 September marks the LIC foundation day as LIC was established on 1 September 1956.