VISION

GS Score Complete Prelims Revision 2021 Test 02 With Solution PDF

1)  Vesak Day 2021 observed globally on 26 May

•Vesak Day 2021 is observed globally on 26 May. Vesak, the Day of Full Moon is the most sacred day to Buddhists all over the world. On this day, Lord Gautham Buddha attained enlightenment. The Day is commemorated by the United Nations every year.

2)  Dr Harsh Vardhan chairs 74th World Health Assembly

•Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Chairman of WHO Executive Board, Dr Harsh Vardhan, chaired the 74th World Health Assembly in virtual mode. According to Dr Harsh Vardhan, the executive board has asked for further efforts which can ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX Facility. Director-General of World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros, also participated in the event.

•Board recommended 74th World Health Assembly to consider the report on mental health preparedness and response for the Covid-19 pandemic. It further recommended endorsing updated comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan for 2013 to 2030 and encouraged WHO to work in collaboration with World Organisation for Animal Health and Food & Agriculture Organisation so that source of zoonotic virus can be identified.

3)  India-Israel signs 3-year program for Cooperation in Agriculture

•India and Israel have inked a three-year joint work programme which will continue till 2023. A joint work programme was initiated with the aim of enhancing cooperation in agriculture. Under the new work programme, 13 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) were set up to make Indian farmers aware of Israeli farm and water technologies.

•A model ecosystem in agriculture called Villages of Excellence (VoE) will also be created across eight states within 75 villages. The new programme will promote the increase in net income and enhance the livelihood of the individual farmer. India and Israel have completed four similar joint work programmes successfully.

4)  David Barnea Appointed as Israel’s Next Mossad Chief

•Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed David Barnea as the new head of the country’s spy agency, the Mossad. Barnea, a former longtime Mossad operative, will succeed Yossi Cohen as head of Israel’s intelligence agency on June 1. Cohen has served as Israel’s spymaster since taking office in 2016.

•Barnea, who is in his 50s, lives in the Sharon region north of Tel Aviv. He did his military service in the elite Sayeret Matkal special operations force. About 30 years ago, he enlisted in the Mossad, where he became a case officer.

5)  Collinet Makosso appointed Republic of Congo’s new Prime Minister

•The President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso has appointed Anatole Collinet Makosso as the country’s Prime Minister. He replaced Clement Mouamba, in-office since 2016. Before this appointment, Makosso was the education minister of the Central African country. He was also minister of youth and civic instruction from 2011 to 2016.

•Since 2016, he has held the position of Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in charge of literacy. Mr Collinet Makosso was the deputy campaign manager of candidate Sassou Nguesso during the last presidential election.

6)  IPS Subodh Kumar Jaiswal appointed new CBI director

•IPS officer, Subodh Jaiswal has been appointed Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was the most senior officer among the three shortlisted for the post of CBI Director. Jaiswal, along with KR Chandra and VS Kaumudi, was short-listed out of 109 officers for the top post by the high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other members of the committee include Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

•The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has based on the panel recommended by the Committee, approved the appointment of Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, IPS (MH: 1985) as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of the office or until further orders whichever is earlier.

7)  SpiceHealth wins Gold Stevie Award 2021

•SpiceHealth, a healthcare company founded by the promoters of SpiceJet, has won the Gold Award at the 2021 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards for ‘Most Valuable Medical Innovation’ under Covid19. At a time when Covid-19 was at an all-time excessive in India in November 2020, SpiceHealth, beneath the management of Avani Singh, disrupted the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing house by providing checks in cell laboratories at ₹499, versus the then-present rate of ₹2,400 in Delhi and helped convey down Covid-19 testing price dramatically throughout the nation.

8)  Casper Ruud wins Men’s Singles title at Geneva Open tennis

•Norway’s Casper Ruud has won the ATP Geneva Open final with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory over Denis Shapovalov. Victory in Geneva means the Norwegian world number 21 is going to be among the top 16 seeds in Paris. A second career title lifted Ruud’s record to 2-2 in finals, all at clay-court events. The 22-year-old Norwegian’s previous title was at Buenos Aires last year.

📰 As new IT rules come into force on May 26, Facebook says it aims to comply

GS Score Complete Prelims Revision 2021 Test 01 With Solution PDF

Vision IAS Weekly Focus Space Exploration: Changing dynamics & pathway to the future PDF

Vision IAS Current Affairs Monthly Magazine April 2021 PDF

1)  World Thyroid Day celebrated on 25 May

•World Thyroid Day is observed globally on 25 May every year. The main purpose of the WTD is to aware of the importance of Thyroid and the prevention and treatment of thyroid diseases. This day is established in 2008 as a part of the campaign led by the European Thyroid Association (ETA) and the American Thyroid Association (ATA) followed by the Latin American Thyroid Society (LATS) and Asia Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA) to commemorate the patients with Thyroid diseases and doctors and physicians who treat them.

2)  International Missing Children’s Day: 25 May

•International Missing Children’s Day is observed globally on 25th May every year. This day is observed for missing children who have found their way home, remember those that are victims of crime, and continue efforts to seek out those that are still missing. 25 May is now widely referred to as Missing Children’s Day, with the forget-me-not flower as its emblem.

3)  Haryana govt launches ‘Sanjeevani Pariyojana’ to treat COVID patients at home

•Haryana government has launched an anti-Covid “Sanjeevani Pariyojana”, which will provide supervised and quick medical care at home for people, with mild to moderate symptoms of Covid-19, residing in rural areas. This Pariyojana has been launched to extend medical care in rural areas where awareness regarding the second wave of Covid-19 and related treatment remains low. It is an important step of bringing medical care for the people who need it most and when they need it most.

4)  Maharashtra govt launches “Mission Oxygen Self-Reliance”

•Maharashtra government has launched the “Mission Oxygen Self-Reliance” scheme to meet the state’s oxygen needs. Special incentives will be given to oxygen-producing industries under this scheme. At present, the state’s oxygen generation capacity is 1300 MT per day. Units set up in Vidarbha, Marathwada, Dhule, Nandurbar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg regions will be eligible for incentives up to 150 per cent of their eligible fixed capital investments and units set up in the rest of Maharashtra will be eligible for up to 100 per cent general incentives.

•The government will also give a refund on gross SGST, stamp duty, electricity duty and unit subsidy of power cost for five years and interest subsidy for MSME units with a fixed capital investment of up to Rs 50 crore. Only those applying before June 30 will get the benefits of this policy. With these incentives, Maharashtra’s healthcare system is expected to be strengthened by increasing manufacturing and storage for becoming an oxygen self-reliant state soon.

5)  Uttarakhand CM declared Vatsalya Yojana for children orphaned due to Corona

•Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat has announced Chief Minister Vatsalya Yojana for orphaned children who have lost their parents due to Covid-19. Under the scheme, the State Government will make arrangements for their maintenance, education and training for employment up to the age of 21 years. The Chief Minister said that such orphaned children of the state will be given a maintenance allowance of 3000 rupees per month.

•The state government will make laws for the paternal property of these orphans in which no one will have the right to sell their paternal property until they are adults. This responsibility will be with the District Magistrate of the concerned district. The Chief Minister also said that the children whose parents have died due to Covid-19 will be given 5 per cent horizontal reservation in government jobs of the state government.

6)  World’s largest iceberg breaks off from Antarctica

•European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed using satellite images that the world’s largest iceberg has broken off Antarctica. Named as A-67, the iceberg was 4320 square kilometres in size, which is half the size of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The finger-shaped iceberg broke off from the Ronne Ice shelf, a massive ice shelf that encompasses an area of more than 400,000 sq. km.

•The images were captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1. The Copernicus Sentinel spacecraft is the first ESA Earth Observation spacecraft to implement communications security on the command link.

7)  NASA to send its first mobile robot to search for water on the moon

•The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration is planning to search for water and other resources on the moon in 2023. The US agency, as part of its Artemis program, is planning to send its first mobile robot to the Moon in late 2023 in search of ice and other resources on and below the lunar surface. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER will collect data that would help NASA map resources at the lunar South Pole that could one day be harvested for long-term human exploration at the Moon.

8)  UK launches plan for ‘Global Pandemic Radar’

•The United Kingdom will develop an advanced international pathogen surveillance network to identify Covid-19 variants and emerging diseases. This Global Pandemic Radar will ensure the early detection of new variants and emerging pathogens, so vaccines and treatments needed to stop them can be rapidly developed. Prime minister Boris Johnson announced the plans, ahead of the Global Health Summit hosted by Italy and the European Union (EU).

9)  Indian-Origin Anvee Bhutani Elected as Oxford Student Union President

•An Indian-origin Human Sciences student from Magdalen College at the University of Oxford has been declared the winner at the end of a Student Union (SU) byelection. Anvee Bhutani, Co-Chair Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (CRAE) at Oxford SU and President of the Oxford India Society, was in the fray for the by-election for the 2021-22 academic years, which attracted a record turnout.

10)  IMF proposes $50 billion global vaccination plan

•The International Monetary Fund has proposed a $50 billion global vaccination plan that would cover at least 40 per cent of the global population by the end of 2021 and at least 60 per cent by the first half of 2022. The vaccination target requires additional upfront grants to Covax, donating surplus doses and free cross-border flows of raw materials and finished vaccines.

•With strong and coordinated action now and with little in terms of financing relative to the outsized benefits the world can durably exit this unprecedented health and economic crisis, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in her address to the G20 Health Summit.

1)  World Turtle Day celebrated on 23 May

•The World Turtle Day is observed on May 23 every year by American Tortoise Rescue, a nonprofit organization. The day is celebrated to raise awareness among people to protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world. The day is being celebrated since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue, a nonprofit organization established in 1990 for the protection of all species of tortoise and turtle. The theme of 2021 World Turtle Day is “Turtles Rock!”.

2)  Italy hosts the Global G20 Summit

•The Global G20 Health Summit was co-hosted by European Commission along with Italy as part of its G20 presidency amid the surge and spread of coronavirus cases. The summit adopted the agenda to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. It also decided to develop and endorse a Rome Declaration of principles.

•Summit noted the risk of more transmissible variants has increased with nine people losing their lives to Covid-19 per minute. As per WHO officials, the future of the pandemic is in hands of G20 leaders. G20 has also contributed to the launch of ACT-Accelerator as it was launched after G20 called for a global mechanism to accelerate the development of tests, treatments and vaccines.

3)  ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’ is authored by Shivshankar Menon

•A book has titled ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’ is authored by Shivshankar Menon. He was the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, is exploring these phases in their historical context to tell the story of how India weathered the many geopolitical storms of the past in his latest book.

•Menon has taken a different approach to history. He underscores the seriousness of China taking Tibet in 1950, which, according to him, was a pivotal moment in India-China relations, but challenges the argument that India failed to stop the Chinese invasion.

4)  Cyclone Yaas to hit West Bengal, Odisha

•A category 5 cyclonic storm has been forecasted to make its landfall along the coastline of West Bengal and Odisha between May 26-27. Once formed, the cyclone will be named ‘Yaas’. Yaas will be as deadly as Amphan which was also formed in the Bay of Bengal in May last year. Yaas, named by Oman as such, refers to a Jasmine-like tree that has a good fragrance.

•A rotational list of the names of cyclones is maintained by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), with the names specific for each tropical zone. If a cyclone is especially deadly then its name is never used and is replaced by another name. The list has a total of 169 names at present which will be used on a rotational basis.

5)  Narinder Batra re-elected as FIH President

•Narinder Batra has been re-elected as the President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for the second consecutive term. He was elected during the virtual 47th Congress of FIH, where he beat Marc Coudron, Chief of Belgium Hockey Federation, by just two votes. He will hold the office until 2024 because the FIH has reduced the term from four to three years.

•The veteran Indian sports administrator is the only Asian to be appointed to the top post in the world body’s 92-year-old history. He is also the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and a Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

6)  Himanta Biswa Sarma elected to BWF Council

•The Badminton Association of India (BAI) President Himanta Biswa Sarma has been elected as a Member of the c for the period 2021-25. Sarma was elected among 31 contestants to the 20-member BWF Council on May 22, 2021, at the virtual AGM and Council election of BWF, where he got 236 votes in favour. He is also the Vice President of Badminton Asia and the Chief Minister of Assam.

7)  Naturalist Jane Goodall wins 2021 Templeton prize for life’s work

•The naturalist Jane Goodall has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Templeton Prize in recognition of her life’s work on animal intelligence and humanity. Goodall built her global reputation on her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania in the 1960s.

•The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, “whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton’s philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.”

8)  Asia’s richest and second richest persons are now Indians

•Billionaire Gautam Adani has edged past Chinese tycoon Zhong Shanshan to become the second-richest Asian, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. China’s Zhong was the richest Asian till February when he lost the crown to Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person and chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.

•However, while Ambani lost $175.5 million this year, Adani’s wealth surged by $32.7 billion to touch $66.5 billion, against Zhong’s $63.6 billion. Ambani’s total wealth now stands at $76.5 billion, making him the 13th richest in the world, followed by Adani at 14th.

9)  A book title “Nehru, Tibet and China” authored by Avtar Singh Bhasin

•A book has titled “Nehru, Tibet and China” authored by Avtar Singh Bhasin. The book based on years of meticulous archival research, this book in fascinating detail, analyses the events from 1949 to the Indo-China war in 1962 and its aftermath to explore the answers to these burning questions.

10)  FIFA U-17 women’s World Cup to be held in India in October 2022

•The U-17 women’s World Cup will be held in India from October 11 to 30 next year, Fifa Council said on 21st May. India was earlier scheduled to host the 2020 U-17 World Cup but it was postponed to 2021 before being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The FIFA Council approved key dates for the international match calendars, including the dates of the 2022 U-17 World Cup in India.

•The Council also approved dates for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 (11-30 October 2022), FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2022 (10-28 August 2022), as well as a 14-team playoff for the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, taking place between 19 and 25 June this year and Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 from July 20 to August 20, 2023.