Current Affairs : October - November, 2021 |

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In this article current affairs of last week of October and all four weeks of November are given. While for the three earlier weeks of October current affairs, go through the given link below:

Table of Contents

National Current Affairs

Indore was on Saturday ranked the cleanest city for the fifth consecutive year by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry in its annual cleanliness ranking. The Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 handed out by President Ram Nath Kovind included the cleanest State honour for Chhattisgarh for the third time, in the category of States with more than 100 urban local bodies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, won the award for the cleanest “Ganga city”.
Indian Railways has opened the first Pod retiring rooms for passengers of Indian Railways as well as common people, at the Mumbai Central station.
‘Water Heroes – Share Your Stories’ Contest will be launched by Jal Shakti Ministry from December 1, 2021. Key Points This contest is organised with the aim of encouraging and collecting best practices in water conservation and management from entire India.

India’s first Food Security Museum was inaugurated at Thanjavur.
As a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv was organised in Jhansi.
Government of India has brought two ordinances to extend tenure of directors of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) for up to five years.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has planned to promote “Vegetarian Trains” in collaboration with the Sattvik Council of India. These trains will be connected especially with religious places. “Sattvik certificate” will be provided by the Sattvik Council of India (SCI).
India is observing the Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on November 15, 2021. It will commemorate the tribal freedom fighters. November 15 is significant as it marks the birth anniversary date of Birsa Munda.
Bhadla Solar Park, located in Rajasthan, is the World’s largest solar power park.
52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held from November 20 to November 28, 2021. It will be hosted in Goa.
World’s longest bi-lane road tunnel called “Sela Tunnel” is being built on Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) road by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), under Project Vartak. It is being constructed to provide all weather connectivity to Tawang.
India launched an electric vehicle awareness web portal called “e-Amrit Portal” on November 10, 2021. e-AMRIT portal stands for “Accelerated e-Mobility Revolution for India’s Transportation”. This web portal was developed by NITI Aayog in association with the UK government as part of India-UK Joint Roadmap 2030.
The Logistics Ease Across Different States 2021 Index was recently published by Ministry of Commerce & Industry. This is the third edition of Index. In the index, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab were emerged as best performing states with respect to mobility of goods and efficiency of logistics chain.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched “Krishi Udan 2.0 scheme” on October 27, 2021. “Krishi Udan 2.0 scheme”, cargo-related infrastructure will be built in airports of hilly, tribal, and north-east regions. Such infrastructure will help in assisting farmers to transport agriculture products.
The Indian Navy’s fourth stealth Scorpene class submarine, INS Vela, is geared to get commissioned on 25th November 2021.

State current Affairs

Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, pledged to clean Yamuna River completely by 2025 recently.
Kerala to launch Mobile app for Waste Disposal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Purvanchal Expressway. It is a stretch of about 341-kms. It connects Chand Saray village in Lucknow district with Haydaria village in Ghazipur district on NH-31.

Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, inaugurated the “Duare Ration Scheme” on November 16, 2021.
State Cabinet of Arunachal Pradesh, headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, approved “Kaiser-i-Hind” as state butterfly on November 13, 2021.
Civil Aviation Ministry declared Shirdi airport as a major airport on November 10, 2021 under the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority Act, 2008.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation declared “Srinagar International airport” as a “Major Airport” on November 6, 2021.
Karnataka government started celebration of ‘Onake Obavva Jayanti’ on the 11th of November from the year 2021. Onake Obavva was a woman-soldier who had fought against Hyder Ali forces in Chitradurga in 18th century.

Idol of Goddess Annapurna returned to UP; was stolen from Kashi Vishwanath temple and smuggled to Canada over 100 years ago.
Uttarakhand Foundation Day is being observed on November 9.
Srinagar has joined the UNESCO’s network of creative cities.
Kerala government has proposed to form “Haritha Karma Sena (Green Action Force) to collect and segregate waste from city households for transporting it to solid waste treatment facility at Kochi Corporation.
Under “Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana, around 15,000 students have enrolled for coaching classes in the year 2021. This scheme was launched by Delhi Government.
Telangana invited to participate in International Seed Conference which will be held virtually by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Police in Bihar(lowest) and Uttar Pradesh scored the lowest among all States when it came to perception of “sensitivity”, according to a survey conducted by Indian Police Foundation (IPF), a think tank run by retired IPS officers and academics.

International Current Affairs

Barbados has officially removed Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and become the world’s newest republic. Dame Sandra Mason, 72, is set to be sworn in on 30 November, which will mark the country’s 55th anniversary of independence from Britain.
India to hold first 2+2 with Russia on December 6.
India was re-elected to the executive board of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for the term of 2021-2025.

The 21st Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Annual Council of Minister’s (COM) Meeting was held in Dhaka on November 17, 2021. India took part in the conference in virtual mode. India was led by Minister of State External Affairs (MoS), Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
Number of forcibly displaced person has exceeded 84 million globally this year: UNHCR.
UAE, Bahrain holding naval exercise with Israel in Red Sea.
United States of America (USA) became the 101st member country to join International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Yahoo Inc. has pulled out of China on November 2, 2021 because of an increasingly challenging business and legal environment.
16th G-20 Summit being held in Rome, Italy on Oct 30-31.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, Sushil Chandra, led a three-member delegation to Uzbekistan as international observer to oversee the presidential election.
Global terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), retained Pakistan on the ‘Grey List of countries’. This time, the watchdog had added three new countries namely Turkey, Jordan & Mali, to the Grey List.
The Caribbean Island called Barbados, in a bid to become a republic, has elected its first ever president. This move will also remove Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state of Barbados. Sandra Mason, who is the current governor-general of the island, will sworn in as president on November 30, 2021.

Tenth edition of the Global Food Security Index was published recently. In the index, India has been ranked at 71st position. On the other hand, recently, India was ranked at 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021.
The United Kingdom (UK) and India are set to launch their biggest joint military exercise called “Konkan Shakti”.
Former US President, Donald Trump, has launched his own social media network called “TRUTH Social”.
El Salvador plans to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City” which will be funded initially by bitcoin bonds. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that considering risks related to bitcoin, El Salvador should not use the cryptocurrency as legal tender.
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Malay party won a landslide victory in a state election.

Economy Current Affairs

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the “NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure” as an account aggregator.
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has joined hands with Google India Pvt Ltd (GIPL) to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
RBI Retail Direct Scheme launched by PM: Individuals can now directly buy T-bills, G-Secs from market.
Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme launched by PM: Aims to improve grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and HDFC bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for offering home loans to about 4.7 crore customers of the payments bank.
Goldman Sachs on November 23 forecast India’s GDP to grow to 9.1% year-on-year in 2022 from 8% in 2021, following a sharp contraction of 7% in 2020, driven by consumption.
India to release 5 millon barrels of crude oil from strategic reserves in tandem with the U.S., Japan and other major economies to cool international oil prices. This is the first time ever that India, which stores 5.33 million tonnes or about 38 million barrels of crude oil in underground caverns at three locations on the east and west coast, is releasing stocks for such purposes. India has built 1.33 million tonnes of storage at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, 1.5 million tonnes at Mangaluru and 2.5 million tonnes at Padur (both in Karnataka). While the U.S. stocks 727 million barrels, Japan holds 175 million barrels of crude and oil products as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Health and Environment Current affairs

Cryptocarya Muthuvariana: new tree species named after a tribe Muthuvar in Idukki(Kerala).
First case of Norovirus was confirmed in Wayanad district of Kerala. Norovirus is an animal-borne disease. It is transmitted through contaminated water and food.
During a recent health check of London’s famous River Thames, it was found that, it is now home to seahorses, seals, eels, and sharks. This news is significant, because, River Thames was declared ‘biologically dead’ in 1957.
NTPC ties up with Indian Oil to collaborate in renewable energy.
During COP26 conference in Glasgow, it was decided that Egypt will host COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022. Egypt will host the conference in Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
German-watch in collaboration with Climate Action Network (CAN) and New Climate Institute, published the “Climate Change Performance Index 2022” on November 10. Report was released on the side-lines of COP26 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the index, India maintained its 10th rank. Denmark emerged as the topper in the list with 76.92 per cent score. United States has been ranked at 55^th position among 66 countries with very low rating.
The inaugural Global Drug Policy Index was released by the Harm Reduction Consortium, on November 7, 2021. In this index, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK and Australia are the five leading countries with respect to humane and health-driven drug policies. India has been ranked at 18^th position out of 30 countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for ‘One Sun, One World, One Grid’ on November 2, 2021 for improving the viability of solar power.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched “International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO)” at the G20 Summit.
Union Health Ministry has asked states and Union Territories to come up with district-level plan and launch a “Har Ghar Dastak” (Knock every door) campaign across poor performing districts. Har Ghar Dastak campaign will be initiated with the aim of scaling up the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission on October 25, 2021, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. This scheme is of worth Rs 5000-crore and is India’s largest scheme launched to scale-up health infrastructure. The mission was launched to improve the public health infrastructure in urban as well as rural areas.
On November 1, 2021, at COP26 climate summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 2070 as the India’s target to reach net zero carbon emissions. To support this goal, four other aggressive pledges were made. These five targets collectively called ‘Panchamrita’ by PM Modi. Prime Minister proposed following ‘Panchamrita’:
- 50% of power will come from renewables by 2030.
- 500 GW of installed renewable energy capacity will be reached by 2030.
- Reduction in carbon intensity by 45% by 2030.
- India will reduce carbon emission by one billion tonnes by 2030.
- India will achieve net zero emissions by 2070.

Science and Technology Current Affairs

The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project published a study in Lancet Planetary Health. As per study, global antibiotic consumption rates have increased by 46% in last two decades.
China launched a new satellite called “Gaofen-11 03” from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.
Facebook Inc. has changed its name and logo to Meta Platforms Inc. on October 28, 2021.
India has successfully test-fired a surface-to-surface ballistic missile called Agni-5 on October 27, 2021.
As per scientists, in India, covid-19 pandemic has resulted a drop in life expectancy by almost two years.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully tested the high-speed expendable aerial target (HEAT) called ABHYAS on October 22, 2021.
Researchers at IIT Guwahati have developed a nanotechnology-based coating which can be applied on regular cotton and silk masks. The end result provides greater protection against COVID-19 at a lower cost and higher breathability than N-95 masks.

Person in NEWS

Magdalena Andersson is the first female prime minister of Sweden.
Twitter Inc on November 29, 2021, promoted company insider and technology head Parag Agrawal to replace Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey.
Admiral R. Hari Kumar assumed charge as the 25th Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) from outgoing Chief Admiral Karambir Singh.
Nepal Army Chief General Prabhu Ram Sharma conferred with Honorary General Rank of Indian Army.
Astronaut Wang Yaping has become the first Chinese woman to walk in space.
Anita Anand appointed as new Defence Minister of Canada.
Indian state of Karnataka is celebrating “Kittur Rani Chennamma Jayanthi” on October 23, 2021.
UN Secretary General Guterres appoints Shombi Sharp as UN Resident Coordinator in India.
Fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform Myntra on November 12 said it has named Nandita Sinha as its Chief Executive Officer.
The government announced the appointment of veteran banker K. V. Kamath as chairperson of the newly set up ₹20,000-crore National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).
Indian biologist and Padma Bhushan awardee Kamal Ranadive has been featured in Google doodle on November 8, 2021, on her 104th birthday.

Sports Current Affairs

Manika Batra and Archana Girish Kamath from India have won the women’s doubles title at World Table Tennis Contender Lasko 2021.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic wins men’s singles title at Paris Masters tennis tournament.
Russia beat Switzerland in final to win Billie Jean King Cup women’s team tennis tournament in Prague.
President’s Cup shooting championship in Wroclaw, Poland: Saurabh Chaudhary wins silver in men’s air pistol.
India’s Manu Bhaker & Iran’s Javad Foroughi win 10m air pistol mixed team gold at ISSF President’s Cup in Poland.

Awards

Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, who was held captive for three days by Pakistan after he chased and downed a Pakistani fighter jet in 2019, was awarded Vir Chakra, third highest wartime gallantry award, by President Ram Nath Kovind.
The 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is going to held in Goa from November 20 to November 28, 2021 in which Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo and Hollywood icon Martin Scorsese will be honoured with “Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award”.
The Parambikulam Tiger Conservation Foundation (PaTCoF) has won the “Earth Guardian Award” which was instituted by the NatWest Group.
The Hindu has been awarded the Project SIREN Award for Newspapers 2021 for “its consistent high performance on Project SIREN’s scorecards measuring responsible reporting on suicide between June 2020 and June 2021.”
The IPI India Award for Excellence in Journalism-2021 has been given jointly to Sreenivasan Jain and Mariyam Alavi of NDTV and Lakshmi Subramanian and Bhanu Prakash Chandra of The Week.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu presented the 67th National Film awards on October 25, 2021.
- 51^st Dadasaheb Phalke Award was conferred to actor Rajinikanth.
- Manoj Bajpayee, Kangana Ranaut and Dhanush were conferred with acting honours.
- Best Feature Film award was given to Priyadarshan’s Malayalam period epic named ‘Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea’.
- Best Hindi Film Award was presented to Chhichhore movie, starring the late Sushant Singh Rajput.

Important Days

World Toilet Day is observed on November 19, every year to raise awareness on importance of toilets and sanitation in our daily lives.
National Press Day is observed every year on November 16, to commemorate the presence of responsible and independent press in India.
November 16: International Day for Tolerance.
National Education Day is celebrated on November 11, to mark the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
World Science Day for Peace and Development is observed on November 10, every year to highlight importance and relevance of science in our daily lives.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) celebrates Legal Services Day on November 9 annually in India.
National Ayurveda Day was celebrated on November 2, 2021 by the Ministry of AYUSH.
Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Unity Day is celebrated on October 31, every year.
The United Nations Day is observed on October 24, every year since 1948.

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