10 PM Current Affairs Quiz : February 23, 2019

India and Russia are finalising an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for a multi-billion deal to locally manufacture AK-103 assault rifles.

According to the arrangement with Russia, a Kalashnikov factory will be set up in India in collaboration with the OFB (Ordnance Factories Board). It would cater to the forces for hinterland and counter-insurgency operations.

The Indian Armed Forces are currently equipped with INSAS (Indian National Small Arms System) Rifle. There is an urgent requirement of replacing the in-service INSAS Rifle with an Assault Rifle which is compact, robust and modern in technology.

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) was launched in 2015. It seeks to extend affordable credit to micro and small enterprises. Loans up to Rs.10 lakh are extended to non-corporate, non-farm enterprises. These loans are classified as MUDRA loans.

The loans are extended by the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) through last mile financial institutions such as Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). MUDRA is an NBFC supporting development of micro enterprise sector in India.

Under PMMY, MUDRA has created three different interventions ‘Shishu’, ‘Kishor’ and ‘Tarun’. These signify the stage of growth or development and funding needs of the beneficiary.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7. It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

The objectives of the FATF are to (a) set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures (b) for combating money laundering (c)terrorist financing and (d) other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system

Israel has launched the Beresheet- world’s first largely privately funded spacecraft to land on the moon. If the landing is successful, Israel will become the fourth nation to soft land on moon after the former Soviet Union (Luna 2, 1959), the USA (Ranger 4, 1962) and China (Chang’e 4, 2018)

Beresheet was flown by Space X’s falcon 9 Rocket. It was lifted from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. Israel’s lunar mission is by Space IL, Israel- a non-profit organisation- and Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI).

Forest right act, 2006

• Act recognized and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded.
• Claim is made either for individual or community rights by the people/communities
• Land recognised under this Act cannot be sold or transferred

Wallace’s giant bee- the world’s largest bee- has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia. The bee lives in the Indonesian island region of North Moluccas. The bee has been spotted for the first time in almost 40 years

The Wallace bee was discovered in the 19th century by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. It was nicknamed as the “flying bulldog”.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the bee as “vulnerable”. Though the population of the bee is relatively high, the remoteness of its population makes it hard to study.