Monthly current affairs 2021. For preparation of competitive exams eg. UPSC, IAS, IPS Banking, Railway and Teaching etc. Lets start:-
Current affairs:-
UNICEF campaign
• UNICEF has launched ‘Young Warrior’ campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to engage young people across the country to address the ongoing covid crisis.
• International Monetary Fund has proposed a $ 50 billion Global vaccination plan that would cover at least 40% of the world population by the end of 2021 and and 60% by the first half of 2022.
• DRDO has designed the covid-19 antibody detection kit ‘ DIPCOVAN’. It will help in sero survey. This survey is done to know the level of antibody against covid-19.
• NASA has announced to send its first mobile robot named VIPER to the moon by 2023. This mobile robot will search for ice and other resources on the Lunar surface and below it. 
:- VIPER – Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover.
• A book “India and Asian geopolitics: The Past, Present” is authored by Shivshankar Menon.
• Haryana state launched an anti-covid Sanjivani Pariyojna to provide for supervised and quick medical care at home largely for people in rural areas.
• Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won 2021 Monaco Grand Prix title. He is from Netherland.
• Valeria Luiselli is Mexican author. She has won this year’s Dublin literary Award for her work, lost children Archive novel. This is considered one of the richest literary award in the world. The Dublin literary award includes a prize money of €100,000.
• According to the Bloomberg billionaires index; Gautam Adani become Asia’s second richest man with $67.6 billion net worth and 14th richest businessman in the world.
• Alok Ranjan Jha has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Belarus.
• Rajesh Bansal has been appointed as the chief executive officer of Reserve Bank innovation hub and it will promote innovation across financial sector.
FIFA council
• FIFA was established in 21st may 1904. FIFA Council announced that the FIFA U-17 women’s World cup in India will be held from October 11 to 30, 2022.
• ‘Alphabet Inc’ subsidiary company Google would open its first physical store in New York city.
• National anti terrorism Day is observed on 21st May.
• The World’s largest iceberg A-76 broke apart from Antarctica. This iceberg was spotted by a satellite of European Space Agency called Copernicus Sentinel.
• Iran has unveiled a new supercomputer named ‘Simorgh’. Which is 100 times more powerful than the previous supercomputer of the country.
• Shankar Bala Subramanyam and David Klenerman both has been awarded the “Millennium Technology prize” is one of the world’s largest Technology prize. They are professors of DNA Sequencing Poineer Cambridge University.
• India has moved to the third position on EY’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index due to its exceptional performance on the Solar photovoltaics front. USA has topped.
• Neera Tanden Indian origin woman has been appointed as senior advisor to the white House.
• China successful launched a new Ocean observation satellite ‘Haiyang-2D’ (HY-2D) by a long March-4B rocket from the Jiuquan satellite launch center in northwest China.
• Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament due to be held in Sri Lanka in June has been cancelled because of the worsening coronavirus crisis in the region.
• IDRBT is building a next generation Digital Financial Infrastructure named National Digital Financial Infrastructure. It is a branch of RBI.
• ‘The International museum Day’ is observed on 18 May. Theme:- ” The future of museum: recover and reimagine’.
• World Hypertension Day is observed on 17th May. Theme:- ” Measure your blood pressure, control it, live longer”.
• ‘Matsyakara Bharosa’ is a scheme of Andhra Pradesh.
• World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the cancellation of its annual meeting for 2021. The headquarters of WEF at Jeneva, Switzerland.
• Andrea Meza from Mexico has been crowned Miss universe 2020.
• Manipur state Chief Minister has launched the mobile app “MOMA market” for delivering veggies at home.
• Telangana government has selected 16 primary Health Care Centres for testing the ambitious “Medicine from the sky” the first-of-its-kind project involving delivery of medicines through multiple drones.
• The “International Invincible Gold Medal” has been conferred to Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
• International Day of light is observed on 16 May.
• The first batch of the drug 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose has been released for covid-19 patients by the DRDO minister Rajnath Singh and Health and Family welfare minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
• Women Mountaineers, Baljeet Kaur from Himachal Pradesh and Gunbala Sharma from Rajasthan have become the first Indian women to Summit the 7,161 metres high Mount Pumori in Nepal.
• CoWIN platform is being made available in Hindi and 14 other regional languages. The CoWIN platform is used for registration for covid-19 Vaccine.
• The Book “Sikkim: The History of Intrigue and Alliance” published by Harper Collins India and released on 16 May, which is celebrated as Sikkim day. The book is authored by Preet Mohan Singh Malik.
• Eminent Tamil writer KI Raj Narayanan and winner of the sahitya Akademi Award, has passed away recently. He is 98 years old.
• Nuklu Phom is an environmentalist from Nagaland’s longleng district. He has won the year’s whitley award 2021, which is also known as the Green Oscar.
• In Tennis, Spain’s Rafael Nadal has won the men’s single title of Italian open defeating by Serbia’s Novak Djokovic. He won his 10th Italian open.
• India’s former badminton coach S Balachandran has passed away.
• Sir David Attenborough world renowned broadcaster and natural Historian, has been named COP26 People’s advocate for the UK’s president of the UN climate change summit in Glasgow.
• 6th United Nations Global Road Safety week is being celebrated from 17 May to 23 May 2021.Awareness Campaign- ‘Street for life: love 30’.According to United Nations, “the speed of vehicles should be 30 km/ph.
• New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden topped fortune’s list of the world’s 50 Greatest leaders. Adar Poonawalla has topped the ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leader’ list for 2021, released by Fortune Magazine. The only Indian in the top 10 list, he is recognised for taking the task of bringing an end to the Global pandemic by supplying covid-19 vaccines.
• Urbana Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be implemented over a period of 5 year from 2021-2026. The total financial allocation is Rs. 1,41,678 crore.
• Ujjwala scheme which was benefited 8 crore household will be extended to cover 1 crore more beneficiaries. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016 from Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
• National Dengue day was observed on 16 May every year by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to spread awareness about dengue disease.
• K P Sharma oli was sworn in as Prime Minister of Nepal.
• India Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has been awarded the Green Energy Award 2021 by the Indian chamber of commerce. The award recognises the immense contribution in development of renewable energy sector in line with the honorable Prime minister’s vision of Atam Nirbhar Bharat.
• Tauktae Cyclone recently formed in Arabian Sea, which will be the first cyclone of 2021 to come in india. The Kerala government has issued a Red alert.
• ISRO has created an oxygen concentrator named ‘SWAAS’.
• India hosted the first BRICS employment working group meeting.Member countries discussed the promotion of social security agreement among BRICS Nations women’s participation in the labour force, the formalization of labour markets.
– The BRICS countries participating in this meeting members of the International labour Organisation and the members of International social security agencies.
• World Bank organisation released the ‘migration and development brief’ report. According to this report remittance flow for low income and middle income countries were 1.9% lower in 2020 than in 2019. Remittance- it is the sum of money sent from one country to another. As the remittance flow increases the value of country’s currency increases and the value of foreign currencies decreases.
• Shakuntala Thilsted won the World food prize 2021. She developed a holistic and nutritionally sensitive approach to sea food and food system.
– The award is also known as the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.The aim of this award is to recognise achievements made in the field of Food and Agriculture.
• Jana small Finance Bank has announced the introduction of ‘I choose my number facility’. This new feature gives the bank’s existing and new customers the option to select their favourite numbers as their savings and current account number.
• Assam State became the first state in India to adopt online flood reporting. This new system will report flood levels in Assam on a daily basis.- The new system is powered by web and mobile application Technology and it is fully digital.-This will facilitate protection from damage to crops and livestock. The Brahmaputra river in Assam is prone to frequent floods.
• ‘Iron Dome’ was developed by Israel. Israel and Philistines carried out airstrikes on each others.Iron Dome- it is an air defence system. It is neutralizes any missile or rocket. It is short range ground air to air defence system. It is used to counter rockets, mortars, aircrafts, helicopter and unmanned vehicles.
• China launched Changsie 2C rocket from Xichang Satellite launch center.It is a Yaogan Satellite. The satellite is to be used for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technical tests.
• Sunita Dwivedi is the author of the launch book ” Budha is Gandhara”.
• Shakur Rather wrote the book called “Life in the Clock Tower Valley”.
• DRDO has developed ‘Atman Artificial Intelligence’ technique to detect the presence of covid-19 disease in X Ray. Through this technique there will be no need to have a CT scan to find the Coronavirus results.
– with this technique an x-ray image will tell in a few minutes whether a person has symptoms of coronavirus or not.
• HDFC Bank launched the Chatbot ‘EVA’. Through this the benefit of banking service will be extended to rural entrepreneurs. They will know about services and products of HDFC Bank. This service will be available for 24 hours.
– According to EVA program business correspondent will help rurals and Citizens take home loan, car loan and tractor loan.
• International Energy Agency Organisation released 2021 Renewable Energy Market update. The agency has raised its forecast for global development of solar power and wind power by 25%.- This report states that there will be 45% increase in renewable energy in China. It will increase from 150 GW to 230 GW.
• Russia has succeeded in making a single dose of vaccine of coronavirus. The new version of the vaccine sputnik V is now Sputnik lite. According to the company, the success percentage of Sputnik light is 80%.
• International nurses day celebrated on 12th May. – Its theme- “Nurses: a voice to lead- a vision for future healthcare”.- The birth anniversary of Florence nightingale is celebrated as International nurses day. She was English social reformer and also the founder of modern nursing. She was called ‘The Lady with the Lamp”.
• Justice Gita Mittal recieved the ‘Airline Pacht Global Vision Award 2021’ by the international Association of women Judges. She became the first Indian judge to receive the honour. She shared the award with justice Margarita Luna Ramos of Mexico.
– Gita Mittal is currently serving as the chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaint Council.
• Lewis Hamilton won the title of ‘Spanish Grand Prix 2021’.
• Tamilnadu state government has changed the name of its 9 ministries out of 34 Ministries.
• Puducherry has become a union territory with ‘Har Ghar Jal’.
• National Technology day celebrated on 11 May. Its theme is ‘Science and Technology for a sustainable future’.On this day India test fired its first successful Shakti-1 nuclear missile by the Indian Army, at the pokhran test range Rajasthan. It was called ‘Operation Shakti’.
• The NASA space agency’s spacecraft ‘Osiris-Rex’ has started a 2 years long journey to Earth. The mission was launched in 2018 to study the asteroid Bennu. It is currently the most dangerous asteroid known to Earth. It has a 1/2700 chance of hitting the Earth in 22nd century.
• The ‘Mount Sinabung’ volcano erupted in Indonesia.
• Kami Rita Sherpa has set a world record by climbing Mount Everest for the 25th time. Kami Rita first conquered Mount Everest in 1994.
• 83 women have been inducted into the Indian Army in the first batch of Women Military Police. They are inducted into Army after rigorous training in the corps of military police Bengaluru.
• Himant Biswa Sarma became the 15th chief minister of Assam State. He has replaced Sarbnanda Sonowal.
• Sana Ramchandra became the first Hindu woman to join the administrative Service of Pakistan and she is a President of Karachi. She is Pakistan’s first Hindu woman assistant commissioner. She has qualified the Central Superior Service 2020 examination.
• Israel has developed the drug ‘Exo-CD24’ for the treatment of covid-19. This drug helps in recovery of Corona from only 3 to 5 days. The Exo- CD24 drug is effective in combating Cytokine Storms.
• Dr. Tahera Qutubudin won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The book is ‘ Arabic Oration: Art and Function.This is a literary award commencing in the UAE. It is presented annually to, ‘Arab Writers, Intellectuals, Publishers’ as well as young talents. This award is given first time in 2007.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the European Council meeting on behalf of India. The meeting was hosted by Portugal.
• Aryna Sebalenka won the women’s singles title of the Madrid open Tennis tournament by defeated Ashley Barty.
• Victory day celebrated on 9 May in Russia to mark the surrender of the Germans in the second world war. On 9 May 2021 Russia marked the 76th anniversary of victory in World War II.
• The Chinese rocket Long-March 5B have fell into Indian Ocean near Maldives.
• The 2-DG drug for the treatment of covid-19 has developed by DRDO which is recently approved. 2-DG means 2- Deoxy Glucose. It has been developed in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s laboratories.
• INTERPOL launched the ‘ID-art’ app. This app will identify stolen cultural properties, reduce illegal trafficking and increase the chance of recovering stolen work. – INTERPOL:- International Criminal Police Organisation. Its headquarters at Lyon France and 194 member countries.
• Recently Spacex agency has launched SN15 Rocket. The massive Spacex rocket went up to 6 miles up the Texas sky and successfully landed.
– The first two prototypes of the starship rockets that were launched in December 2020 and February 2021 failed to land properly and exploded.- It is an American aerospace manufacturers and space transportation services company. Spacex was the first private company in the world to land rockets back on earth.
• International Mother’s Day is celebrated on 9 May.-Mother’s Day every year celebrated on the second Sunday of the May month.
• Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is located at Maharashtra.
• Amit Banerjee has been appointed as the Managing Director and chairman of Bharat Earth Movers limited.
• The Border Roads Organization celebrated its foundation Day on 7th May. It was formed on 7 May 1960. – Its main motive is to secure India’s border and develop infrastructure in the remote areas of the North and North Eastern states of India.
• In Andhra Pradesh state, new strain of Coronavirus ‘N44OK’ has been found for the first time. – This strain is 15 times more infectious than the current strain of Coronavirus. This strain is discovered by Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology.
• Dharmendra Pardhan has cleared the first supply of used cooking oil based biodiesel blended diesel. – Its main purpose is to collect the used edible oil and convert it into biodiesel. – 7% of biodiesel extracted from used cooking oil will be doped into diesel. – biodiesel is an alternative to fossil fuels. Biodiesel can be produced from animal fat, vegetable oil and waste cooking oil.
• ‘Mayflower 400’ is Artificial Intelligence Ship. It is 15 metres long and weight 9 tons. – Its Objective is to study Marine polution and analyse plastic in water.
– The Mayflower will become the first unmanned vehicle to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of people from different countries like India, America and Switzerland were involved in making this ship.
• N Rangaswamy became the Chief Minister of Puducherry for fourth time.
• World Athletics Day observed on 7 May 2021. The first world Athletics was celebrated on 1996.
– In 2019 the International Association of Athletics Federation was renamed World Athletics.- Athletics Championships 2021 will be hosted in USA country.
• Maria Ressa was selected for UNESCO World Press Freedom Award 2021.
• Himachal Pradesh state government has launched the ‘Parvat Dhara’ Yojna. Its objective is to boost the water level while retaining water for maximum duration. – The government has initiated the scheme to revive, recharge and protect aquifers (underground water) and to conserve the natural resources of water in the state.
• Singapore becomes world’s first night zoo. The Zoo is spread over an area of about 35 hectares. Which has more than 1000 animals.
• Mark Selby recently become world champion in snooker for the fourth time.
• PV Sindhu and Michelle Li appointed as ambassador of the International Olympic Committee’s ‘Believe in Sports’ campaign also both have been a global ambassador of BWF’s ‘I am Badminton’ campaign since April last year.
• RBI Indian Regulatory body has joined the network for Greening the Financial System. RBI will get information from the Global climate risk management in the financial sector and also contribute to it.Greening the Financial System:-There are 83 Central banks connected to this system. Of these 75 are members and 13 are observers. The main objective of this system is to increase and accelerate green Finance. – It was announced during the 1st Planets summit held in Paris in 2017.
• M K Stalin became the new Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. He is going to be sworn-in as the chief minister of Tamilnadu on 7 May.
• Article 311 was used for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha was removed a government teacher from Kupwara district due to Anti National activities.- Article 311:- Removal from rank or Demotion of persons employed in civil service under the Union or State.
• The world’s first Gione Navigation School begins in Moscow. Russian oil company Rosneft has launched the world’s first Gione navigation School. – It has been designed with the objective of training experts in the field of drilling support. – its course consists of more than 10 unique courses.
• America has approved the ‘Crimson Solar project’. The project will be set up on 2000 of acres land in the California desert.
– 650 temporary Jobs will be generated by the construction of this project. It has 350 MW solar photovoltaic facility and energy storage system.
• Amitabh Chaudhari approved to make again MD and CEO of Axis Bank for three years.
• Shyamla Ganesh has been awarded ‘The Order of Rising Sun 2021’. The award is presented by Emperor of Japan and was instituted in 1875.- the Japanese government has given the award to Bangalore based Japanese teacher Shyamala Ganesh for promoting Japanese culture.
• Operation samudra Setu has been started by the Indian Navy for shipment of oxygen filled containers to India. Two Ships INS Talwar and INS Kolkata have been deployed for this operation.
• S. Jaishankar will participate on behalf of India in the G-7 meeting of foreign ministers and the meeting will be held in United Kingdom.
– The main agenda of this meeting is to discuss climate change, the covid-19 epidemic and the geopolitical situation in the world.- In this meeting the president and the secretary general of India, Australia, South Korea, South Africa and ASEAN have been invited as guests.- The G-7 is international intergovernmental economic organisation of seven advanced economies of the world. Members are Canada, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, USA and United Kingdom. The headquarters of G-7 is in Italy.
• The United nation released the Global Forest Target Report 2021. About 1.6 billion or 25% of world population depends on forest for their subsistence needs, livelihood, employment and income.
• Poland has announced to cease coal production by 2049 to deal with the the problem of climate change.
• Saudi Arabia country has launched ‘Green Initiative’ to deal with climate change.Objective- To increase vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, reduce pollution and land degradation and conserve Marine life.- its aim to plant 1 million trees throughout Saudi Arabia.
• Recently information was given by the ministry of AYUSH that AYUSH-64 drug is possible in the treatment of coronavirus. Which was made for the treatment of Malaria. The drug was developed in 1980 to treat Malaria.
• Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the ‘National Kharif Conference 2021’. It is organised to discuss the challenges and strategies of crop management during the Kharif season.
– India has produced 303.34 million tonnes of good grains in 2020-21, which is 1.96% higher than the previous year.
• Jio and byju’s Indian company has been included in times magazine’s list of 100 most influential companies of the year 2021. Times magazine has for the first time made the list of world’s most influential companies.-Time’s person of the year:- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
– Time’s kid of the year:- Geetanjali Rao. She is an Indian American inventor, author, scientist and engineer. She won the the discovery education 3M young scientist challenge in 2017. She is 15 years old Colorado high school student.
• The joint military exercise ‘Defender Europe-21’ begins in Albania. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has recently started a joint military exercise. – The Practice is an annual US-led multinational practice. – more than 28000 soldiers from the US and it’s allies are participating in the exercise.
• Portugal country has the world’s longest pedestrian bridge opened.This bridge is 516 metres long built at an altitude of 175 metres.
• The 2021 Asian Boxing championship will be held in Dubai.
• T V Somanathan is appointed as new Finance Secretary of India.
• Dr. Kriti K Karant became the first Indian woman to have “Wild Innovator Award”. She is Chief conservation scientist at Bengaluru based centre for wildlife studies.
• United Kingdom became the first country to announce the regulation of the use of slow speed self driving vehicles on the road.- According to the ministery of transport, by 2035 about 40% of UK new cars can have self- driving capability.
• China has launched the first module for the new space station. Its name is Tiangong.
– China launched the Space station core capsule into space via a long March-5B rocket from the Wenchang space launch centre.
• Recently Sri Lanka’s cabinet has approved ban all types of face covering at public places.
• DRDO tested The Python Missile in Goa. This will be added to the air 2 air weapons package of Tejas, an Indigenously developed aircraft in India. It is one of the most state of the art guided missiles in the world. – It is constructed by Israel’s Rafael advanced defence system.
• Russia expelled the European Diplomats from Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Czech diplomats.
• Ministers of Karnataka state have decided to pay 1 years salary for covid workers.
• ICICI Bank has launched the digital banking platform ‘Merchant Stack’. A digital and contactless banking platform has been launched for retail merchants.
• Vaishali Hiwase became the first woman officer to be appointed as the commanding officer in (BRO) Border Roads Organisation for providing connectivity through an India China border road.
• International labour Day celebrated on first May. – This day is observed to celebrate the achievements of the workers and to spread awareness about the exploitation that the workers face.
Current affairs of January 2021 for UPSC Banking Railway IAS and all competitive exams