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Current Affairs 2021

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  1. 1 January – India begins its two-year tenure (2021–22) as a non-permanent member of the UNSC.
  2. 2 January – India approves two coronavirus vaccines, Bharat Biotech’s “Covaxin” and the Oxford/AstraZeneca “Covishield”, for emergency use. Experts raised questions over the efficacy of Covaxin and a lack of transparency in trials.
  3. 4 January – Instant messaging app WhatsApp announced a new amendment in their privacy policies and data sharing norms. This led to massive outrage against the app and an exodus to alternative applications by users in India.
  4. 12 January – The Supreme Court issues a stay order thereby suspending the implementation of the three new farm laws in the wake of the ongoing farmer protests.
  5. 26 January – The 72nd Republic Day Parade took place in New Delhi. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, no foreign head of state served as the chief guest. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, cancelled his appearance due to the pandemic.
  6. 14 February – A 22 year old Indian environmentalist from Bangalore, Disha Ravi, was arrested by the Delhi Police on sedition charges. The police alleged that Ravi edited and circulated a document (toolkit) tweeted by Greta Thunberg relating to the 2020–2021 Indian farmers’ protest. 23 February – A Delhi court granted bail to Disha Ravi, citing the toolkit she shared as ‘innocuous’
  7. 24 February – The Motera cricket stadium in Ahmedabad was renamed as Narendra Modi Stadium. It is the world largest cricket stadium with a seating capacity of 132,000.
  8. 4 March – Heavily polluted Bellandur Lake in Bangalore catches fire.
  9. 15 April – Adani Ports & SEZ removed from S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices due to links and shared financial interests that group have with Tatmadaw that carried out 2021 Myanmar coup d’état.
  10. 30 April – A Special Bench of Justices Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, L. Nageswara Rao and Shripathi Ravindra Bhat warned State governments and police against clamping down on the spread of information or calls for help through social media from citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The bench also questioned lack of equity in vaccine pricing in India.
  11. 5 May – Supreme Court of India strikes down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 which extends reservation to the Maratha community in public education and employment and upheld the Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India verdict and One Hundred and Second Amendment of the Constitution of India.
  12. 17 May -Cyclone Tauktae hits India, resulting in at least 90 deathsExtremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Tauktae (Burmese pronunciation: [taʊʔtɛ̰]) was a powerful, deadly and damaging tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea that became the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone and one of the strongest tropical cyclones to ever affect the west coast
  13. 25 May – Protests in Lakshadweep against Union territory administrator Praful Khoda Patel by the Save Lakshadweep campaign intensified following controversial decisions and laws passed by Patel. His decision to shut all dairy farms on the island, ban beef on the Muslim majority island, remove non-vegetarian food items from Midday Meals provided in schools, implement the Goonda act (Anti-social Activities Regulation Bill, 2021) in islands with ‘zero criminal cases’ to crack down dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act, shift the islands logistics from Cochin Port and Beypore port to New Mangalore Port, violation of COVID-19 protocols etc. raised sentiments against the administrator on the island.
  14. 26 May – Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Yaas affects Odisha and West Bengal.
  15. 28 May – Lakshadweep administration issues an order to deploy government officials in fishing boats. The decision invited huge outcry and criticism.
  16. 1 Jun -Amul vice chairman Valamji R Humbal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban Non-governmental organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in India alleging conspiracy following remarks made by PETA to promote Milk substitute in country.
  17. 4 June – Delhi High Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Juhi Chawla against setting up of 5G Cellular network in India and imposed a Rs. 20 Lakh fine for abusing the process of law.
  18. 11 June- The Economic Offence Wing of Tamil Nadu Police arrests Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) former chairman Ravi Parthasarathi in connection with a criminal breach of trust of Rs. 200 crore done by an (IL&FS) subsidiary to a Chennai based firm.
  19. 17 June -Student activists from Pinjra Tod Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, along with Asif Iqbal Tanha from Jamia Millia Islamia were released from Tihar Jail on Thursday, hours after a trial court ordered their immediate release. They were in custody since May 2020, in relation to a case related to the violence in 2020 Delhi riots following the Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
  20. 17 June- of data compiled from Swiss National Bank that, funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks rose to a 13 year high of 2.55 billion Swiss franc (over Rs 20,700 crore INR) in 2020. Interestingly amidst this spike, customer account deposits witnessed a dip while money deposited through bonds, securities and other financial instruments rose sharply.
  21. 22 June- Kerala High Court issued an interim stay on two controversial orders of Lakshadweep administration on Animal husbandry (closure of dairy farms) and Midday Meal Scheme (exclusion of Non-vegetarian items from menu.
  22. 23 June – Enforcement Directorate transferred assets worth ₹8,441.50 crore to public sector banks. The banks suffered losses to the tune of ₹22,585.83 crore due to frauds committed by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Thus the total assets transferred to the bank worth Rs 9,041.5 crore, representing 40% of the total loss to the banks.
  23. June 23- 27 June – European Union excludes anti-COVID-19 vaccine Covishield from ‘Green Pass’ list
  24. July1- 1 July – Nine European countries which includes Switzerland, Estonia and 7 European Union member states such as Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland & Spain have given recognition to the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India as EU started ‘Green Pass’ facility. In the meantime EU member Germany however has a travel ban in place for Indians as India has been recognized as a “virus variant country”
  25. 6 July – Government of India creates new ministry named Ministry of Co-operation to strengthen the Cooperative movement in India.[
  26. 9 July – External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar handed over a relic belonging to Ketevan the Martyr, a royal from the 17th-century, that was preserved in Church of St. Augustine, Goa to the Government of Georgia as part of his two-day visit to the country.
  27. 15 July – as part of hearings on Public interest litigation challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, Supreme Court of India expressed concern over its widespread misuse and lack of accountability of invoking sedition law. The court sought center’s response regarding necessity to retain this colonial law.
  28. July 18- A leaked database of an Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group that sells a spyware called Pegasus (spyware) was accessed by a Paris-based media nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. The database contained data of government clients of Pegasus (spyware) since 2016. The non profit group worked on this data through an international collaborative journalism of 17 media groups from 10 countries including The Wire (India) , Le Monde, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung etc. The
  29. 23 July – Indian Food delivery company Zomato Initial public offering list in stock market at a premium of 53% over issue price.
  30. 24 July – Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won Olympic silver medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo
  31. 25 July – Ramappa Temple in Telangana gets UNESCO World Heritage Site tag
  32. 1 Aug -Indian player P. V. Sindhu won Olympic bronze medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo. Becoming the first women athlete and second athlete after Sushil Kumar to win two Olympic medals in Olympics for India.
  33. 4 Aug – Indian Boxer Lovlina Borgohain, won Olympic bronze medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo in Welterweight category.
  34. Indian Women Hockey team player Vandana Katariya’s family was abused with caste slurs by upper caste men in Haridwar following the team losing game with Argentina.
  35. 5 Aug -India men’s national field hockey team won Olympic bronze medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo.
  36. Indian Wrestler, Ravi Kumar Dahiya won Olympic silver medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo.
  37. 6 Aug -Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award renamed as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award by Prime Minister of India.
  38. Indian Women Hockey team lost the bronze medal match against United Kingdom in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo.
  39. 7 Aug – Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra won Olympic gold medal in Javelin throw and Indian Wrestler Bajrang Punia won Olympic bronze medal in 2020 Summer Olympics held at Tokyo and India made its highest medal tally in an Olympics with 7 medals.
  40. 10 Aug – Lok Sabha passes the 127th Constitutional amendment bill, which restores states power to make their own Other Backward Class lists and reverses Supreme Court of India’s May 5, 2021 verdict on Maratha quota.
  41. 23 Aug – Finance minister of India announced National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) to sell assets worth Rs. 6 trillion in next four years. This includes Indian Railways assets worth Rs. 1.52 trillion, National highways assets worth Rs. 1.6 trillion, power transmission assets worths Rs. 45,000 crores, warehousing assets worth Rs. 28,900 crores etc.
  42. 28 August- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways introduced new Bharat (BH) series vehicle registration in India.
  43. 29 Aug – In 2020 Summer Paralympics held at Tokyo, Indian Parathlete Bhavina Patel won silver medal in Table tennis, N.K. Nishad Kumar won silver in High jump and V.K. Vinod Kumar won bronze medal in Discus throw.
  44. 30 Aug -In 2020 Summer Paralympics held at Tokyo, Indian Parathlete Avani Lekhara and Sumit Antil won gold medal in women’s 10m air rifle standing and men’s javelin throw (F64). Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics. In javelin throw F46 Devendra Jhajharia won silver medal and Sundar Singh Gurjar won bronze medal. IN F56 discus throw Yogesh Kathuniya won silver medal.
  45. 30 August- V.K. Vinod Kumar stripped of bronze medal in F52 discus throw by a panel after he was found not meeting the Paralympics criteria.
  46. 19 Sept – Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has impounded two containers carrying about 2,988.22 kg of Heroin heading from Afghanistan at Mundra Port in Gujarat. It is deemed as one of the largest drug seizures by an enforcement agency in world till date.
  47. 3 Oct – International Consortium of Investigative Journalists began publishing Pandora Papers and around 380 Indians named in the leaks and it includes Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Ambani, Satish Sharma, Niira Radia, Jackie Shroff, Jackie Shroff, Harish Salve, Nirav Modi-Purvi Modi etc.
  48. 8 Oct – Tata Group gets nod to acquire 100% stakes of Air India from Government of India through its subsidiary Talace Private Ltd, as part of Disinvestment of Public Sector Units in India.
  49. 16 Oct -Indian men’s football team wins eighth SAFF Championship by beating Nepal with 3–0 margin
  50. 27 Oct – The Supreme Court of India orders to constitute an independent panel to make a comprehensive probe into Pegasus (spyware) snooping scandal.
  51. 29 Oct – Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation share prices made an unprecedented fluctuation. The share prices plunged 29% in the morning after Ministry of Railways asked IRCTC to share half of its convenience fee collections. However, the stock registered recovery of all losses in the same day after Department of Investment and Public Asset Management announced roll back of this decision
  52. 5 Nov – PM Modi unveiled Adi Shankaracharya’s statue in a temple of Shiva, Kedarnath, Uttarakhand. Which was previously destroyed in 2013 flash floods.
  53. 18 Nov – Share prices of Fintech company Paytm, which done India’s biggest Initial public offering worth Rs. 18,300 crores fell by 27.4% on its day of listing thereby marking one of the biggest listing day loss in the history of Indian Stock market.
  54. 2 to 6 Dec – Cyclone Jawad devastated the regions of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.
  55. 8 Dec – The Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and 12 others are killed in a chopper crash near Coonoor, Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu.
  56. 13 Dec – Indian model Harnaaz Sandhu wins Miss Universe

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