• India hosted a Meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors virtually on April 6, 2021. The meeting was jointly chaired by Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Shri. Shaktikanta Das. Participants included Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the BRICS countries.
• As 2021 BRICS Chair, India’s approach is focused on strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation based on Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.

• Politicians in Kosovo elected and swore in a new president on 4^th April, 2021 for a five-year term, the Balkan nation’s seventh president, and second female leader, in the post-war period.
• The 120-seat parliament, which convened in an extraordinary session for two days, gave 71 votes for Vjosa Osmani, a 38-year-old former parliamentary speaker, in the third round of voting, while 11 votes were invalid.
• In November, Osmani temporarily replaced former President Hashim Thaci, an armed group leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, who resigned after facing charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special court based in The Hague.
• Osmani’s initial mandate expired when the new government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje, took over following the February 14 election.

• The Food and Drug Administration late 2^nd April approved Qelbree (KELL'-bree for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children ages 6 to 17. It comes as a capsule that's taken daily.
• Unlike nearly all other ADHD medicines, Qelbree is not a stimulant or a controlled substance, making it harder to abuse than older drugs. That's been a problem with earlier ADHD treatments like Ritalin, nearly all of which contain the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 7^th April announced an extension of interim ways and means advances (WMAs) limit of Rs. 51,560 crore to state governments till September, to help them tide over the financial stress posed by the second wave of Covid-19.
• WMAs are temporary advances given by the RBI to the states to tide over any mismatch in receipts and payments.
• There are two types of WMAs – normal and special. While normal WMA are clean advances, special WMA are secured advances provided against the pledge of the government of India dated securities.
• In addition, RBI has enhanced the aggregate WMAs limit of states and Union Territories (UTs) to Rs. 47,010 crore per year.

• To measure the extent of financial inclusion in the country, the Reserve Bank of India will construct and periodically publish a "Financial Inclusion Index" (FI Index).
• The FI Index would be based on multiple parameters and shall reflect the broadening and deepening of financial inclusion in the country.
• To begin with, the FI Index will be published annually in July for the financial year ending previous March.

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an Advanced Chaff Technology to safeguard the naval ships against enemy missile attacks.
• Defence Laboratory Jodhpur (DLJ), a DRDO laboratory, has indigenously developed three variants of this critical technology namely Short Range Chaff Rocket (SRCR), Medium-Range Chaff Rocket (MRCR) and Long Range Chaff Rocket (LRCR) meeting Indian Navy’s qualitative requirements.
• The successful development of Advanced Chaff Technology by DLJ is another step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• Recently, the Indian Navy conducted trials of all three variants in the Arabian Sea on Indian Naval Ship and found the performance satisfactory.

• NASA's Ingenuity mini-helicopter has been dropped on the surface of Mars in preparation for its first flight.

• Receivables Exchange of India Ltd (RXIL), leading invoice discounting platform for MSMEs, on 6^th April it has crossed monthly transaction volumes of Rs. 1,000 crore in the month of March.
• The growth of transaction volumes from Rs. 69 crore in April 2020, to Rs. 1,105 crore in March 2021 indicates the revival and resumption of the economic activity.
• RXIL has processed close to 5 lakh invoices drawn on over 600 buyers to date from inception in 2017.

• Chinese smartphone major Vivo has appointed Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador.
• With the association, Vivo aims to reach the millennials and technologically driven consumers and a 360-degree marketing approach will characterise the company's association with Kohli.
• Apart from this, associating with a sports figure will help the company reach a wider audience, ahead of the IPL 2021.

• Padmashree awardee Fatima Rafiq Zakaria, renowned journalist, academician and chairman of Maulana Azad Educational Trust and president of Maulana Azad Education Society, passed away on 6^th April here at Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital due old age illness.
• She was 85 years old and is survived by two sons -- Arshad and Fareed (who has recently been conferred the Padma Bhushan Award in Journalism). Both graduated from Harvard and have won great laurels in their respective fields in the United States of America.
• Besides being affiliated to the Maulana Azad Educational Trust and Maulana Azad Education Society, Ms. Zakaria was also executive vice-chairman of the Board of Governors of the Trust’s Institute of Hotel Management which is run in collaboration with the Taj Group of Hotels.

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