Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Recently, the Strom Bella hit parts of France and United Kingdom and caused heavy rain and winds in Northern France.
The United Kingdom created a record of generating over 50 per cent of the country’s electricity generation from wind. This was generated from the heavy winds of speed up to 100 miles per hour. It also enabled the country to record the ‘Greenest year’.

Notes:
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has launched a web-based application for ocean data management.
Named ‘Digital Ocean’, the platform aims to share information on marine data and forecast services. The platform provides data for several sectors like research institutions, academic community, maritime industry and the public.

Notes:
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) considered the condition of the sailors as a suo-motto step and asked the Ministry of External Affairs to take care of the crew members.
In response, the Ministry has asked China to provide urgent assistance to as many as 39 cre members of the stranded cargo vessels, which have been stuck for months near the Chinese ports of Jingtang and Caofeidian.

Notes:
The 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa from 16th to 24th of January, 2021.
Recently, the registrations have commenced for media delegates, who desire to attend the event, which will be held in a hybrid mode, on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. The registration will be open till January 10, 2021.

Notes:
Iran has announced to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it plans to enrich its uranium to 20% purity, which was a level achieved before 2015 accord. This is supposed to be done at its Fordow site which is buried into a mountain.
Iran has been continuously breaching the 2015 deals with IAEA since 2019, in response to USA’s withdrawal from the agreement and imposition of sanctions against Iran.

Notes:
According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), over 371,500 babies were born on New Year’s Day across the world.
It also revealed that India has recorded the highest number of births at around 60,000. India is followed by China, Nigeria and Pakistan. It also estimated that 140 million children are estimated to be born in 2021 with average life expectancy of 84 years.

Notes:
Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has recently launched the Freight Business Development Portal.
The portal aims to reduce the costs for logistics providers, provide online tracking facility for suppliers and to simplify the process of goods transportation. The portal, which aims to improve ease of doing business, can be accessed via the Indian Railways website.

Notes:
A unicorn is a term, which is used to indicate a private start-up company, who market value is at over USD 1 billion.
Recently, India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Taranjit Singh Sandhu said that according to a recent report, Indian start-ups raised USD 9.3 billion until mid-December, during this year. India is the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world with 21 unicorns valued at USD 73.2 billion.

Notes:
As per the Experts of the NITI Aayog, China is the biggest gainer in the post-pandemic economic situation globally.
The experts also opined that the economic recovery for India is likely to be slow. They told the standing committee of finance that several manufacturing units should move out of China and shift to India in the upcoming years.

Notes:
The Pioneers Program was started by US space agency NASA in 2020, which aims to research on astrophysics science using smaller hardware.
Recently, NASA has approved four small-scale astrophysics missions as a part of the Pioneers Program. The concepts include small satellites named Aspera, Pandora and StarBurst and a balloon mission named PUEO. These missions will help study about cosmic phenomena.