Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s Central bank, releases the “Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India”.
The RBI recently released the latest edition of the report, which is a statutory publication as per the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. It highlights the performance of the banking sector during 2019-20 and 2020-21 so far.

Notes:
The United Kingdom approved the Covid vaccine developed by AstraZeneca along with the University of Oxford, thereby becoming the first country in the world to do so.
The country’s residents are already being administered with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine since the first week of December 2020. The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the new vaccine, to vaccinate 50 million people.

Notes:
British Racing Driver Lewis Hamilton has been knighted in the traditional New Year Honours list of the United Kingdom.
The list recognises outstanding achievements in various fields including business, sport and politics among others. Lewis Hamilton, this year, equalled the record of seven Formula One world titles held by legendary racer Michael Schumacher.

Notes:
The first three sets of a 10-metre short-span bridge, designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), were inducted to the Indian Army.
The bridges are manufactured at the Larsen & Toubro facility at Talegaon in Pune. The bridges were developed by the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), DRDO in Pune. The DRDO has also developed five metre and 15 metre types of the bridge.

Notes:
In the Jhalawar District of Rajasthan, 50 crows had died of Avian influenza (Bird flu) recently. In response, a curfew was imposed surrounding the area.
While, death of crows has also been reported from the city of Jodhpur. The administration ordered to sanitise the affected area and send the samples to the National High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (NHSADL), Bhopal.

Notes:
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhong Shanshan’s net worth rose to USD 70.9 billion making him the richest man in Asia above both Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma.
Zhong Shanshan is the founder of ‘Nongfu Spring’, the largest beverage company in China. He is also the owner of the Chinese pharmaceutical giant ‘Wantai’.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced the annual awards for excellence in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) Mission.
In the best performing states category, Uttar Pradesh bagged the first place, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. In the North East region and Hilly states, Tripura bagged the first place. Vishakhapatnam was named the best performing Municipal Corporation.

Notes:
Prayaas is the new community helping initiative adopted by Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL). Under this scheme, employees of IOCL Delhi Office would visit the night shelters located near IOCL’s fuel stations for distribution of blankets and essentials.
These night shelters are being run by the Government of Delhi and some NGOs to help the weaker section of the society.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘National Atomic Timescale’, during the inauguration of the National Metrology Conclave.
With this move, the Indian Standard Time is aligned with the International Standard Time, only by less than 3 nano seconds. The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of the ‘National Environmental Standards Laboratory’.

Notes:
Over 200 Google engineers and other employees have recently formed a Union in the United States, which is seen as a rare move in the Silicon Valley.
After the increasing demands by Google employees for policy changes on pay, harassment and ethics, the “Alphabet Workers Union” has been formed. It is affiliated with the US-based leading union, the ‘Communications Workers of America’.