Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has signed an MoU with UNDP India to create India’s first Social Impact Bond (SIB).
This bond describes outcome-based targets to be achieved, so that the progress of the outcomes can be tracked. It also ensures the funds are used effectively towards the project. The bonds would support the corporation in improving the healthcare services.

Notes:
Indian Railways has successfully completed the 180kmph trial run of the new Vistadome tourist coaches.
The luxurious coaches were manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. The Vistadome coaches have see-through glass rooftops and wide windows offering panoramic view. At present, there are 13 Vistadome coaches that are operational.

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:
A wildfire has recently started in the Dzukou Valley, a popular trekking destination located on the Manipur-Nagaland border. It is said to have started three days ago from the Nagaland.
The Indian Air Force has deployed an Mi-17V5 helicopter to put off the massive wildfire in Dzukou Valley.

Notes:
As per the Russian media, a well-preserved Ice Age woolly rhino, with many of its internal organs still intact has been recovered.
The carcass has been recovered from permafrost in Russia’s north region near Siberia. It’s among the best-preserved specimens of the Ice Age animal found till date. Scientists date the carcass to be 20,000- to 50,000-years-old.

Notes:
As per media reports, China has recently completed the track-laying work for a railway line which links the cities of Lhasa and Nyingchi in Tibet.
The cities are close to the Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh. This Sichuan-Tibet Railway is the second railway into Tibet, which starts from the capital of Sichuan Province, Chengdu and enters Tibet.

Notes:
Prime Minister released a certification course on innovative construction technologies named NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing).
He also laid the foundation stone of Light House projects (LHPs) under Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)- at six sites across six states.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the permanent campus in the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur in Odisha.
The institute has been functioning in a makeshift campus for more than five years, since it was launched as a third-generation IIM, in the year 2015-16.

Notes:
The first hill-top Buddhist monastery of the Gangetic Valley has been found at Lal Pahari in Lakhisarai district of Bihar.
This is the first monastery located at the top of a hill. This is discovered during a joint collaboration of Bihar Heritage Development Society and the Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal. It was a Vihara, named as Srimaddharmaviharik aryabhiksusanghasya.

Notes:
The US Congress has recently passed the “Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Bill”.
The bill makes it mandatory for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to award 50% of scholarships to Pakistani Women under a Pakistan-based higher education scholarship programme. The scholarships are to be awarded from 2020 to 2022.