Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is to organise ‘Prarambh’ – Startup India International Summit, on 15 and 16 January 2021 in a virtual format.
The summit is expected to bring together top policy makers, academia, industry, start-ups and innovators from around the world.

Notes:
Vilyuchinsky waterfall, which is also called in winter as the Tsar Icicle is located at Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia. The glaciers in this region melts in warm summer, which trickles down the nearby mountains. In winter, this water run off freezes again to become a frozen tower like monument.
Recently, an enormous frozen waterfall of Vilyuchinsky collapsed that led to death of one and injured three others.

Notes:
A team of Scientists from the World Health Organisation arrived in Wuhan province of China, to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
In December 2019, the disease emerged from the central Chinese city after which it spread to the entire world. Earlier, WHO claimed that China has not permitted WHO to undertake the COVID-19 origin mission.

Notes:
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is an organization run by the Government of India and was formed on 14 January 1965.
It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution formed by the Food Corporation Act 1964. The FCI is headquartered at New Delhi.

Notes:
Veteran Indian classical musician Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan has recently passed away at the age of 89, at Mumbai.
The legendary musician was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, followed by Padma Bhushan in 2006 and Padma Vibhushan in 2018. He was also honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in the year 2003.

Notes:
Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-operative Ltd (IFFDC) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TRIFED of Tribal Affairs Ministry.
The organisations aim to work together for promoting tribal livelihood. They will jointly conduct training programmes for tribal artisans, to enhance their entrepreneurship skill and business development. IFFDC, promoted by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), has been working in Farm Forestry, Climate Change, eco-restoration and livelihood generation.

Notes:
The Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS) is an attached office of the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Jal Shakti ministry.
Based at New Delhi, it deals with investigations and research in Geotechnical engineering, construction materials and river valley projects. It helps in development of water resources sector in the country, through Central Water Commission. Minister of State Jal Shakti conducted a Review Meeting of CSMRS recently.

Notes:
Davos Agenda is the online event of World Economic Forum’s annual meeting held at Davos, Switzerland. The rich and powerful of the world are said to be the participants.
This year, the five-day meeting is scheduled to be held between January 25 and 29, in the virtual mode, on account of Covid pandemic. WEF’s ‘Great Reset Initiative’ is also to be launched during the meeting. Several Union Ministers and top businesspersons from India are to attend the event.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has stated that, a record length of 534 km of national highways has been constructed in the country, in a period of one week beginning January 8th 2021.
The Ministry also released a data which states that 8,169 km of National Highways has been constructed in the current financial year from April 2020 to 15 January 2021, at a rate of 28.16 km per day.

Notes:
The Article 293 of the Indian Constitution deals with “Borrowings by States”.
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has recently stated that the borrowings made by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) for funding its critically important projects have overshot the borrowing limits set by the Government under Article 293 of the Indian Constitution. CAG has mentioned that such borrowings do not have legislative approvals.