Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Major Technology companies Apple, Amazon and Google have suspended the social network called Parler.
It is said that the platform has not taken enough measures to control the content inciting violence. In U.S, the conservatives, the right-wing users are the most active participants of the platform including the outgoing U.S President Donald Trump.

Notes:
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) of the Union Agriculture Ministry has recently completed 5 years since its launch.
It is a crop insurance scheme that was launched on January 13, 2016. The Ministry has stated that claims worth Rs.90,000 crore have so far been disbursed to farmers since the launch.

Notes:
Pope Francis has changed the Church law to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass. However, he reaffirmed that they cannot be priests.
The Pope amended the law to formalise the common practice in various parts of the world allowing women to read the Gospel and serve on the altar as Eucharistic ministers. Earlier, these roles were reserved only to men.

Notes:
The Income Tax Department, under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, has launched a new “Faceless penalty scheme”.
It aims to handle the orders for penalty issued under its recently launched faceless assessment programme. Under the scheme, a National Faceless Penalty Centre along with various regional units will be set up, which can confirm or reject the penalty.

Notes:
India has decided to establish a one-million-dollar facility for academic collaboration with the Arab World. This was decided at the 3rd Senior Officials Meeting of the Arab-India Cooperation Forum.
The meeting was held in a virtual format. The proposal for establishing the facility for academic collaboration is expected to have far reaching impact on contacts between India and Middle east.

Notes:
Recently, researchers of Durham University have developed a supercomputer simulation to explain the formation of moon.
The researchers have stated that Earth collided with a Mars like planet named Theia about 4.5 billion years ago. The resulting debris is found to be a self-gravitating body, which has a great resemblance to moon in term of mass and ferric properties.

Notes:
As per a recent study, ‘Huntsman spiders’ present in Madagascar eat tiny tree frogs. The Scientists predict that the spiders catch prey, by weaving traps made of leaves.
Earlier, a spider was spotted by the Scientists which preyed on Tree frog trapped on a pocket on the tree with spider silk sealing the edges. The frogs think these as a shady place to protect themselves from the sun.

Notes:
The Mars Digger probe named the ‘Mole’ was deployed on the Mars by NASA’s InSight Lander. The probe has been recently declared dead by the Scientists, as it failed to burrow deep into the Mars.
The heat probe was developed and built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It has been trying since 2019, to dig deep and find the internal temperature of the Mars. The InSight lander will continue working till 2022.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has been conferred with the “SKOCH Challenger Award” for e-Governance.
The award has been provided for its IT-led initiatives including the digitalisation of Scholarship release process, Prayas-PMO Dashboard, Ice-Stupa initiative to solve water problem in Ladakh region and Swasthya portal for health and nutrition status of the tribal population.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) is an autonomous organization and a subsidiary of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), under the Ministry of Agriculture, India.
It is engaged in agricultural research related to spices in India and is headquarters in Kozhikode, Kerala. Recently Principal Horticulture Scientist J Rema assumed charge as the new Director of Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR).