Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Indian IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has surpassed Accenture, to become the world’s most valued IT services company.
The Market Capitalization of TCS surged to USD 169.9 billion recently. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is also India’s largest software exporter.

Notes:
The Union Health Ministry released the ‘National Non-communicable Disease Monitoring Survey (NNMS)’, conducted during the period of 2017–18
As per the survey, two in five adults have three or more risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in India. ‘Framework for Telemedicine use in Management of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in India’ was launched.

Notes:
The report, titled ‘Ageing water infrastructure: An emerging global risk’ was compiled by United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
As per the report, over a thousand large dams in India will be almost 50 years old in 2025. It also warns about the threat posed by the aging structures across the world. As per the UN report, a large concrete dam begins to express signs of ageing at 50 years.

Notes:
The International Customs Day is celebrated every year on January 26 across the world, led by the World Customs Organization (WCO). It is headquartered at Brussels, Belgium.
It was earlier called as the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC). The Day has been celebrated since 1983. This year the theme is ‘Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience for a sustainable supply chain’

Notes:
As per the Science Magazine, Scientists have discovered a rare Martian Mineral named ‘Jarosite’ in the Antarctic ice.
After boring more than a mile deep in the Antarctic region, the yellow-brown mineral which is rarely seen on Earth but found more on Mars was spotted. Mars is believed to be a dusty place and this discovery may be used to explain this theory.

Notes:
A recent research by University of Sao Paulo has revealed that Melatonin hormone secreted in the lungs of human beings act as an effective barrier against Covid-19 infection.
It has been identified that the hormone secretion inhibits the expression of genes that are entry points for the virus.

Notes:
The report titled “World Gold Demand Trends” has been released by the World Gold Council. As per the report, Gold purchase by central banks of various countries declined sharply in 2020 and fell by nearly 60% to 272.9 tonnes.
The decline in purchase was most particular in Q2 of the FY 2020-21.

Notes:
The United Kingdom (UK) has launched a New Variant Assessment Platform, which will be used to identify new variants COVID-19 viruses.
It uses genomics expertise possessed by UK and has been dedicated for use by countries which does not have sufficient resources for identifying the new Covid virus strains.

Notes:
The third consignment comprising of three number of France manufactured Rafale fighter jets have arrived at India recently. They would be soon inducted officially into the Indian Air Force. This would move up the Rafael’s fleet to 11 aircrafts in the Indian Air Force.
In September 2016, India had signed an agreement with France for purchase of 36 Rafael fighter jets at a cost of Rs.59,000 crores.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has cleared and approved the Policy on privatisation of public sector undertakings (PSUs). The policy would lay a detailed road map for presence of government ownership in strategic and non-strategic sectors of the country.
The Government has proposed for the presence of 1 to 4 Government owned entities in strategic sectors and completely exit from non-strategic sectors.