Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
London approved the removal of the Statues of William Beckford and Sir John Cass from its iconic Guildhall home of statues.
After the Black Lives Matter protests, the city corporation set up a task force on tackling racism, which recommended removing the statues of the two figures. The city’s elected representatives voted for the decision.

Notes:
Nikhil Srivastava, a young Indian mathematician, has been named winner of the prestigious 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize.
He has been named the co-winner of the USD 100,000 award, along with two others for solving long-standing questions on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs. The mathematician is Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, at present.

Notes:
Recently, the Central Board of Investigation (CBI) has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against two UK based firms Cambridge Analytica and Global Scientific Research.
The FIR has been filed after 30 months since probe was initiated against these two firms, based on a complaint by the IT Ministry. Investigation have revealed that the firm Global Scientific Research has illegally harvested Indian data and passed on to Cambridge Analytica for commercial gains.

Notes:
The domestic capital market, denoted by SENSEX has touched a new height of 50,000 mark for the first time ever.
The Sensex was launched in 1986 as the country’s first equity index. The index commenced operations with 124 points. It reached 1000 points in 1990 and has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 15.9% to reach 50,000 points in 2021.

Notes:
The Interpol has issued “Purple Notice” to all its member countries. The notice warns all the member countries against investment frauds via dating applications.
It has been stated that artificial romance is established with users of the apps in the initial stages and once a certain level of trust is achieved, criminals encourage users to join ponzi investment schemes.

Notes:
Alphabet unions across the world have joined hands and created a global alliance called Alpha Global.
It has been created with the aid of UNI Global, a federation of unions representing over 20 million workers. As many as 13 different unions, from 10 different countries are part of Alpha Global alliance. Google labour union was formed recently in the United States.

Notes:
Minister of Electronics and IT and Communications has recently launched virtual intelligence tool Tejas.
The tool can extract critical information for policy decisions thereby improving efficiency in government services. The Minister also launched a virtual portal to access routine office applications called ‘Work from Anywhere’ portal and ‘e-Auction India’.

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 Mount Merapi is located in Indonesia. It is an active volcano which is located in the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta. This is the most active volcano of the country and has been erupting at frequent intervals since 1500s. This volcano has erupted again recently.
Indonesia is located on the “Ring of Fire” and hence has the most number of active volcanoes in the world.

Notes:
India has recently signed the “Framework for Strategic Partnership” – an MoU with International Energy Agency (IEA). This agreement aims to strengthen India’s cooperation in global energy security, stability and sustainability.
This partnership would result in exchange of knowledge between India and IEA member countries. This is seen as a step by India towards becoming a full time IEA member.