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:
The freight train named ‘Vasuki’ operated by South East Central Railway has created a new record for longest ever freight train. This train has been formed by amalgamation five rakes of goods trains as a single unit of around 3.5 km.
The train has covered a total distance of 224 km between Bhilai and Korba.

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:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has collaborated with the American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer recently.
As per the deal, 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine will be distributed for poor and lower-middle income countries under its COVAX programme.

Notes:
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye was seen in the news recently as he had a discussion with the new UN envoy on reviving the stalled peace process.
The UN envoy Tor Wennesland, is the Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process. He also highlighted the openness of the country on any political process sponsored by the Quartet, comprising of the US, the UN, Russia and the European Union.

Notes:
32 children across the county have been recently awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, 2021.
Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India has been giving away this award to children with outstanding abilities and accomplishments in the fields of innovation, scholastics, sports, arts & culture, social service and bravery.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has recently launched a mobile app named ‘Udyam Sarathi’ for seeking employment, as a part of the 3-day event marking UP DIWAS.
The state also announced the proposal to launch ‘Abhyudaya’ coaching centres, which would benefit the students who are preparing for various competitive examinations.

Notes:
Lt. Col. (Retd.) Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir and musicologist Sanjida Khatun, who belong to Bangladesh have been conferred with India’s Padma Shri award for the year 2021.
This is seen as a soft diplomatic move of the country. These awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day. This year, 7 Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri awards have been conferred.

Notes:
NGC 4535 is a famous galaxy and is one of the largest of the Virgo constellation. It is also dubbed as the “The Lost Galaxy”.
Virgo Cluster is located about 50 million light-years from Earth. The Scientists at NASA have spotted the spiral galaxy through their Hubble Space Telescope and released its images. It is a vast swirl of stars containing a distinct bar structure at its center.

Notes:
The West Bengal Transport Corporation in association with a heritage book store has launched a Young Readers’ Boat Library.
Under the initiative, children can choose from a selection of 500 titles in English and Bengali on cruising on the waters of Hooghly river on a three-hour-long trip.