Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
The United Nations agencies namely the UNICEF, FAO, WFP and WHO jointly released the ‘Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition’ report.
It is the third annual report on progress of Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Assembly targets 2030 on nutrition in the Asia and Pacific region. 24 million in the Asia and Pacific region are likely to suffer food insecurity.

Notes:
The first edition of the exercise Desert Knight-21 was organised at Jodhpur Air Force Station, Rajasthan, from January 20 to 24, 2021.
Four French Rafale fighters, Airbus A-330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), A-400M Tactical Transport aircraft participated from the French side. Mirage 2000, Su-30 MKI, Rafale, IL-78 Flight Refuelling Aircraft, AWACS and AEW&C aircraft participated from the IAF.

Notes:
Two new species of a rare ant genus have been recently discovered in Kerala and Tamil Nadu by a team of scientists from Punjabi University.
One of the two species which was discovered found in the Periyar Tiger Reserve of Kerala has been named Ooceraea Joshii, to honour the veteran biologist ‘Amitabh Joshi’.

Notes:
Punjab is implementing a scheme named ‘Shagun’ under which financial assistance is provided for the marriage of daughter who belongs to the low-income family. It aims to prevent child marriages.
Recently, the Punjab government hiked the grant for the marriage of daughters of construction workers from Rs 31,000 to Rs 51,000.

Notes:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has recently launched the ‘Union Budget Mobile ahead of the Union Budget 2021.
As this year’s budget will be completely paperless, the mobile application will enable members of the parliament and general public, to access budget documents. It has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the guidance of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Finance Ministry.

Notes:
Rajasthan state has launched the new M-Sand Policy-2020 recently. The state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the state government aims to meet the quantity of sand needed for construction work in the state.
This would encourage the production of manufactured sand or M-sand and reduce the dependence on traditional sand.

Notes:
A new School of Public Health (SPH) has been launched in the state of Rajasthan, to aid in healthcare management in the post-COVID-19 situation.
The school will provide technical support to health systems and help the State government in adopting new technologies. It will work on technology and surveillance mechanisms to help the policy makers.

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.

Notes:
START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is a bilateral agreement signed in 2010 between the United States and Russia.
The treaty, which emphasised on the reduction and limitation of strategic nuclear arms by the two countries, is set to expire next week. Russia’s lower house of parliament approved the extension of the treaty.

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.