Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Tesla Chief Executive Officer the world’s richest person at present, Elon Musk announced that he has decided to give away USD 100 million as prize for the best carbon capture technology.
Carbon dioxide, released in electricity generation and industrial processes can be captured using various methods including post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel. The International Energy Agency also stated about the role of carbon capture technology in net-zero emissions recently.

Notes:
Technology major Google has signed a deal with a group of French publishers which will enable the company make digital copyright payments for online news content.
France became the first country to adopt new European Union copyright rules, which aims to ensure media are paid for original content, typically news, offered online by tech giants such as Google and Facebook.

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:
India celebrates National Voters Day on January 25 every year to commemorate the foundation day of the Election Commission of India.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) was founded in 1950 on the same day and this occasion was first celebrated in 2011. This year’s theme is “Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed”. ECI launched e-EPIC (Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card), as a part of celebration.

Notes:
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017.
Recently, this first treaty came into force and in response, India announced that it does not support the treaty. None of the nine countries said to possess nuclear weapons and the NATO alliance supported the treaty.

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:
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:
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:
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 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has recently released an index named “’Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index”.
India has ranked 10th out of 11 Asia Pacific countries in the index. This index measures the readiness of 11 countries – Australia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand in adopting personalised healthcare.