Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
Recently, the All-India Institute of Ayurveda – New Delhi has conducted a large largest public awareness campaign program on Ayurveda and Covid 19 pandemic and it has been named as “Ayu Samvad”.
This campaign is supported by Ministry of Ayush. More than 5 lakh lectures were organised across the country by Ayurveda Physicians, during the campaign.

Notes:
Recently, the Falcon 9 rocket of Space X set a record for carrying the maximum number of satellites in a single space mission. The rocket carried and deployed 143 spacecraft into their respective orbits successfully.
The rocket was launched from the Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. Falcon 9 rocket of Space X is a reusable in nature.

Notes:
As per a recent publication of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) named “Birds of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve”, the region is home to 428 species of birds.
The Indian Sunderbans one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, also comprises of the Sunderban Tiger Reserve. Some birds like Masked Finfoot and Buffy fish owl are found only in the Sunderbans.

Notes:
The Netherlands government played host to an online international Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS Online) on 25 January 2021, under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. It aims to help the countries build a climate-resilient ecosystem back after the pandemic
Indian Prime Minister participated in the virtual conference and addressed the members. The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) released a “State and Trends in Adaptation 2020”, which said global funding must be increased ten-fold, to meet the UNEP’s climate risk mitigation data.

Notes:
The nation’s central bank – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated that it is examining the need to introduce central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country. Also, if the need is felt, RBI is also working on the means to operationalize the digital currency in India.
This move comes against the back of increase in private digital currencies, virtual currencies.

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund released its latest World Economic Outlook Update recently. As per the report, Indian economy would grow 11.5 per cent in FY22. It has revised the earlier forecast of 8.8 per cent growth.
As per the IMF, India would be the only key country to record a double-digit growth and reclaim the status of the fastest-growing major economy of the world.

Notes:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recently released a report titled – Global Climate Litigation Report: 2020 – Status Review. The report provides an overview of climate change litigation and its trends globally.
As per the report, the number of climate litigation cases around the world has almost doubled in the last three years.

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.

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.

Notes:
The state government of Rajasthan has recently reduced value-added tax (VAT) by two percent on petrol and diesel. This has relaxed the fuel prices in the state. Recently, the price of premium petrol price crossed Rs.100 in the state.
Petrol, Diesel and other fuels in India have been kept outside the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST). Presently, the state governments determine the VAT on these fuels.