Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
‘Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM)’ is a Not-for-Profit Association, which aims to facilitate the indigenous production in Indian Defence industry.
Recently, an MoU between the Indian Army & Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) was signed to boost use of indigenous spare parts. This took place on the occasion of the 25 years of partnership of the Indian Army with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently announced the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for 2021.
As per the notification, Rajendra Kumar Bhandari has been selected in the individual category of the award, while the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) has been selected for the award in the institutional category.

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 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:
The Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted the maiden launch of Akash-NG (New Generation) Missile. It is a New Generation Surface to Air Missile designed to be used in Indian Air Force.
It has the capacity to intercept high maneuvering low RCS aerial threats. The test was carried out at the Integrated Test Range off the coast of Odisha.

Notes:
Giuseppe Conte resigned as Italian prime minister, as he lost the majority in the Senate due to a recent coalition rupture.
The Italian President Sergio Mattarella is set to hold formal consultations with all the parties before deciding the course of action.

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 report, titled ‘Ageing water infrastructure: An emerging global risk’ was compiled by United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
As per the report, over a thousand large dams in India will be almost 50 years old in 2025. It also warns about the threat posed by the aging structures across the world. As per the UN report, a large concrete dam begins to express signs of ageing at 50 years.

Notes:
India is set to despatch 500,000 doses of Covishield vaccines to Sri Lanka as grant assistance under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative.
Under the initiative, India has already delivered nearly five million doses to seven countries in the neighbourhood including Maldives, Nepal, Mauritius among others. The Vaccine Maitri (Vaccine Friendship) initiative was launched on January 20.