Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
The 17th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was recently organised under the theme, “The New Normal and Safe and Healthy Tourism” virtually.
Riva Ganguly Das, Secretary of the Union Ministry of External Affairs represented India at the meeting. She highlighted about the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

Notes:
January 24 is observed as ‘International Education Day’ globally to highlight the role of education for peace and development.
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution co-authored by Nigeria and 58 other member states in 2018, which sought for political will to support inclusive and quality education for all. This year, the day was observed on the theme ‘Recover and revitalise education for the COVID-19 generation’.

Notes:
The central Government has recently stated that, Geological Survey of India (GSI) is in the process of expediting some of its important national level surveys. The GSI has proposed to complete its National Geochemical Mapping (NGCM) programme by 2024.
The GSI has also commenced an initiative named National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) for collecting all the geoscience data of the country.

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:
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:
India’s economist Jayati Ghosh has been chosen to be a part of UN high-level advisory board on socio-economic challenges in post-COVID-19 world. The board would make recommendations to U.N. Secretary-General for making response to the future, especially after the post COVID era.
Ms. Ghosh is presently a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts.

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:
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 UN Development Programme (UNDP) questioned 1.2 million people in 50 countries, conducting the biggest ever opinion poll on climate change.
As per the survey’s findings, two-thirds of the total people polled see a “global climate emergency”. The survey also revealed that in nations with fossil fuels as a major source of emissions, people strongly supported renewable energy.

Notes:
As per media reports, the Government has appointed an expert panel to review industry’s objections to the proposed ban on 27 widely used pesticides.
Former assistant director general of ICAR, TP Rajendran is to chair the committee, which will submit the report in next three months. The Government has proposed to ban 27 pesticides, which are said to be harmful to animals and humans.