Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
A new draft ‘Arctic’ policy has been released recently by the Government of India. The draft policy would be available for public opinion till Jan 26, 2021. It has been prepared after deliberations with several Ministries.
The policy aims to expand India’s scientific research, sustainable tourism and mineral oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region.

Notes:
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye was seen in the news recently as he had a discussion with the new UN envoy on reviving the stalled peace process.
The UN envoy Tor Wennesland, is the Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process. He also highlighted the openness of the country on any political process sponsored by the Quartet, comprising of the US, the UN, Russia and the European Union.

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:
The report titled “The Inequality Virus” has been released recently by Oxfam International. The report has found that the Covid pandemic has deepened the existing inequalities.
The report has made a comparison that during the national lockdown in India its top 100 billionaires saw their fortunes increase by Rs 12.97 trillion while 70,000 people lost their jobs every hour in the month of April 2020.

Notes:
As per the United Nations data, China has become the world’s top destination for new foreign direct investment in the year 2020. China overtook USA and gained the top spot in the world.
New overseas investments for USA fell by 49% in 2020 whereas in case of China, the FDI increased by 4%.

Notes:
Azim Premji University, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) released a new policy named ‘Udyog Sahayak Enterprises Network (USENET)’.
The policy aims to provide services to over 62 million nano and micro-enterprises. It also aims to create an additional 10.3 million jobs over five years. It also aims to improve Ease of Doing Business for the informal nano, micro and small entrepreneurs.

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 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).
In the survey conducted during 2017-18, it was revealed that two in five adults in India have three or more risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD). The Health Minister also launched a framework on use of telemedicine for cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and stroke in India.

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.