Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2021

Notes:
The World Economic Forum released the 16th edition of the Global Risks Report 2021. It explores how countries and businesses can act on facing these risks.
‘Infectious Diseases’ is ranked as the ‘Top Risk by impact’, while ‘Extreme Weather’ is ranked as the ‘Top Risk by Livelihood’. Infectious diseases was placed at the 10th place in the last year’s report released in 2020.

Notes:
Department of Science and Technology has stated recently that the number of scientific publications from India has increased exponentially over the last 10 years and that India stands at 3rd position globally in number of scientific publications.
China and USA are ahead of India in the list. In the year 2017-18, 1,937 out of the total 13,045 patents were filed by Indians.

Notes:
The domestic capital market, denoted by SENSEX has touched a new height of 50,000 mark for the first time ever.
The Sensex was launched in 1986 as the country’s first equity index. The index commenced operations with 124 points. It reached 1000 points in 1990 and has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 15.9% to reach 50,000 points in 2021.

Notes:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has collaborated with the American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer recently.
As per the deal, 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine will be distributed for poor and lower-middle income countries under its COVAX programme.

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:
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 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:
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 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 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.