Test: January 2021 Weekly Current Affair - 3 - UPSC MCQ

ICICI Bank has tied up with Niyo, a new age fintech, to issue prepaid cards to workers of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
MSMEs will now be able to get ‘ICICI Bank Niyo Bharat Payroll Card’ powered by Visa, for their blue-collar workers, who are mostly under-banked.

Reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin beat top seed Tai Tzu-ying to claim the Thailand Open title in Bangkok.
Fourth seed Viktor Axelsen battled a cold and eighth seed Angus Long to claim the men’s title.

The United States has designated the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain as its major strategic partners, the White House announced, amid preparations for a transition from the Donald Trump administration to that of President-elect Joe Biden.

In Karnataka, Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa launched Avalokana software that will enable the government to access data on sanctions and expenditures incurred by 39 departments on 1,800 programmes implemented by them.

Union Minister for Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan commissioned two of the ten indigenously built Doppler weather radars which will closely monitor the weather changes over the Himalayas.
Services of X-band Doppler radars at Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand and Kufri in Himachal Pradesh were virtually inaugurated on the 146th foundation day of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force are conducting a bilateral Air exercise, Ex Desert Knight-21 in Jodhpur.

The Tribal Affairs Minister, Arjun Munda launched the ‘ShramShakti’ portal virtually to collect data related to the tribal migrant workers and will also link them to the existing welfare schemes.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has scored a decisive election victory to win a sixth term, the country’s election commission said.

Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), Delhi-based DRDO laboratory, handed over Rakshita, a bike-based casualty transport emergency vehicle to CRPF in a ceremony held at CRPF Head Office in New Delhi.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his entire Cabinet resigned to take political responsibility for a scandal involving investigations into child welfare payments that wrongly labeled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has inaugurated India’s first air taxi services from Chandigarh to Hisar under the UDAN scheme of the Central Government.

Private sector lender, RBL Bank said its Board of Directors has approved the re-appointment of Vishwavir Ahuja as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank for a period of three years, with effect from June 30, 2021 to June 29, 2024.

Private sector lender YES Bank has teamed up with Aditya Birla Wellness Private Limited to launch ‘YES BANK Wellness’ and ‘YES BANK Wellness Plus’ credit cards, which aimed at the holistic health, self-care and wellness of consumers. With Wellness Card, YES Bank customers can avail complimentary health checkups or lifestyle benefits or consultations with doctors.

Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector bank, announced the launch of ‘AURA’, a credit exclusively loaded with several health and wellness benefits for its users.
Aimed at health-conscious individuals, these features will be powered by Poshvine and other specialists such as Decathlon, Practo, Fitternity, IndushealthPlus, 1MG etc., to offer a complete and unique health & wellness solution.

The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu releasing the book, “Abdul Kalam- Ninaivugalukku Maranamillai” in Chennai.
The book ‘Abdul Kalam-Ninaivugalukku Maranamillai’ (immortal memories) has been penned by A P J M Nazema Maraikayar, the niece of the late President and by noted space scientist Y S Rajan.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled the country’s first indigenously designed and developed Driverless Metro Car at the BEML manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.

How much final dividend has been paid by the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) to the Government of India for 2019-20?

Jüri Ratas resigned as prime minister of Estonia and head of the Centre Party amid allegations of corruption against his party.

Gurugram-based Airtel Payments Bank has launched ‘Airtel Safe Pay’, a safe mode for making digital payments, to protect Airtel customers from the growing incidents of online payment frauds.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off eight trains connecting different parts of the country to Kevadia in Gujarat, via video conferencing. These trains will connect Kevadia to Varanasi, Dadar, Ahmedabad, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Rewa, Chennai and Pratapnagar.
The Ahmedabad-Kevadia Jan Shatabdi Express, one of the eight trains, has been equipped with the ‘Vista-dome tourist coach’ which offers large viewing areas with rooftop glasses and seats for passengers.

Historian and cricket “fan” Ramachandra Guha launched his new book titled “The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind”.

Start-Up India International Summit ‘Prarambh’, the two-day summit that began in New Delhi was inaugurated by the union minister for railways, consumer affairs, commerce and industry Piyush Goyal. The summit is being organized by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop a Quantum Computing Applications Lab in the country.

The two-days 15th edition of India Digital Summit 2021, one of the biggest conferences for the digital industry, was organised through virtual platform. The Summit is the flagship event of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
The theme of the 2021 Summit was ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat – Start of New Decade’.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has launched Vedhik Erudite Foundation’s ambitious scheme ‘One School One IAS’ to provide free coaching for civil services and other competitive examinations to 10,000 meritorious but financially weak students across the State.