Weekly CA Quiz: January 2021 4th week

Central government think tank NITI Aayog has appreciated the “landmark transformation” of the government schools as they have secured the top score in the think tank’s India Innovation Index 2020.
The index said that given the high income levels of Delhi and the transformation of the government schools system, Delhi has reported the highest National Achievement Survey (NAS) score of 44.73.

The combined fiscal deficit of the states will hit a peak of Rs 8.7 lakh crore or 4.7 per cent of their GDP this fiscal on the back of steep fall in tax collections due to disruptions inflicted by the pandemic, according to a Crisil report.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) won the Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI)’s 10th National Ice Hockey Championship trophy after a superb win over Ladakh UT team in the finals at Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jayant N Khobragade has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat in Jakarta, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Indian mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, has been named winner of the prestigious 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize along with two others for solving long-standing questions on the Kadison–Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs.

Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society and. Rajendra Kumar Bhandari have been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for their excellent work in Disaster Management.

In a first, a bird festival is being organised at the Mahananda wildlife sanctuary in West Bengal to provide an opportunity to enthusiasts to explore the forest and watch different birds.

The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) remained the world’s largest derivatives exchange for the second consecutive year in 2020 in terms of number of contracts traded, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA).

Mongolia’s Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa submitted his resignation to parliament after protests in the capital Ulaanbaatar over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Broadcasters industry body Indian Broadcasting Foundation has appointed former Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court Justice Gita Mittal as the new Chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC).
Mittal succeeds former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Vikramajit Sen, whose tenure as BCCC Chairperson has ended.

Bilkis Bano, Bilkis Dadi, the octogenarian woman who emerged as the face of Shaheen Bagh protest movement, and prominent civil rights activist Harsh Mander have been conferred with Quaide Millleth award for year 2020.

A new book by foreign affairs consultant Mohamed Zeeshan has been released recently. The title “Flying Blind” alludes to the absence of a coherent strategy in making full use of these advantages.

The book titled “Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World” has been authored by a Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria.

National Voters’ Day is observed annually on 25 January in order to encourage more young voters to take part in the polling process. This year, the Election Commission of India is observing the 11th National Voters’ Day with the theme ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed.’

International Day of Education is an annual international observance day held on January 24 to promote the role of education and thus the International Day of Education came into existence. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s theme for International Education Day is “Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation”

Border Security Force (BSF) launched “Operation Sard Hawa” under which it aims to increase security on the borders in Jaisalmer.

A large-scale tri-service joint amphibious exercise AMPHEX – 21 was conducted in Andaman & Nicobar group of islands.

National Tourism Day is celebrated on January 25 every year across the country. This year, the theme of National Tourism Day is ‘Dekho Apna Desh’.

On the occasion of 71st foundation day of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched ‘Udyam Sarathi’ app to help youth to explore self-employment opportunities.

A rocket from Elon Musk’s SpaceX has created a new record by launching 143 satellites into space on. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX, an aerospace company, has also beaten the record of the Indian Space Research Organisation- ISRO where it deployed 104 satellites in February 2017 in a single launch.

Germany’s current account surplus shrank for the fifth year in a row in 2020 as China overtook Europe’s biggest economy during the COVID-19 pandemic to run the world’s largest current account surplus, a survey by the Ifo institute.

According to the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects released by the UN, the world economy shrank by 4.3 per cent in 2020– over two and half times more than 2009’s global financial crisis.
United Nations also projected that India’s economy will contract by 9.6 per cent in 2020. The report said that the economy is forecast to recover and clock a 7.3 per cent growth in 2021 but slow down to 5.9 per cent in 2022.

Golden Peacock Award – Into the Darkness (Danish film based on World War II – Director: Anders Refn)
Silver Peacock Award for Best Actor – Male – Tzu-Chuan Liu, The Silent Forest
Silver Peacock Award for Best Actor – Female – Zofia Stafiej, I Never Cry
Silver Peacock Award for Best Director – Chen-Nien Ko, The Silent Forest
Best Debut Director Award – Cássio Pereira dos Santos, Valentina
Special Mention Award – Kripal Kalita, Bridge
Special Jury Award – Kamin Kalev, February
ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award – Ameen Nayfeh’s 200 Meters
Indian Personality of the Year Award – Biswajit Chatterjee

On the occasion of National Girl Child Day, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the ‘PANKH Abhiyan’ under the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme in order to aid in empowerment and growth of the girl child.

With the completion of the construction of the 3,300-metre-long airstrip near Kurebhar on Purvanchal Expressway, Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country with two airstrips on expressways to facilitate emergency landing and take-off of fighter planes.

The West Bengal Transport Corporation in collaboration with a heritage book store here has launched a children’s library on a boat, the first of its kind initiative.
The idea behind the boat library is that one can read books while appreciating the beauty of Kolkata, cruising on the Hooghly river.

India was the seventh most-affected by the devastating impact of climate change globally in 2019 according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 released.
India was preceded by Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Bahamas, Japan, Malawi and Afghanistan in the list of countries most affected by the impacts of extreme weather events in 2019, the report by Germanwatch, a Bonn-based environmental organisation said.

China climbed to the No.1 ranking globally attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) of $163 billion in 2020 amid a raging global pandemic, according to the UN’s latest report on global investment, knocking the US, which attracted $134 billion, off the first spot.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tendered his resignation following widespread criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

January 26 is celebrated as the International Customs Day (ICD) to recognizes the role of custom officials and agencies in maintaining border security.
Theme is – “Customs bolstering recovery, renewal and resilience”.

The book titled “India 2030: The Rise of a Rajasic Nation” is a collection of essays by the likes of Bibek Debroy, Vikram Sood, Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, Ram Madhav and David Frawley, among others. The book has been authored by Gautam Chikermane.

Colonel B Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, who lost his life during the Galwan Valley clash last year, was posthumously awarded with Maha Vir Chakra.

The online two days international Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 hosted by the Netherlands, The summit was called as “CAS Online”.

Overseas investment by domestic companies fell by over 42 per cent to $1.45 billion in December 2020, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India(RBI).

Bharti AXA General Insurance, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business groups, and AXA, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, launched its new app ‘Krishi Sakha’ to cater to the specific needs of the farmers in the country and guide them in adopting best farming practices and enhancing productivity.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised upwards the growth forecast for Indian economy to 11.5 per cent in 2021, making it the only major economy expected to register a double-digit growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its World Economic Outlook Update, the IMF expects the Indian economy to have contracted by 8 per cent in 2020.

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to contract by 8 per cent in 2020-21, according to the latest round of FICCI’s Economic Outlook Survey.

Indian development economist Jayati Ghosh is among 20 prominent personalities appointed by the United Nations to a high-level advisory board that will provide recommendations for the U.N. Secretary-General to respond to the current and future socio-economic challenges in the post-COVID-19 world.

On January 27 each year, the United Nations (UN) remembers the Holocaust that affected many people of Jewish origin during World War II. This day is called the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
The theme of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021 is “Facing the Aftermath: Recovery and Reconstitution after the Holocaust”.

India has announced a pledge of $150,000 to activities of the Peacebuilding Fund this year and said that 2021 provides the international community with an opportunity to look at peace-building in a more focused manner, especially in the context of the Covid pandemic.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman virtually inaugurated the Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). This will be the second NCLAT Bench in the country, after the Principal Bench in New Delhi.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked third most-valued IT services brand globally, after Accenture and IBM, according to a report by Brand Finance.
Four Indian IT services companies TCS, Infosys, HCL and Wipro secured spots in the top-10 global tally.

The 2022 Women’s Asian Cup, to be hosted by India, will be held from January 20 to February 6, the Asian Football Confederation announced.

The appointments committee (ACC) of the Cabinet cleared the names of two officials—Swaminathan Janakiraman and Ashwini Kumar Tewari as new managing directors of State Bank of India (SBI). The appointments are for a period of three years.

The 17th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was held virtually. The meeting was hosted by the Republic of Turkey, the current chair of the ACD, under the theme “The New Normal and Safe and Healthy Tourism”.

Kaja Kallas, the leader of the Reform Party, has become Estonia’s first female prime minister; Estonia would thus currently become the only country in the world where both the president and the prime minister are women.

Global financial services major HSBC inaugurated its International Banking Unit (IBU) branch at GIFT City near Gandhinagar city in Gujarat. HSBC is one of the earliest global financial institutions setting up a branch at India’s GIFT City and was the first bank to get a licence from the newly set up International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).

Telecom major Reliance Jio is the fifth strongest brand in the world with the Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 91.7 out of 100, shows the ‘Brand Finance Global 500 2021’ report.
The Brand Finance’s Global 500 ranking of the strongest brands globally, which determined the relative strength of brands, is topped by the Chinese mobile app WeChat. According to the 2021 ranking, Apple is the most valuable brand followed by Amazon and Google.

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Meghalaya was selected for a Special Award for Information Technology applications in Elections by the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the National Best Electoral Practices Awards-2020.

India’s rank has slipped six places to 86th among 180 countries in Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index in 2020.
This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank at first position with scores of 88. Somalia and South Sudan rank lowest at 179th position with scores of 12.

A study by Australia-based Lowy Institute has ranked India 86 out of 98 countries on its Covid performance in the 36 weeks that followed each country’s 100th confirmed case.
While New Zealand has scored the highest average score among countries followed by Vietnam, Taiwan Thailand and Cyprus. The United States is among the bottom five.

Lieutenant General Chandi Prasad Mohanty was appointed as the next vice-chief of Army Staff.

Maharashtra ranks first in the second edition of the India Justice Report (IJR) 2020, that judges states on delivery of justice to people.
Maharashtra retained its number one position among 18 large and mid -sized states—each with a population of over one crore —followed by Tamil Nadu, which improved its ranking from third position in 2019, and Telangana.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosted Future Investment Initiative (FII) with the theme “The Neo-Renaissance.”. The two-day Davos styled summit, would witness global policymakers and business tycoons speaking on a range of topics. The topics will include pharmaceuticals, entertainment and several others.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by 37 per cent to USD 43.85 billion during April-November 2020, according to data by the commerce and industry ministry.

Global public debt is estimated to touch 98 per cent of GDP at the end of 2020, International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest fiscal monitor update, according to which India’s government debt is expected to remain elevated at 83 per cent of GDP.

The Directorate of Teacher Education and SCERT in collaboration with UNICEF, Odisha and technical support from SDRC, has launched the Teacher Education Dashboard named Prashikhyak for Teacher Education Institutes to monitor progress against the annual academic calendar and improve the quality of teacher training along with reliable data linking with the professional profile of teachers.

Iconic multi-talented artist Soumitra Chatterjee passed away at the age of 85 on November 15, 2020.
The authorised biography is titled ‘SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE A Life in Cinema, Theatre, Poetry & Painting’. Co-authored by Arjun Sengupta and Partha Mukherjee, the book will be published by Niyogi Books.

A new scheme has been initiated in Sirohi district, Rajasthan to make people aware about importance of nourishment of pregnant women and children. The scheme called Ek Paudha Suposhit Beti Ke Naam or A plant on the name of well nourished daughter’ has been started under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme of the union government.

Uttar Pradesh government will establish the first leather park of the country in Kanpur district. The park will be established in 268 area of land in Ramaipur village of Kanpur district and is expected to attract an investment of more than 5850 crores.

Karnataka govt launched a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country to automatically select beneficiaries for old-age pensions that will be paid through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode.

Technology giant Microsoft announced the launch of its new India Development Center (IDC) facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which will serve as a premier center of engineering and innovation. The workspace architecture of the centre is inspired by the Taj Mahal. The new IDC is Microsoft’s third development centre in India after Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

India ranked 10th out of 11 Asia Pacific countries in a newly-launched health index to measure the progress towards personalised healthcare. Overall, Singapore has topped the index.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report ‘Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index’ measures the readiness of 11 health systems across the region — Australia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand — in adopting personalised healthcare, enabling the right care to be tailored to the right person at the right time.

IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched virtual intelligence tool Tejas and ”Work from Anywhere” portal at an event.
The National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI), a public sector enterprise under the National Informatics Centre (NIC), celebrated 25 years of its establishment at an event.