Current Affairs-17.01.2021

17.01.2021

Parliamentary Consultative Committee

• These committees are constituted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
• These are normally constituted after the new Lok Sabha is constituted.
• This implies that these committees stand dissolved upon dissolution of every Lok Sabha and thus, are reconstituted upon constitution of each Lok Sabha.
• The guidelines regarding the composition, functions and procedures of these committees are formulated by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
• These consist of members of both the Houses of Parliament.
• The maximum membership of a committee is 30 and the minimum is 10.
• These committees are attached to various ministries/departments of the Central Government.

Shrine of Hazrat Abu Baqar Siddique

• Abu Bakr Abdullah ibn Uthman was a companion and, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first of the Rashidun Caliphs.
• Following Muhammad's death in 632, Abu Bakr succeeded in the leadership of the Muslim community as the first Rashidun Caliph.
• His shrine is situated on the Northern bank of the Dal Lake, Srinagar, and is considered to be Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
• The mosque contains strands of Muhammad's hair, often referred to as "the relic of Hazratbal shrine" or simply, "the relic".

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

• The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is a Twenty20 cricket domestic championship in India, organized by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), among the teams from Ranji Trophy.
• The 2009-10 season was the inaugural season for this trophy.
• It is named after a famous Indian cricketer, Syed Mushtaq Ali.

US Capitol

• The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the meeting place of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government.

National Defence Authorization Act

• The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the name for each of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense.
• The first NDAA was passed in 1961.
• The U.S. Congress oversees the defense budget primarily through two yearly bills: the National Defense Authorization Act and defense appropriations bills.
• The authorization bill determines the agencies responsible for defense, establishes recommended funding levels, and sets the policies under which money will be spent.
• The appropriations bill provides funds.

New Caps on Trans Fats

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) reduced the permissible limit of trans fatty acids (TFA) in oils and fats to 3% for 2021 and 2% by 2022, against the earlier cap of 5%.
• The decision was affected by an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations.
• In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) had called for a global elimination of industrially produced TFAs by 2023.

Communications Decency Act

• The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) was the United States Congress's first notable attempt to regulate pornographic material on the Internet.
• Section 230 of the act primarily aimed at curbing online obscene contents.

Global Public Debt

• Falling revenues combined with costly pandemic relief measures have increased global debt by $20 trillion since the third quarter of 2019.
• By the end of the year, economists expect global debt to reach $277 trillion, or 365% of world GDP.
• Excluding the financial sector, Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio increased by nearly 80%, the highest of any developed country.
• Australia was one of the few countries that managed to reduce their household debt over the year.

Aviation Turbine Fuel

• Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines.
• It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance.
• It is a mixture of a variety of hydrocarbons.

100 Million shots in first 100 days

• It is a promise by US President-elect Joe Biden to administer 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in his first 100 days.

Major rivers of Gujrat

• Narmada: Gujarat’s largest river with its origin in Amarkantak in MP the river runs for an overall length of 1,310 km.
• Sabarmati: Originate the Aravalli ranges in the district of Udaipur and meet at the gulf of Khambhat in Arabian Sea.
• Mahi: Rising in Madhya Pradesh and flowing through the Vagad region of Rajasthan the river makes its way through the state of Gujarat and flows into the Arabian Sea.
• Machchhu: origin in Madla Hills
• Hiran: near the Sasa hills of Gir forest
• Rupen: Originating from the Taranga hills in the western region of Gujarat the river is unique in its own way since it does not go on to meet and end at the ocean instead it gets dried up in Rann of Kutch.
• Kim: origin in Satpura hills.

Line of Actual Control

• The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a notional demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory in the Sino-Indian border dispute.
• The term is said to have been used by Zhou Enlai in a 1959 letter to Jawaharlal Nehru. It subsequently referred to the line formed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and is part of the Sino-Indian border dispute.