Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
Seeking to address some of the most pressing issues facing India, including air pollution, through innovation, the United Nations Development Programme on November 28 launched the country chapter of its Accelerator Lab in New Delhi. The laboratory that will be housed in the UNDP India office has partnered with the Indian government’s Atal Innovation Mission to achieve its objectives.

Notes:
Recently released United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report-2019 warns that the Earth’s average temperature may rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2021. Moreover, despite all scientific warnings and political commitments emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) couldn’t decrease globally. The report was released prior to United Nations Climate Conference (COP-25) to be held in Spain from 2 December 2019. It states that GHG emissions have increased by 1.5% since last decade and that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have reached an all-time high figure of 55.3 gigatons. China, United States of America (USA), European Union (28) and India are among the top four greenhouse gas emitters.
UNEP report highlights that India is regularly considering deadlines and targets to curb carbon emission. As per the report, India’s per capita emission is one of the lowest within G20 countries. Also, India is one of the leading countries that are looking for electric vehicle development.

Notes:
H R Khan, former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been appointed as first chairman of steering committee panel on Code for Responsible Lending (CRL) in Micro-Credit. Members of panel include: P Satish of Sa-Dhan, Sonia Krishnankutty of L&T Finance, Harsh Shrivastava of MFIN and Srinivas Bonam of IndusInd Bank among others.

Notes:
The government of India has introduced an online complaint management system named Sexual Harassment electronic-Box (SHe-Box). It was developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.The aim of the SHe-Box portal is to facilitate the registration of complaints related to sexual harassment of women at the workplace. It will ensure the implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (the SH Act), 2013.
SHe-Box is used to register complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace faced by women, including government and private employees. The victim can submit a complaint in the SHe-Box portal.

Notes:
The hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts will be mandatory from January 15, 2020. Hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts is being made mandatory in India for which a notification will be issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs and a period of one year will be given for implementation to ensure that new assaying and hallmarking centres will be set up by private entrepreneurs at locations where demand of gold jewellery and artefacts arises.

Notes:
India will set up 12 hi-tech parks in Bangladesh at a cost of $193 million.Speaking at a business meeting in Rangpur organised by the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das said that these hi-tech parks will provide training to 30,000 youth of Bangladesh as skilled IT professionals. Responding to the issue of the trade imbalance between the two countries, Riva Ganguly Das said that diversification of the product basket of Bangladesh will help reduce the gap by increasing exports to India.

Notes:
Centre launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0 across the country. The government’s flagship scheme is aimed at immunizing children under the age of 2 years and pregnant women against eight vaccine preventable diseases. The IMI covers vaccines for diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, measles, meningitis and Hepatitis B. Vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and hemophilus influenzal are also being provided in selected areas. The IMI 2.0 aims to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts spread over 27 States. The IMI 2.0 will be carried out between December 2019 and March 2020.

Notes:
NASA satellite orbiting the Moon has found India’s Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander which crashed on the lunar surface in September. NASA released an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that showed the site of the spacecraft’s impact (September 6 in India and September 7 in the U.S.) and associated debris field, with parts scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometers.

Notes:
Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated Steel Silo based Avantee Mega Food Park in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. This is the first food park of central India. It is spread over 51 acres and has been constructed at a cost of about Rs.150 crore. Excess production compels farmers to sell their produces at low rates. Since the mega food park is now present in the region, farmers will be able to earn more through value addition by storing their produces after getting facility of food processing and storage.

Notes:
Punjab State government partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to design a Public-Private pilot on shared, clean and electric mobility. The move aims to combat the growing problem of environmental pollution in the state. The state is preparing its own EV policy to support the adoption of e-vehicles. WEF chose Punjab, as it is well-positioned for shared EV transition. WEF has already housed an existing auto component manufacturing base, besides having skilled labour and being a power surplus.