Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
On November 29,2019 the Greater Chennai Police received the Union government’s SKOCH Award under the category ‘Swachh Police Station’, for maintaining cleanliness in all their police stations. This comes after the police’s efforts to clear up abandoned and unclaimed vehicles from all station premises. A huge pile of abandoned and unclaimed vehicles around nearly all police stations in the Greater Chennai area used to take up a lot of space, besides giving the stations a shabby look. On the instruction of Commissioner of Police A.K. Viswanathan, senior officers took account of all these vehicles in each police station in the city.

Notes:
The Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) has launched the Estate Management System (EMS) and Web-based Geographic Information System (Web-GIS) on 28 November 2019. PSIEC launched it under the leadership of Capt. Amarinder Singh. The aim of the system is to ensure transparency. The system also promotes ease of doing business in the State.

Notes:
Bestselling author Ashwin Sanghi will come out with his next book, “The Vault of Vishnu”, on January 23, 2020, announced publishing house Westland. The book, which will be the sixth installment of the author’s famous mythological ‘Bharat series’, will be released at the upcoming Jaipur Literature festival (JLF). Setting a fictional timeline of mythological events, Sanghi said, the new book will also be a “combination of history, mythology, culture, philosophy, geology, and science”.

Notes:
Ursula von der Leyen took charge as the President of the European Commission. She replaced Jean-Claude Juncker. She is the first woman to become the President of the European Commission. Ms.Ursula, the 60-year-old gynecologist, started her political career at her early age of 40. In 1990 she joined Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) and worked for 14 years. Leyen moved to the Labor Ministry in 2009. She became the first female defense minister in 2014.

Notes:
The national cricket team of New Zealand was awarded the Christopher Martin-Jenkins Spirit of Cricket award for the year 2019. England team captain Kane Williamson was presented with the award during the drawn second Test between his team and England.The New Zealand team has been recognized for their sporting conduct following a dramatic defeat by England in ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 final at Lord’s in July 2019. However, even though England lifted the trophy on basis of boundary count as runs were tied in both 50-over match and Super Over, the New Zealand team gained praise for their humility after losing the premier tournament. Thus, Kane Williamson-led team’s on and off-field display during World Cup final earned them the award.

Notes:
Amazon.com Inc is extending its cloud to 5G networks in partnership with Verizon Communications Inc, so developers can run latency-sensitive programs on mobile and connected devices. The program, called AWS Wavelength, is one of several new ways that Amazon Web Services is pushing its cloud into new territory. At the company’s annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, the world’s top cloud provider also announced new infrastructure called Local Zones, debuting in Los Angeles, that will help nearby users run speed-intensive applications like gaming.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment conferred Uttar Pradesh with the National Award of Excellence for doing a commendable job in the field of rehabilitation of persons with disabilities (Divyangjan). Uttar Pradesh also received the award for the best state in the implementation of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan. The department’s website also received the award as the best portal for being disabled-friendly while Varanasi has been awarded for offering the best rehabilitation services among the districts.

Notes:
In 1996 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that 7 December was to be the International Civil Aviation Day. The day has been celebrated by the International Civil Aviation Organization since 7 December 1994, the 50th anniversary of the signing the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The purpose of the day is to recognize the importance of aviation, especially international air travel, to the social and economic development of the world.

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.

Notes:
ISRO has set-up a Space Technology Incubation Centre (S-TIC) at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli. The centre will work with ISRO on the technical problems at hand related to the future Space programmes and shall provide solutions. This S-TIC will cater to the southern region of India, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Telangana, the Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry.