Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations every year on November 29 as an opportunity for the international community to refocus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine remains unresolved and that the Palestinian people have yet to attain their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly. The date of 29 November was chosen because of its meaning and significance to the Palestinian people. On that day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), which came to be known as the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State”, with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international regime. Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being.

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The Nagaland government has recently signed pact with Estonian academy to enlighten the state people on the e-governance models prevailing in the world. The main objective of the 5-year agreement with the e-Governance Academy of Estonia is to work together to develop and expand scientific collaboration on setting up e-Governance Academy in Nagaland. The agreement was signed during the current edition of the e-Naga Summit, held with a vision to embark on a process to instill the spirit of innovation and use of technology for impacting positive change in the society.

Notes:
The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) has started in Katowice, Poland from 3-14 December 2018. The conference is expected to finalize the rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change under the Paris Agreement work programme (PAWP). It will also include a number of high-level events, mandated events, action events and roundtables. About 20 thousand people from 190 countries will take part in the event, including politicians, representatives of non-governmental organizations, scientific community and business sector.

Notes:
India will host the G20 summit in 2022, when the country celebrates its 75th year of Independence. The announcement was made at the closing ceremony of the 2018 G-20 held in Argentina’s captial Buenos Aires.The G-20 is a grouping of the world’s 20 major economies. Its comprise Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the U.S. Collectively, the G-20 economies account for nearly 90% of the gross world product, 80% of world trade, two-thirds of the world population, and approximately half of the world land area. Spain is a permanent guest invitee. Earlier, Italy was to host the international forum in 2022.

Notes:
The UK’s Cambridge Dictionary has recently declared “Nomophobia”, the word that describes the stress and anxiety caused by being separated from your mobile, as People’s Word of the year 2018. The word is defined as the fear or worry at the idea of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it. Based on the results of a popular vote, Nomophobia was chose over the other shortlisted words – ‘gender gap’, ‘ecocide’ and ‘no-platforming’.

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The Bilaspur Police in Chhattisgarh now holds the Guinness World Records for its ‘Rakhi with Khakhi’ as part of which girls and women tied rakhis to 50,033 police officials rakhis over a span of ten hours and then uploaded selfies with hashtags #rakhiwithkhaki and #HappyRakshaBandhan. The initiative was the brainchild of Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Sheikh Arif Husen & was held on 25th August 2018, a day before Raksha Bandhan. The Guinness World Records certificate was awarded to Bilaspur police at a function held at the Lakhiram Memorial Auditorium on 1st December 2018. The aim of the initiative is to reach out to women and girls and to assure them of security.

Notes:
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched a new mass media campaign “Heart Attack Rewind” to eliminate industrially produced trans fat in the food supply by 2022 before WHO deadline. The campaign is the 30 second Public Service Announcement (PSA), which will warn citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fats and offer strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives. Edible oil industries took a pledge to reduce the levels of salt, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat content by 2% by 2022. As per records, trans fat intake leads to more than five lakh deaths from cardiovascular diseases every year, globally. Trans fat is made by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to solidify them and increase the shelf life of food. Trans fat is largely present in vanaspati, margarine, and bakery shortenings, and can be found in baked and fried foods.

Notes:
On December 2, the Asia Pacific Summit-2018 was held in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The theme of two day Summit is “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity, and Universal Values”. It was organised by the controversial South Korea-based Universal Peace Federation and supported by the Government of Nepal. Around 1500 participants from 45 countries including India attended the summit. They discussed various global issues including peace, development, good governance and role of parliamentarians, climate change and role of media.

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On 3rd December 2018, the 80th Session of the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organization (WCO) was held in Mumbai, Maharashtra . The Session is being organized by the WCO and hosted by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), India. The Indian delegation was headed by CBIC Chairman, S Ramesh. The custom heads of more than 30 countries participated in the 3-day long discussion on various matters related to customs. Some of the important topics discussed during the meeting include trade facilitation, controlling illicit financial flow, performance measurement, challenges of small island economies, etc. The WCO is the only global organization which defines global standards and procedures for customs clearances at the border and their implementation. It is headquartered at Brussels, Belgium.

Notes:
Luka Modric, Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder, has been honoured with the perstigiuos 2018 Men’s Ballon d’Or award. With this, he ended Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s decade-long dominance in the men’s awards. Modric won his third successive Champions League title in May 2018 and also captained Croatia to its first FIFA World Cup final in Russia. He was named player of the tournament despite his side losing 4-2 to France. For the first time in the history of the Ballon d’Or prize, the female player category was awarded in 2018. Hence, Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg has become the first-ever recipient of the women’s Ballon d’Or. The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football.