Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
Particles, the French-Swiss film directed by Blaise Harrison won the Golden Peacock Award at the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The IFFI 2019 concluded on November 28, 2019. The Golden Peacock Award includes a cash prize worth Rs 40 lakh, a trophy and a citation. The jury described ‘Particles’, which is produced by Estelle Fialon, as an “ambitious yet modest film about the mysteries of being a teenager.” The prize money is to be distributed equally between the director and producer.

Notes:
On November 28, 2019 Aditya Birla Finance became the first company to list its commercial papers borrowing of Rs 100 crore on the Indian stock exchanges. The non-banking finance company (NBFC) listed its CPs on NSE with a value date of November 28, 2019 and maturity date on February 7, 2020.

Notes:
The government on December 1,2019 appointed Soma Roy Burman, a 1986-batch Indian Civil Accounts Service Officer, as the new Controller General of Accounts (CGA). Ms. Burman is the 24th CGA and is the seventh woman to hold this position. During her 33-year long career, she has held cadre positions at different levels in ministries such as Home Affairs, Information & Broadcasting, Industry, Finance, Human Resource Development and Shipping, Road Transport & Highways.

Notes:
The third edition of the Khelo India Youth Games which is scheduled to be held from January 10 to 22,2019 in Guwahati. The third edition will have two additional sports — Cycling and Lawn Bowls as over 10,000 participants from across the country participate in a total of 451 medal events during the 13 action-packed days. The Khelo India Games was launched in 2018 to imbibe a culture of sports in the country.

Notes:
A total of 19,668 hospitals in the country have been empanelled under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana on 25th of November this year.They included over nine thousand hospitals in the private sector. This information was given in a written reply in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey. Gujarat topped the list with 2856 empanelled hospitals followed by Karnataka with 2849 and Uttar Pradesh with 2312 hospitals.

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:
Government launched the Operation Clean Art across India. The operation aimed to crackdown illegal trade in the mongoose hair. This is the first time such an operation is happening in India. It was initiated by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB).The mongoose is a small carnivoran found in southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. It is listed in Schedule II (Part II) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. As per the act, smuggling Mongoose or possession of its body part is a non-bailable offence. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed Mongoose on the Least Concern category in the Red List.

Notes:
The Indian Government has introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a subject in class IX from the session 2019-20 in the schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Centre has also launched a twelve hours Inspire module in which schools can take up with the students of class VIII. The move aims to enhance the multidisciplinary approach in teaching-learning and to sensitize the new generation.

Notes:
‘Call of Duty: Mobile’ (CODM) has reaped nearly $87 million in global player spending and more than 172 million downloads in its first two months. The game picked up nearly 21 million installs in November, compared to almost 146 million in October, revealed analytics firm Sensor Tower recently. As per report, the game has been a hit in the US, where it has seen nearly 28.5 million installs, or 16.6% of all downloads. India came in second with 17.5 million installs, or 10.2%, and Brazil ranked third with 12 million installs, or 7%. Google Play generated the majority of downloads over 89 million, or 52%. The iOS version, meanwhile, accumulated nearly 83 million downloads, or 48%.

Notes:
Indian Government has declared Port of Mongla and Chattogram as Ports of Call under Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWT&T) between India and Bangladesh. Mongla and Chattogram are declared as Ports of Call under the Coastal Shipping Agreement between India and Bangladesh. An MoU, Agreement and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was signed between India and Bangladesh on the use of Chattogram Port & Mongla Ports for the movement of goods to and from India.