Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
A former US college baseball player who helped inspire the global phenomenon known as the “ice bucket challenge” to tackle a deadly neurodegenerative disease has died at the age of 34.A one-time college athlete from the Boston area, Pete Frates’ struggle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, was one of the inspirations behind the ice bucket challenge which took social media by storm in 2014.

Notes:
Renowned Telugu actor and writer Gollapudi Maruti Rao, who enthralled people with his writings and acting for several decades, passed away on December 12,2019. He was 80. Rao, who acted in around 250 films in about four decades, passed away in Chennai following a cardiac arrest, his family members told reporters.

Notes:
Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 on 12 December 2019 by voice vote. The bill seeks to amend Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 to include three tribes namely– Parivara, Talwara and Siddi community of Dharwad and Belagavi districts, in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Karnataka. The bill was introduced by Tribal Affairs Minister of State Renuka Singh Saruta in Upper House.

Notes:
The news magazine Time has named the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg in 2019 Person of the Year. She was named as she inspired millions of people in 150 countries to protest climate change. She has also delivered blunt and powerful speeches to leaders urging them to address the issue. Others honoured by TIME for the year 2019: Disney CEO Bob lger was named the Business Person of the Year. US Women’s Soccer Team has been named as the Athlete of the Year. The US Public Servants was named as the Guardians of the Year Singer Lizzo has been named as the Entertainer of the Year.

Notes:
Pakistan opener Abid Ali has become the only male player in cricket history to score a hundred on both his ODI and Test debuts when he reached three figures on the final day of the Rawalpindi Test against Sri Lanka. Former England women’s player Enid Bakewell who played 12 Tests between 1968 and 1979 was the first cricketer (male/female) to start both their ODI and Test careers with a century.

Notes:
The Union Territory Puducherry unveiled a startup policy of the Industries Department. It was announced by Puducherry Industries Minister Shajahan. The policy lays emphasis to provide financial grants, monthly stipend, fiscal incentives to interested entrepreneurs and bring new business ventures to the Union Territory.The policy creates a corpus fund of Rs.10 crore to support the setting up of startup incubators and to develop co-working spaces. It will provide a grant of Rs.3 lakh to the projects recommended by incubators that are established by the government or private sector as a startup grant.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed two Bills, namely Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Scheduled Tribes Bill and Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Scheduled Castes Bill on 16 December 2019. The two bills were passed by voice note. The Bills will enable to set up the separate Commissions for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The Andhra Pradesh State Commission for ST Bill was tabled by the State Minister for Tribal Welfare Pushpa Srivani. It will allow setting up of separate Commissions to safeguard the interests of STs.

Notes:
The scientists at the IIT Hyderabad had developed a memristor sensor for detecting the bovine serum albumin, which is analogous to the human serum albumin. The memristor or ‘Resistive Random Access Memory’ device is capable of changing its resistance state with voltage (called SET and RESERT switching). It is made up of metal electrodes and uses titanium dioxide as the active material.

Notes:
The judiciary of Pakistan recently handed the death sentence to Pervez Musharraf in December. The penalty was handed by a special court against the former military dictator for high treason. Musharraf was a 4 star general of the Pakistani Army and the 10^th president of the country. Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan as President until 2008.

Notes:
Article 5 to 11 (Part II) of the Indian constitution deals with the citizenship in India. The legislation related to this is the Citizenship Act, 1955. It has been amended many times and the most recent of it is in 2019 to provide path to citizenship to certain religious minorities from several Muslim countries.