Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
The National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan recently recognised the official book of standards under India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. The book specifies the standards with respect to identity, strength and purity of the drugs manufactured and marketed in India.

Notes:
As per the latest report by WADA, there is a 13.1% increase in the anti-doping rule violation (ADRV). The country that has most violation was Italy, followed by France and the US. Russia, which was earlier banned by WADA stands fifth in this list.

Notes:
The applicability of ‘pontifical secrecy’ to sexual abuse of minors was abolished by the current pope, Pope Francis. Pontifical secrecy allows the Roman Catholic Church to keep certain matters in secrecy, like communications between it and papal embassies. This is in accordance with the ‘Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church’.

Notes:
The Archaeopteris is an ancient woody tree. Its fossils were discovered in New York at a quarry site. The species was responsible for the change in oxygen concentration in the Devonian period. It became extinct in the later part of Carboniferous Period.

Notes:
The US house of Representatives has passed a bill to promote the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. It proposes the establishment of Gandhi-King Development Foundation (to be created by USAID under the Indian laws), Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative (allocates 2 million USD until 2025) and Gandhi-King global academy (professional training initiative on conflict resolution).

Notes:
On December 2019, the US’ Department of State has re-designated Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, North Korea, China, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. These countries were engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom”.

Notes:
Phaethon is an asteroid that had once flew too close to the Sun and had cracked due to scorching conditions. The scientists, for many years, had struggled to photograph the debris left behind by the asteroid and recently, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which was launched in 2018, has taken picture of it.

Notes:
Several people were trapped in Lele Cave in West Java, Indonesia. Three university students have died and several others were saved during the search and rescue operation. The rainy season started in the late November and several regions in Indonesia including West Java have been hit by bad weather and storms in the past two weeks.

Notes:
The 19^th session of the India-Iran Joint Commission was recently held in Tehran and both the countries have expressed their satisfaction on the progress achieved in operationalizing the Shahid Beheshti Port, Chabahar. Chabahar port serves as Iran’s only oceanic port consisting of two separate ports – Shahid Kalantari port and Shahid Beheshti.

Notes:
Oxygen Parlour is an initiative introduced recently in Nashik Railway Station. it is a collaborative project between the Indian Railways and Air Guard to tackle the issue of air pollution. It is a transparent enclosure filled with plants noted for their ability to purify air.