Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Central Government has decided to forego interest on eight specified categories of loans paid up to Rs two crore, on account of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court of India has directed the government again to take steps to forego the interest in eight categories of loans, namely MSME, Education, Housing, Consumer durable, Credit card, Automobile, Personal and Consumption.

Notes:
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the Dry Swab RT-PCR for COVID-19 testing, which was developed by CSIR’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.
In this simple and fast method, nasal swab is collected and transported in dry state, as against the using the viral transport medium used in conventional testing. It does not require RNA isolation from the sample.

Notes:
The Indian Navy has taken two MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from an American defence company, on lease for 1 year.
The unmanned aerial vehicles, manufactured by US firm General Atomics, have been obtained on lease, to enhance surveillance over the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The vehicles arrived at the naval air station INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
British Racing Driver and World Champion Lewis Hamilton has clinched the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix title.
Another French driver Romain Grosjean survived a horrific collision with a barrier on the opening lap. With this victory, Lewis Hamilton has won his 95th Formula one title. This is also his 11th victory of the season.

Notes:
Avian Influenza, commonly called as the Bird flu, has been detected in a fourth region in Japan. This can be the country’s worst outbreak in over 4 years.
Avian influenza was discovered at a poultry farm in Hyuga city in Honshu island in southwestern Japan. However, the country announced that there is no possibility that humans will contract bird flu from eating poultry or eggs. It has also decided to cull over 1.8 million chickens.

Notes:
The ‘International day for the abolition of slavery’ is observed every year on December 2, since 1986.
It aims to raise awareness about slavery and put an end to all kinds of slavery including trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, child labour among others. It marks the date of the adoption of the UN Convention related to trafficking and exploitation.

Notes:
The recent spread of Leaf Fall Disease in rubber plantations of Thailand has been a cause of worry to Indian Plantations.
In November, the total affected area of rubber plantation of Thailand was 90,000 ha and there is a potential production loss of 1.30 lakh tons of rubber. It has been cited by Rubber Board officials that the disease has the potential to spread to India.

Notes:
The New Zealand Government has recently declared a climate emergency. This decision has been taken by the government to stress the fact that if emission cuts are not recorded, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions on adverse environmental effects would be witnessed.
The country also announced that its public sector would strive to become carbon neutral by 2025.

Notes:
The government of Maharashtra has decided to rename the settlements in the state having names based on caste.
Habitations like Maharwada, Mangwada, Bramhanwada etc that have indications of caste-based settlements would be changed and named after leaders of the nation. The State Cabinet has recently approved to change the names of those settlements.

Notes:
The International Day of Persons with Disability is observed on 3rd December of every year.
The theme for this year is “Building back better: towards an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world by, for and with persons with disabilities”. UNESCO is organizing a global awareness camp named “Tell our stories, enable our rights” on this occasion.