Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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:
Russia has successfully test fired a ‘Tsirkon’ hypersonic cruise missile in the Arctic Region recently. The missile was fired from a frigate war ship named Admiral Gorshkov.
The missile was fired from the white sea on to a naval target located 450 km away in the Barents Sea. The missile cruised at a speed of over Mach 8 and brought down the target.

Notes:
The first ever SCO Online Exhibition on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” has been launched recently at the 19th Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government. The meeting was held in New Delhi in a virtual mode.
This online exhibition has been developed by National Museum, New Delhi in association with the museums and cultural institutions of SCO member countries.

Notes:
‘737 MAX’ is the best-selling airliner of US-based leading multi-national aerospace company Boeing. It was grounded in March 2019 after two crashes in five months killing a total of 346 people.
The redesigned version of the ‘737 MAX’ airliner has recently staged its first post-grounding flight with media on board. It made a 45-minute flight from Texas to Oklahoma in the US. The flight’s first commercial passenger flight is scheduled in the month-end of December.

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:
One of the two lesser florican birds that was tagged by the Gujarat forest department has flown all the way to the state of Telangana.
The bird was tagged at the Blackbuck National Park (BBNP), Velavadar, in Bhavnagar. This has confirmed a research finding that lesser florican birds migrate to peninsular India from the western part of India after their breeding season.

Notes:
The Polavaram lift irrigation project which is being constructed in the state of Andhra Pradesh, is expected to be completed in 2022.
It has been reported that the project would be completed on time and would commence to supply water during Kharif 2022. The Polavaram project is seen as a life line for the irrigation of Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
Leading space start-up Pixxel has signed an agreement with the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to launch the country’s first private remote-sensing satellite.
The satellite is to be launched on an ISRO PSLV rocket in early 2021. Earlier, regulatory body under the Department of Space called ‘IN-SPACe’ was established to enable private players undertake space activities in India.

Notes:
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft belonging to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAEA) has successfully separated from a capsule in space, and is descending toward Earth.
The capsule is carrying samples from distant asteroid that is expected to provide information about the origin of Earth. The spacecraft was launched from Japan last year.

Notes:
The Madras High Court has the highest number of women Judges among all the High Count of India. Among the additional 13 Judges who sworn in recently, 4 were women.
As of now, the total number of women judges in Madras High Court stands at 13. Justice AP Sahi is the present Chief Justice of Madras High Court.