Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Union Government has launched “Mission COVID Suraksha” and has allotted a package of Rs.900 crore for the same. The grant by the central government would be given to Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Research & Development of Indian COVID-19 vaccines.
The mission aims at development of approximately 5 or 6 COVID 19 vaccine candidates and ensure their faster availability to the public.

Notes:
As per the US Air Quality Index released recently, Lahore is named the most polluted city in the world, followed by Delhi and Kathmandu.
Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, has reported a particulate matter (PM) rating of 423. The The United States Environmental Protection Agency registers air quality as ‘satisfactory’ if the AQI is under 50.

Notes:
The World AIDS Day is observed every year on the 1st of December, since 1988. It is an international day dedicated to raise awareness about AIDS and to mourn for those who have lost life due to this pandemic.
The theme for this year’s AIDS Day is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact”. There were 38 million people living with HIV infection, in the year 2019.

Notes:
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a small country on the north-eastern coast of South America. It was previously known as ‘Dutch Guiana’.
The 7th India-Suriname Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) was recently held virtually. The JCM was co-chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan and his counterpart in Suriname.

Notes:
The Chardham highway project is a 900-km strategic projects, which aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns in the state of Uttarakhand- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
Recently, the Supreme Court has asked the committee monitoring the Chardham highway project, to consider the Defence Ministry’s application to widen three highways in the Indo-China Border up to 7 metres.

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:
India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently with the United States of America (USA) to increase intellectual property cooperation between the two nations.
The agreement has been signed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) – India and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Notes:
The Special Borrowing Window to make good the GST Compensation Cess shortfall is operationalised by the Union Finance Ministry.
All states and 3 Union territories have opted for the “option 1”, under which centre has set up the special borrowing window under which the Government would borrow funds to be passed on to the states.

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.

Notes:
A comic book depicting India’s glorious Naval past and maritime heritage has been released by the Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar.
The book has been published in association with Amar Chitra Katha and has been released on the occasion of Naval Day Celebrations. The book is the first in series of three comic books.