Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Parliament of Iran has passed a bill, called as “The strategic measure for the removal of sanctions”.
It aims to uplift the country’s nuclear activities, following the assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The scientist, who died of gun men attack, was the head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s innovation center.

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:
‘Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare’ is observed on November 30 every year, across the world.
United Nations observes the day to pay tribute to millions of lives lost round the globe in the wake of chemical warfare. ‘Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) is the implementing body for Chemical Weapons Convention. It is headquartered at the Hague, Netherlands.

Notes:
The Indian Government has constituted a Apex Committee for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (AIPA). It was formed through a gazette notification.
The committee comprises of 17 members. It is entrusted with the responsibility of formulating policies and programmes for implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), under Paris Agreement 2015. The Secretary of Union Environment Minister would be the Chairperson.

Notes:
India and the United States attended the inaugural meeting of the Counter-narcotics Working Group (CNWG), in virtual mode.
Indian delegation was represented by the Deputy Director General of Narcotics Control Board, Ministry of Home Affairs. The two countries also agreed to improve their data sharing operations to fight the production, distribution, and export/import of drugs and related chemicals.

Notes:
Mamit district of the state of Mizoram has topped the rankings of aspirational districts by Niti Aayog for October.
Banka of Bihar and Dhenkanal of Odisha have been placed at the second and third positions, respectively. Niti Aayog assesses the incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas.

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:
Chinese scientists have developed a quantum computer named Jiuzhang. China has claimed it to be the world’s first light-based quantum computer.
It is said that the computer can solve extremely esoteric calculations called Gaussian boson sampling in 200 seconds, which a conventional supercomputer would take 600 million years to provide result.

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:
India Empowerment Fund is set to be launched by the IIT Alumni Council for investing a sum of Rs.50,000 crore in India’s research system.
The fund would be invested in a period of 10 years. The fund will be operated as IIT Angel Fund and would be regulated under Angel Investor Funds.