Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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 4th Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation between India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives was hosted by Sri Lanka.
It was held in Colombo and India was represented by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The earlier such meetings were held in Maldives (2011), Sri Lanka (2013) and in India (2014).

Notes:
The Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar has recently launched a portal named India Climate Change Knowledge Portal.
The portal would contain all major initiatives taken by the Government of India address the climate change and environment related issues. The portal is expected to be a single point of information regarding climate change initiatives.

Notes:
The festival named Dev Deepawali is celebrated in Indian city. This is a festival of lights and is celebrated in the Poornima day of the Karthik Month of Hindu calendar.
This year’s celebration is attended by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. During the event, 11 lakh earthern lamps were lit on both sides of river Ganga.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda has launched a virtual edition of the first ever Aadi Mahotsav celebrated in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
This is a festive being celebrated for 10 days. It would be hosted by Tribes India. The key focus on this year’s Aadi Mahotsav is “tribal craft and culture of Madhya Pradesh”.

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:
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:
The National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) is located in the city of Pune. The present building of NIN is called the “Bapu Bhavan”. Gandhiji performed many Naturopathy experiments and organised various national and International activities while staying here.
The Ministry of Ayush has proposed to name the upcoming new campus of National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN), Pune as “Nisarg Gram”.

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 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.