Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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:
Every year, November 27th is observed as Indian organ donation day by the Government of India. This year marks the 11th Organ Donation Day event.
Tamil Nadu received the ‘Best State award’ for organ donation, by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This is the sixth consecutive year of the state receiving the award.

Notes:
As per the recent statement, India recorded the highest reduction in Malaria cases, in the South-East Asian region.
As per the ‘World Malaria Report 2020’, India reduced the number of cases from 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019. India also recorded a reduction in the number of deaths from malaria. Globally there were 229 malaria cases in 2019.

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:
Dubbed as the “world’s loneliest elephant”, the 36-year-old bull elephant at Islamabad zoo has been shifted to a Cambodian sanctuary.
This step is taken after years of outcry of public and activists and recent campaigning by American pop star Cher. Kaavan is the only Asian elephant in Pakistan, where the elephants at other zoos are African. Kaavan’s mate Saheli, who arrived from Sri Lanka, died in the year 2012.

Notes:
The Government of Singapore has allowed a US-based start up to sell lab grown chicken meat in the country.
The meat is generated from animal tissues in laboratories. This is the world’s first regulatory approval for lab-grown meat also called as cultured meat. Its production cost is higher compared to the original meat.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held on December 4, 2020 decided to keep interest rates unchanged with an “accommodative” policy stance.
The MPC has kept repo rate unchanged at 4% and maintained reverse repo rate at 3.35%. RBI also predicted a real GDP growth of -7.5% for FY21, from the earlier prediction of -9.5%. MPC also expected that the inflation rate will remain high.

Notes:
During the India-Oman virtual dialogue recently held, Oman announced to establish first-of-its-kind Oman-India Friendship Association.
This is the first such initiative in West Asia led by the Foreign Ministry. In December 2019, India and Oman signed a Maritime Transport Agreement during the visit of Foreign Minister Jaishankar to the country.

Notes:
The 3D-object creation platform named “Poly” is operated by the Technology company Google.
Google has proposed to shut down the poly platform from next year, since its service will expire in June 2020. From then on, users will not be able to upload 3D models on the platform.

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.