Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The United Nations Development Programme introduced a new measure named called the Planetary Pressures-adjusted HDI, or PHDI.
It assesses the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint. While India stands at 131st rank in the Human Development Index, when this metric is considered, India is placed at 123rd rank in the list, which is topped by Ireland.

Notes:
The World Bank has recently released the corrected Doing Business rankings after review of data irregularities.
The World Bank corrected the rankings of China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. China’s rank in 2018 would have been 85, a drop of 7 places. India holds the same place of 63 in the Doing Business 2020 report.

Notes:
India and Japan have been organising SAMVAD conference series for the past five years, in many places including New Delhi and Tokyo.
This series of conference aims to highlight the shared values of the two countries. During the 6th India-Japan Samvad conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the creation of a library of Buddhist literature and scriptures.

Notes:
Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli dissolved the country’s House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament.
Several legal experts and political leaders slammed the move as unconstitutional. This move by the Prime Minister triggered protests and resignations of at least seven Cabinet-rank ministers. As per the President’s office, a general election will be held in two phases, on April 30 and May 10 next year.

Notes:
The ‘Legion of Merit’ honour of the United States has been conferred on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The prestigious award has also been conferred on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. By this, the US President Donald Trump has focussed the QUAD group.

Notes:
ICICI Bank has recently launched an online platform for foreign companies looking to establish or expand business in the country.
The online platform, which is called ‘Infinite India’, offers banking solutions and value-added services to the companies including Incorporation services, Licence and registration, Taxation and compliance.

Notes:
The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is the development finance institution of the United States federal government.
It finances private development projects in lower- and middle-income countries. Recently, DFC announced that it is set to invest USD 54 million in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in India to support the development of critical infrastructure projects.

Notes:
The Directorate General of Training (DGT) under the aegis of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) launched an online learning platform called the Bharatskills, for the students and teachers of Industrial Training Institutes (ITI).
The DGT joined hands with Microsoft and NASSCOM Foundation to provide digital employability skilling program for nearly 1.2 lakh ITI students in around 3000 ITIs across India.

Notes:
The Jal Jeevan Mission and the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade have launched an Innovation challenge to develop Portable devices for water testing.
The challenge aims to develop a cost-effective solution that can be used at the household level to test the drinking water quality instantly. All individuals, Start-ups, MSMEs and corporates can participate in the challenge, under which the selected innovations will be hand-held for support.

Notes:
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is to start selling cars in India in early 2021.
This was announced by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Real Transport and Highways. Elon Musk also tweeted about the company’s plans for India. The Company would consider to establish manufacturing and assembly units in India, as per the Minister.