Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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 Indian Navy and Russia Navy have engaged in a 2-day passage exercise – PASSEX. The exercise is carried out in East Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
The objective of the exercise is to enhance the interoperability between the two Navies and exchange the best Maritime practices between the two countries.

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.

Notes:
The Government of India is set to inaugurate the construction of 1st phase of Agra Metro. The first phase of the metro would connect Sikandra to Taj Gate.
The estimated project cost for the first phase construction is Rs.8379 crore. It would have 6 stations, with three elevated and three underground stations.

Notes:
This year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will be held in a virtual mode, on account of COVID 19 pandemic movement restrictions.
The virtual convention will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is observed on 9th January of every year that commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa.

Notes:
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has declared “Invest India” as the winner of ‘2020 United Nations Investment Promotion Award’.
Invest India is the Indian Government’s investment promotion and facilitation agency, which was set up in the year 2009 as a Nonprofit venture, under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Notes:
At the recent meeting of Central Zoo Authority chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, two new zoos were granted recognition.
They are the Rajgir Zoo Safari in Nalanda, Bihar and Shaheed Ashfaque Ullah Khan Prani Udyaan in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. With this, the state of Uttar Pradesh has a total of 9 zoos.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is ranked at 41st rank in the Forbes’ ranking of 100 most powerful women in the world, grabbing the highest place.
HCL Corporation CEO and Executive Director Roshni Nadar Malhotra in the 55th spot and Biocon Founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in the 68th rank. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is placed at the first spot.

Notes:
The Rajasthan state Tourism department has tied up with UNESCO and implementing a project by adopting ‘Art of Life’ methodology.
Around 10 cultural tourism hubs are being created in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, and Barmer districts. The project aims to connect the performing artists and handicraft artists with the admirers of the art and culture.

Notes:
Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati claimed to have developed a new technology to harvest water from the air.
The researchers have used the concept of hydrophobicity, which is the property of a material to repel water. Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces or SLIPS material is chemically patterned and used.