Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The forest department of Assam and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) recently made a seizure of illegally smuggled marine life products.
Most of the seized products were sea fans and endangered aquatic species. This seizure is seen as the biggest of its kind in India. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change.

Notes:
Bihar state is set to organise the first ever migratory bird festival this year. This three-day long festival is aimed to enhance the awareness about migratory birds among common public and to check cases of poaching in the region.
The festival would be jointly organised by Bhagalpur forest division, Bombay Natural History Society and Mandar Nature Club of Bihar.

Notes:
In its Global Economic Outlook, the Fitch ratings has raised India’s GDP forecast to -9.4 per cent in the current fiscal year.
Earlier, Fitch had estimated that Indian economy would contract by 10.5 per cent in current fiscal 2020-21. Now, the firm says that the outlook is brighter due to an expected rollout of vaccines in 2021.

Notes:
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently lowered the expected contraction for India in the current fiscal to 8 per cent from 9 per cent.
After falling by 23.9 per cent in Q1 of fiscal year 2020, the Indian economy began to normalise with only 7.5 per cent in Q2. This was released in ADB’s latest ‘Asian Development Outlook 2020 Update’.

Notes:
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is the present President of Ghana has been re- elected as the President of the country for the second time.
He has secured 51.2 percent of the vote as against his rival – the former President John Mahama, who secured 48% votes.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved an expenditure of Rs.22,810 crore, for providing a wage subsidy through the employee’s provident fund organization (EPFO).
This is a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana. This move is set to incentivize creation of new job opportunities during the Covid recovery phase of the economy.

Notes:
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the stone for the new Parliamentary Building, thus kick starting its construction. Tata Group has won the bid for constructing the triangular shaped Parliamentary Building.
The building is being constructed as a part of Central Vista redevelopment project, and is expected to be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs.971 crore.

Notes:
“The Presidential Years” is an upcoming book authored by the late former President of India Pranab Mukherjee.
This memoir is the fourth volume of the memoirs, that will be released globally in January 2021. The third volume of former President’s autobiography titled “The Coalition Years — 1996-2012” in the year 2017.

Notes:
Morocco has become the latest Arab League country to agree to normalise relations with Israel in a deal brokered with US initiative.
As part of the deal, the US has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region. Morocco is also the fourth country to normalise ties with Israel since August, this year. Earlier, Bahrain and UAE signed such deal.

Notes:
Alejandro ‘Alex’ Olmedo, who won the Wimbledon and Australian Championships singles titles in 1959, died recently at the age of 84.
The legendary player was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. He was born in Peru and moved to the United States. He also won the Davis Cup trophy for the United States in 1958. For over 25 years, the veteran player was teaching tennis.