Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
India’s largest food delivery platform Swiggy has announced that it is set to onboard over 36000 street vendors under PM SVANidhi scheme.
The platform is to expand its Street Food Vendors programme to 125 cities. Earlier, Swiggy had partnered with Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), to onboard over 300 street vendors in select cities.

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:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently appreciated India’s initiative of ‘Fitness Ka Dose, Aadha Ghanta Roz’.
The campaign, which aims to promote physical activity, was launched as part of the nation-wide Fit India Movement. It urges all Indians to follow at least 30 minutes of fitness activities every day. This is on the lines with the WHO fitness campaign.

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:
Google, Intel, Dell and Citrix along with other technology major in the industry have partnered to form Modern Computing Alliance. The alliance aims to address some of the greatest IT challenges faced by the players in the industry and would provide “cloud first” computing solutions.
The alliance would be creating a seamless, user-friendly experience across the web and devices.

Notes:
Russia has successfully test-launched its heavy lift Angara A5 space rocket for the second time, the first launch having undertaken in 2014.
As per the state space agency Rocosmos, these Angara rockets do not use aggressive and toxic propellants, thereby increasing environmental safety in the areas adjacent to the launch complex and in the drop zones.

Notes:
Shaheen (Eagle)-IX is the 9th joint Air Force Exercise between Pakistan and China. It conducted at an Air Force Base at Pakistan.
It is designed to deepen the cooperation between the two countries and enhance their combat skills. The first such exercise was conducted in the year 2011 at Pakistan. Every year, this exercise is held alternatively in China and Pakistan.

Notes:
Scientists have stated that the strongest meteor shower of the year – “Geminids meteor shower” would be active from December 4 to 20 this year. These meteors originate from 3200 Phaethon Asteroid and its diameter is about 5 Km. This meteor was discovered in the year 1983 and has been named after the Greek myth of Phaethon the son of Sun god Helios.

Notes:
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla released a book on occasion of 19th anniversary of the Indian Parliament attack.
The book titled ‘The Shaurya Unbound’ (English Version) and ‘Samundar Samawe Boond Mein’ (Hindi Version) were released on the 2001 incident. As many as 14 people including the five terrorists died during the incident.

Notes:
22 hatchlings of black softshell turtles that were reared at a temple in Assam have been released into the wetlands of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve recently.
These species of turtles are considered ‘Extinct in the wild’, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A very few numbers of them are left in some temple ponds, mostly in Assam.