Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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:
NASA has named the 18 astronauts group half of them being women, who will train for its Moon-landing Mission by 2024, named ‘Artemis’.
From this set of astronauts, the first woman to set foot on the moon and the next man on the moon will be picked up. The group includes Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who performed the world’s first all-female spacewalk.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has recently made a successful demonstration of Quantum communications between two of its labs.
The communication was made using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology which is a highly secure way to share encryption keys. In this method, the encryption keys are communicated in the form of qubits in a fibre optic cable, which is highly secure.

Notes:
The Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) has been launched by the Asian Development Bank. This initiative is set to support to its developing member economies to procure and deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
The total cost of this project is USD 9 billion. The aim of the scheme is to help ADB’s member countries to vaccinate their people and tide away from the ongoing COVID crisis.

Notes:
The “Heroes of 2020” is published by the TIMES Magazine. It honours those people who have “went above and beyond the call of duty”.
Rahul Dubey who is an Indian-American has been listed in the Heroes of 2020, who opened the doors of his Washington DC home to over 70 people demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd.

Notes:
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has circulated a draft of Indian Ports Bill 2020 for public consultation. The bill seeks to repeal and replace the Indian Ports Act, 1908.
This bill aims to enable the growth and sustainable development of ports and attract investments in the Port sector. Maritime Port Regulatory Authority, National Port policy and National Port plan are some of the new initiatives described in the bill.

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:
A start-up company incubated by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) – Riafy Technologies has been conferred with four awards at a contest conducted by the smartphone manufacturer Huawei.
The firm was formed seven years ago and emerged as a winner under the best app and the most popular app categories of the contest. It has become the only Indian firm to be in the list of winners.

Notes:
Asia’s oldest stock exchange, BSE Limited, has launched an electronic spot platform for agricultural commodities through its subsidiary BSE Investments.
The platform is named as BSE E-Agricultural Markets Ltd (BEAM). It is to function as a national level, electronic, commodity spot trading platform. Through this, farmers of one state will get access to markets in other states.

Notes:
The Indian Coast Guard has recently launched an operation named “Operation Oliva”. This operation aims to protect the Olive Ridley turtles of the Odisha coast, which are endangered.
The Coast Guard has launched two ships near the major nesting sites, to prevent entry of fishing vessels. Aircrafts of the coast guard have also been deployed as a part of this operation.