Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The International Olympic Committee has recently confirmed Breakdancing as an official Olympic sport, to be added at the 2024 Paris Games.
IOC executive board also confirmed three sports namely skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing at the Tokyo Games. The Olympic Games scheduled at Tokyo in 2020 was postponed to 2021.

Notes:
National poet Mahakavi ‘Subramaniya Bharati’ is a famous poet from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. He was an Indian independence activist, journalist and a pioneer in Tamil Literature.
International Bharati Festival is organized by the Vanavil Culture Centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to honour the poet. His 138th birth anniversary was observed on December 11, 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated and presented the Bharati Award to the writer Seeni Viswanathan.

Notes:
The International Mountain Day is celebrated across the world on December 11 every year. The day aims to encourage sustainable development in mountains. The theme of this year’s International Mountain Day is ‘Mountain biodiversity’.
United Nations General Assembly designated the Mountain Day in the year 2003. The UN also declared 2002 as the UN International Year of Mountains.

Notes:
The European Council President has declared after their recent summit that the EU leaders have agreed to set a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030.
After long series of discussions, the EU leaders came to a consensus of the target. European Commission had set a target of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

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:
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducts a national level health survey called as the ‘National Family Health Survey’.
So far four editions of the survey have been conducted, with the latest being conducted in 2015-16. The Health Ministry has released the phase 1 results of the Fifth edition of the survey. The Under 5 and infant mortality rate (IMR) has decreased in 18 states and UTs.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to set up an Automated Banknote Processing Centre (ABPC) in Jaipur.
The Centre would undertake all processes for receipt, storage and dispatch of currency notes. It would also process the banknotes received from currency chests and bank branches, and destroy soiled banknotes in an automated manner.

Notes:
The Goa Shipyard Limited has launched the fifth Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) named ICGS Saksham for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
This is the last such Offshore Patrol Vessel being launched by the shipyard for the ICG. The vessel is fitted with 30-mm guns, quick response boats which makes it capable of handling emergencies along the coast, emergencies along the coast and piracy.

Notes:
The United States Agriculture Department has recently confirmed the first known case of the coronavirus in a wild animal, a mink.
Earlier, Denmark decided to cull several farmed minks after they were infected by the virus. The virus was also found in zoo tigers and household cats and dogs. But this is the first free-ranging and native wild animal being confirmed with the infection.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), widespread rain or thundershowers will come back to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and regions over the South Peninsula.
The Easterly waves move fast across the Bay of Bengal and usually target the south peninsula region. Also called as the tropical wave or tropical easterly wave, it is an area of relatively low air pressure, which moves from east to west across the tropics and causes cloudiness and thunderstorms.