Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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:
The Department of Posts and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) have launched a new digital payment application named ‘DakPay’.
It is a suite of digital banking services provided through their postal network, across the country. The features include Domestic Money Transfers – DMT, Virtual debit card, UPI payment, AePS and Bill payment.

Notes:
Bangladesh marks Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 every year, to remember the teachers, journalists and poets killed on this day in 1971.
The Bangladesh Liberation War which began in 1971 grew into the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, and ended with the victory of Bangladesh. After the victory, Bengali intellectuals and professionals were said to have been killed by Pakistani forces and their collaborators.

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.

Notes:
The Government of India and New Development Bank today signed a loan agreement for USD 1000 million.
The loan aims to provide support to Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through MGNREG Scheme. This is expected to facilitate economic activity and employment generation to stimulate rural demand, which will in turn help the recovery of economy, hit by Covid-19.

Notes:
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been awarded with the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for the year 2020 in the Steel Sector.
SAIL has been the winner of this prestigious award for successive two years. Steel Authority of India Limited is an Indian state-owned steel making company based in New Delhi. Various measures of the company to preserve environment have been recognised.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has set up a dedicated control centre for Space Situational Awareness (SSA).
It has been named as Netra” and is aimed at monitoring, tracking and protecting India’s space assets. It is set up at ISTRAC campus at Peenya, Bangalore.

Notes:
The Chinese technology major Alibaba has developed a face-recognition software, which enables the users to identify ethnic minorities like Uighurs.
It is said that the company’s cloud-computing technology uses pre-defined facial features to detect ethnic minorities within images and video. The technology could be used to identify videos filmed by Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.

Notes:
The Government of Pakistan has approved a legislation that permits chemical castration of rapists. This new legislation is applicable to repeat as well as first-time offenders.
This provision has been added to the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020. As per the ordinance, it is the discretion of the trial judge to order chemical castration.

Notes:
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has cleared a set of proposals for military equipment procurement amounting Rs.27,000 crore.
The proposal includes indigenously designed airborne early warning aircraft and patrol vessels. Most of these procurements are to be made from the domestic industry.