Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank has announced that the Real Time Gross Settlement System or the RTGS facility will be available round the clock, from December 14.
Last December, the RBI had made the NEFT service available 24×7. As per the RBI, RTGS can be used for both domestic payments in Indian financial markets and cross-border payments.

Notes:
Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, has recently spotted a new species of Murainagrass.
Ischaemum is a genus of grass, widespread in tropical and semitropical regions. It is commonly called as Murainagrass. A new and tolerant species has been spotted in Goa in the Western Ghats. It was named Ischaemum janarthanamiiin honour of Goa University’s Botany Professor M. K. Janarthanam.

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 Chinese Space Agency has launched two satellites for detecting gravitational waves. The two satellites form a part of Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) mission. These two satellites were launched using Long March-11 carrier rocket.
These satellites would be used for monitoring and studying high-energy radiation, gamma-rays and gravitational waves.

Notes:
The Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) transaction was introduced in India in the year 2004. Presently, RTGS handles a transaction volume of Rs 4.17 lakh crore per day and it is used by 237 participant banks.
Recently, Reserve Bank of India has permitted for round the clock RTGS facility in India, which makes India one among the very few countries offering this service.

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:
Indian Mountain Initiative (IMI) organized the 9th edition of Sustainable Mountain Development Summit in Dehradun. The summit has been organized in a Virtual Mode, on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.
It is a 4-day long summit where issues like migration, water security, climate resilience would be discussed by delegates.

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:
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:
The Swadhinata Sarak, which is a road link between India and Bangladesh, is set to be reopened on 26th March 2021.
Swadhinata Sarak is a road that was formed in the Meherpur district of Bangladesh, that was formed during a provisional government was in charged in 1971. The reopening of the road will be held to mark the 50 years of Bangladesh’s Independence and to enhance Indo-Bangladesh bi lateral ties.