Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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:
Two lawsuits have been filed by the United States Federal government and governments of 48 US states and territories accusing Facebook.
The Social media major has been accused of eliminating competition with the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The anti-competitive conduct, which adds to the monopoly of the company is accused.

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 year 2021 has been declared as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, by the United Nations. This has been decided in the UN General Assembly meeting held in December 2020.
The proposal was sponsored by Indonesia and was presented by a group of nations including China, India, Australia, Philippines and Thailand.

Notes:
The Indian Naval ship named Himgiri has been launched and commissioned into Indian Waters recently.’
The ship has been constructed as a part of Project 17A for the Indian Navy. It is the first of three stealth frigates being built under the Project at GRSE in Kolkata and at Mazagon Docks Limited in Mumbai.

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.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister has recently approved the next round of auctioning of the telecommunication spectrum. A total of 2251.25 MHz is being offered for auction valued at Rs.3,92,332.70 crore.
The most recent Spectrum auction in India was held in the year 2016, with the government raising Rs 65,789.12 crore in revenue.

Notes:
The Human Development Index for the year 2020 has been released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
As per the report, India has been ranked at 131 out of 189 countries. Last year, India was ranked at 130. HDI is measured with three parameters namely life expectancy, education and per capita income. This year’s index has incorporated new parameters namely CO2 emission and Material foot print and introduced Planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI).

Notes:
A Coroner in the United Kingdom has delivered a landmark judgement, which stated that severe air pollution was the cause of the death of a 9-year-old child in the year 2013.
The child named Ella Kissi-Debrah died in a hospital due to acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure.

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.