Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

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 Young Champions of the Earth prize is given every year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to seven scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers and activists, who have contributed ideas for sustainable environment change.
Every prize awardee would receive a prize amount of $10,000 as seed fund for development and incubation of their ideas.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh government is set to launch a special program named ‘Kisan Kalyan Mission’, to double the income of farmers.
Under the scheme, exhibitions of agriculture and allied sector will be organised. Meetings will be held to explain scientific farming and various schemes of the Government. Various state departments including Horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries will partner in the scheme.

Notes:
China and Russia have signed a protocol to extend an agreement between the two countries on notifications of launches of ballistic missiles and space missile carriers.
The validity of the agreement will be extended for another 10 years. The said agreement was signed by the two countries on October 13, 2009.

Notes:
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) held a voting for conducting Asian Games for the year 2030 and 2034. The candidates were Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The 2030 Asian Games were awarded to Qatar (Doha), while the 2034 event went to Saudi Arabia (Riyadh). The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a governing body of sports in Asia and was formed in the year 1982.

Notes:
The 4th Bilateral Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting between the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) India and the National Narcotics Board (BNN), Indonesia was held.
The Indian delegation was led by Rakesh Asthana, Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau. During the meeting, NCB highlighted issues of Heroin and Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS) trafficking in the country through land and sea routes.

Notes:
India’s communication satellite CMS-01 was successfully launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The satellite was launched aboard the launch vehicle, PSLV-C50, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The vehicle injected the satellite into its planned orbit. PSLV-C50 is the 52nd flight of PSLV and this was the 77th launch vehicle mission from SDSC SHAR.

Notes:
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched ‘PAReSHRAM’ portal, for the industrial development of the state.
The Chief Minister also launched 22 online services of Department of Labour and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI). The portal will have information regarding different labour laws. Entrepreneurs can get registration certificate, licence and approval through the portal.

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 World Bank has recently released the corrected Doing Business rankings after review of data irregularities.
The World Bank corrected the rankings of China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. China’s rank in 2018 would have been 85, a drop of 7 places. India holds the same place of 63 in the Doing Business 2020 report.