Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
“Go for zero” is a policy proposal released by Grattan Institute, a non-profit think tank that advises the government.
As a part of the policy, the Australian Government introduced several measures with the goal of eventually reaching zero new cases and not just to flatten the curve. As a result, the country passed three weeks without any local transmission of Covid-19.

Notes:
Ranjitsinh Disale, who is a primary school teacher from the state of Maharashtra, has been awarded the most prestigious “Global Teacher Prize 2020”.
He has been conferred with the USD 1 million Global Teacher Prize, for his contribution in the field of teaching and for injecting new ideas for girl education. This award was constituted by Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO.

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:
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is the present President of Ghana has been re- elected as the President of the country for the second time.
He has secured 51.2 percent of the vote as against his rival – the former President John Mahama, who secured 48% votes.

Notes:
Indian state-owned telecommunications company BSNL in partnership with machine connectivity solutions company Skylotech India, to launch a satellite-based narrowband IoT network in India.
The solution will connect with the satellite ground infrastructure of BSNL. This is the world’s first satellite-based narrowband-IoT network. The IoT connectivity is already tested in Indian Railways and fishing vessels among others.

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:
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 Indian Space Research Organisation has announced that it is set to launch the communication satellite CMS-01 onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C50).
The launch is scheduled on December 17 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. PSLV-C50 is the 52nd mission of PSLV and the communication satellite will provide services to the Indian mainland, Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.

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.