Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
According to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), over 75 per cent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events.
The districts, which are home to more than 63.8 crore people, are hotspots of extreme climate events such as cyclones, floods, droughts, heat and cold waves. This is the first time the extreme weather event hotspots in the country are being mapped.

Notes:
The term “Mixopathy” means allowing a section of Ayurveda doctors to undertake certain surgeries. Allopathy Doctors and surgeons are agitated by the mixopathy, by which Government has decided to permit Ayurveda doctors to undertake certain surgeries.
A strike is being proposed by the Indian Medical Association to express its opposition against the Government’s decision.

Notes:
The “Heroes of 2020” is published by the TIMES Magazine. It honours those people who have “went above and beyond the call of duty”.
Rahul Dubey who is an Indian-American has been listed in the Heroes of 2020, who opened the doors of his Washington DC home to over 70 people demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd.

Notes:
Plasmodium Ovale, a malaria causing parasite has been detected in the state of Kerala. This has been detected in a soldier who had come from Sudan.
Malaria is caused by plasmodium parasites, that are transmitted to humans by bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. There are five parasite species that cause malaria and two among them – Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the greatest threats.

Notes:
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has recently extended a USD 448-million line of credit (LOC) for various infrastructure projects in Uzbekistan.
Extended on behalf of the Indian government, the LoC would be used in various projects in transport, water and technology sectors in the country. EXIM Bank has so far extended 266 LOCs to various countries.

Notes:
The Indian Embassy in Beijing recently launched a movie series “CinemaSCOpe”, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Under the programme, over two dozen Indian films dubbed in Russian, will be screened on a monthly basis. The screening will continue till India’s chairmanship of the SCO ‘Council of Heads of State’ meeting in 2023.

Notes:
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Power celebrates December 14 as the National Energy Conservation Day.
The Day is being celebrated every year since 1991, to exhibit India’s steps taken towards energy conservation. BEE spreads awareness amongst the people about energy efficiency and the need to shift to sustainable energy sources.

Notes:
Social media major Facebook has launched a new iOS app called Collab, which lets users create collaborative musical videos.
Launched as a rival to the Chinese short-video making platform TikTok, this experimental app is now available on the App Store in the United States. Facebook had earlier launched Reels feature on Instagram and another app Lasso.

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:
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.