Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
A start-up company incubated by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) – Riafy Technologies has been conferred with four awards at a contest conducted by the smartphone manufacturer Huawei.
The firm was formed seven years ago and emerged as a winner under the best app and the most popular app categories of the contest. It has become the only Indian firm to be in the list of winners.

Notes:
Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has developed India’s first Covid-19 vaccine candidate based on mRNA. It has recently received approval from drug regulators of the country for entrusting it to clinical trials.
HGCO19 is the name of the mRNA vaccine candidate developed by the Pune based institution, using the seed grant received under Ind-CEPI mission of the department of biotechnology of the Union Ministry of science and technology

Notes:
NITI Aayog has recently released a white paper titled ‘Vision 2035 – Public Health Surveillance in India’.
It describes India’s vision for public health surveillance via the integration of three-tiered public health system into Ayushman Bharat. The paper aims to make the public health surveillance system of the country, more responsive.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has stated that more than 5 million people of Yemen would head towards hunger in the year 2021.
Also, FAO has estimated that more than 50,000 people in the country would be living in famine conditions by next year. Yemen has been in a civil war since 2014 and the normal life of the Arab country has been severely hurt.

Notes:
The Indian Coast Guard has recently launched an operation named “Operation Oliva”. This operation aims to protect the Olive Ridley turtles of the Odisha coast, which are endangered.
The Coast Guard has launched two ships near the major nesting sites, to prevent entry of fishing vessels. Aircrafts of the coast guard have also been deployed as a part of this operation.

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:
Leading public sector bank, Canara Bank has launched “FX 4 U” facility for forex remittance through Internet Banking.
All eligible individual customers can undertake remittance facility through this platform, as per the regulations of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Corporate customers can also submit the Letter of Credit (LC) applications through internet banking.

Notes:
The United States of America (USA) has lifted Sudan off the list named “State sponsor of terrorism”. Earlier the two countries in October 2020 reached an agreement to lift Sudan’s name from the list.
As per the agreement, Sudan is required to pay a sum of USD 335 million to the victims of 1998 twin bombings on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Notes:
India has pledged USD 1 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) scientific research budget, to develop innovative anti-doping testing methods
As on date, this is the highest among contributions made by other countries. India’s National Dope Testing Laboratory was earlier suspended by WADA, and is to be inspected by next year.

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.