Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The International Olympic Committee has recently confirmed Breakdancing as an official Olympic sport, to be added at the 2024 Paris Games.
IOC executive board also confirmed three sports namely skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing at the Tokyo Games. The Olympic Games scheduled at Tokyo in 2020 was postponed to 2021.

Notes:
The state of Maharashtra is set to launch an ambitious scheme for distribution of assistive devices to persons with disabilities.
Named as Maharashtra System for Health and Rehabilitation Assistance or ‘MahaSharad’, the Digital Platform is named after the NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The platform, which aims to lakhs of people, will be available by March 2021.

Notes:
Every year December 12th is observed as the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day by the World Health Organisation. UHC ensures that all people get access to quality health services without any financial hardships.
Universal health coverage has been inducted as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations.

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:
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla released a book on occasion of 19th anniversary of the Indian Parliament attack.
The book titled ‘The Shaurya Unbound’ (English Version) and ‘Samundar Samawe Boond Mein’ (Hindi Version) were released on the 2001 incident. As many as 14 people including the five terrorists died during the incident.

Notes:
Project Loon is the subsidiary of Technology giant Google. It undertakes the project of delivering internet access to remote parts of the world.
The project uses helium-filled balloons for this purpose. In the month of October, the company has announced that the balloons set a new record for the longest stratospheric flight by staying in air for 312 days.

Notes:
Veteran aerospace scientist and Padma Vibhushan awardee Roddam Narasimha has recently passed away at the age of 87.
He served at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), teaching Aerospace Engineering from 1962 to 1999. He also served as the director of the National Aerospace Laboratories. He was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan award in 2013.

Notes:
The United Stated of America (USA) has imposed sanctions on Turkey under the Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
This has been done in response to Turkey’s purchase of S-400 missile defence system from Russia. The sanctions have been imposed on Turkey’s defence procurement agency.

Notes:
Several bar-headed geese have recently migrated to Point Calimere Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary, which is located on the eastern coast of Tamil Nadu.
These birds have the ability to fly in extreme weather and very high altitudes. They might have flown thousands of miles from Tibet, Central China and Mongolia. They breed in these countries and migrate to India during winter.

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).