Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The 5th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS) has recently commenced with a focus on Arth Ganga – river conservation synchronised development.
The theme of the summit is comprehensive analysis and holistic management of rivers and water bodies. It is being organised virtually by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga).

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:
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:
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:
Shaheen (Eagle)-IX is the 9th joint Air Force Exercise between Pakistan and China. It conducted at an Air Force Base at Pakistan.
It is designed to deepen the cooperation between the two countries and enhance their combat skills. The first such exercise was conducted in the year 2011 at Pakistan. Every year, this exercise is held alternatively in China and Pakistan.

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:
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.

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 United States Agriculture Department has recently confirmed the first known case of the coronavirus in a wild animal, a mink.
Earlier, Denmark decided to cull several farmed minks after they were infected by the virus. The virus was also found in zoo tigers and household cats and dogs. But this is the first free-ranging and native wild animal being confirmed with the infection.

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.