Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Chinese Space Agency has launched two satellites for detecting gravitational waves. The two satellites form a part of Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) mission. These two satellites were launched using Long March-11 carrier rocket.
These satellites would be used for monitoring and studying high-energy radiation, gamma-rays and gravitational waves.

Notes:
The Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) transaction was introduced in India in the year 2004. Presently, RTGS handles a transaction volume of Rs 4.17 lakh crore per day and it is used by 237 participant banks.
Recently, Reserve Bank of India has permitted for round the clock RTGS facility in India, which makes India one among the very few countries offering this service.

Notes:
The India Workplace Equality Index has been launched in India by Keshav Suri Foundation in association with Pride Circle, Stonewall UK and FICCI.
This is the 1st benchmarking tool for employers to measure their progress on LGBT and their inclusiveness in work place. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in the year 2005.

Notes:
Morocco has become the latest Arab League country to agree to normalise relations with Israel in a deal brokered with US initiative.
As part of the deal, the US has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region. Morocco is also the fourth country to normalise ties with Israel since August, this year. Earlier, Bahrain and UAE signed such deal.

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:
Russia has successfully test-launched its heavy lift Angara A5 space rocket for the second time, the first launch having undertaken in 2014.
As per the state space agency Rocosmos, these Angara rockets do not use aggressive and toxic propellants, thereby increasing environmental safety in the areas adjacent to the launch complex and in the drop zones.

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:
In the year 2018, artists, journalists and activists gathered in the San Isidro region of Cuba, to protest against the country’s rules on censorship of cultural activities.
Hence, it came to be known as the Movimiento San Isidro, or the San Isidro Movement (MSI). After a member of MSI was arrested in November this year, its members began a hunger and then were arrested. The Government name the protestors as agents of Imperialism.

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:
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.