Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The Chinese technology major Alibaba has developed a face-recognition software, which enables the users to identify ethnic minorities like Uighurs.
It is said that the company’s cloud-computing technology uses pre-defined facial features to detect ethnic minorities within images and video. The technology could be used to identify videos filmed by Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.

Notes:
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has launched ‘One Stop Shop’ (OSS) facility, to make available over 100 types of clearances and services, required by investors.
The Chief Minister also launched Public Welfare Portal (PWP) or Jan Kalyan Portal, to consolidate the information of eligibility, benefits of the state schemes, useful circulars and orders etc. It also highlights the efforts of the Government in two years.

Notes:
The Government of India has recently proposed to adopt E20 fuel in Indian automobiles. The E20 fuel is a blend of 20% ethanol and 80% gasoline.
This move is aimed at reducing the vehicular emissions at the same time, bring down the crude oil import cost of the country.

Notes:
The Prithvi-2 short range ballistic missile, which is a Surface-to-Surface Missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been successfully test fired recently.
Two Prithvi-2 were test fired, off the coast of Odisha in Balasore. Prithvi 2 is the Air Force version of the missile that has a 350 km range and a payload of 500 kg.

Notes:
The new green field airport that is being constructed at Jewar of Uttar Pradesh has been named NOIDA international airport. The new logo of the airport contains a Sarus Crane, which is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh.
The contract to construct the airport has been awarded to Zurich Airport International AG. The first phase of the airport is expected to be functional by 2024.

Notes:
Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Communication presents the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Telecom Skill Excellence Awards.
The Award scheme was originally launched in the year 2017, to recognise the successful telecom skilled people and to enable them apply telecom related solution in various fields like health and Education. This year’s awards were recently presented by the Communications Minister.

Notes:
The ‘Legion of Merit’ honour of the United States has been conferred on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The prestigious award has also been conferred on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. By this, the US President Donald Trump has focussed the QUAD group.

Notes:
In a recently published study in the ‘Endangered Species Research’ journal, Scientists analysed sound recordings from the Arabian Sea coast and found a blue whale song which had never been described.
Hence, they have confirmed that a previously undiscovered population of blue whales are living in the western Indian ocean.

Notes:
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is a Central university in Aligarh. It was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1875.
After the Aligarh Muslim University Act, its original name of ‘Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College’ was changed to Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. The Prime Minister addressed the Centenary celebrations of the University and also released a postage stamp dedicated to AMU.

Notes:
As per a recent study on Health and economic impact of air pollution in the States of India published in the Lancet journal, 1.7 million deaths were regarded to have caused due to air pollution in 2019 in India in 2019.
This figure is 18% of the total deaths in the country. The economic loss due to the lost output was 1.4% of the GDP in India, which is equivalent to ₹260,000 crore. The study was funded by the UNEP, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and ICMR.