Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
National Water Mission under Ministry of Jal Shakti in collaboration with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has launched the JSA II: Catch the Rain Awareness Generation Campaign.
The first phase of the campaign for awareness generation will be undertaken from mid-December 2020 to March 2021.

Notes:
Ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in association with Vijnana Bharati organise the India International Science Festival.
Launched in the year 2015, the festival aims to promote scientific temper in the society and encourage students to take up scientific career. This year, the theme of the 4-day long India International Science festival is ‘Science for Self-Reliant India and Global Welfare’.

Notes:
The Indian Government and World Bank signed an agreement on USD 500-million project, to build safe and green national highway corridors.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the highway corridors will be developed in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Under the Green National Highways Corridors Project, 783 km of highways will be developed.

Notes:
The CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant has virtually launched India’s first digital asset management platform DigiBoxx.
It is a digital file storage, sharing and management Software as a service (SaaS) product. He also became the first user of the platform, which provides a secure way to store all files in one centralised location.

Notes:
India’s first hot air balloon wildlife safari in a tiger reserve has been launched in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
The Tiger Reserve is situated in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Under the programme, people can watch tigers, leopards, Indian sloth bear and other wild animals from a height, in restricted buffer areas.

Notes:
The Income Tax Department, headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, has introduced a new initiative called, ‘Jhatpat Processing’.
The aim of the initiative is to smoothen the experience of Income Tax return filing for taxpayers. Tutorial videos of the procedure to file ITR1 and ITR4 were also shared by the Department. Last date for filing income tax for taxpayers not requiring audit is December 31, 2020.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation announced that it has released the first set of data from the Chandrayaan-2 mission, for the general public.
India’s second mission to the moon was launched on July 22, 2019 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The data has been released through the ‘PRADAN’ portal hosted by Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), the nodal centre of data archive for ISRO missions.

Notes:
Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) commissioned a Monpa handmade paper making unit in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
The 1000-year-old heritage art, which disappeared in recent years, has been recovered by the efforts of KVIC. The fine-textured handmade paper is called Mon Shugu in the local dialect, and is made from the bark of a local tree called Shugu Sheng.

Notes:
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is to start selling cars in India in early 2021.
This was announced by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Real Transport and Highways. Elon Musk also tweeted about the company’s plans for India. The Company would consider to establish manufacturing and assembly units in India, as per the Minister.

Notes:
The first ever International Day of Epidemic Preparedness was held on 27 December 2020. It was called for by the United Nations General Assembly to highlight the importance of the prevention, preparedness and partnership against epidemics.
The WHO also published 10 ways that will help the countries to track and prepare for global health emergencies in the next year.