Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
Israel passed its controversial Nation State Law before two years. Recently, the Arab-Israeli citizens and rights groups moved the country’s Supreme Court to scrap these laws.
As per the petition, the articles in the law, especially those related to Israel’s official language and land allocation laws, are unconstitutional and are discriminatory towards non-Jewish citizens of the country.

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently flagged off the 100th Kisan Rail from Sangola in Maharashtra to Shalimar in West Bengal.
The multi-commodity train service will carry vegetables and fruits. The Government of India has also extended a subsidy of 50% on transportation of fruits and vegetables. Kisan Rail enables the farmers to transport their agricultural produce across the country.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to virtually inaugurate 351- km-long New Khurja-New Bhaupur section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
An Operation Control Centre (OCC), which will act as the command centre for the entire DFC will also be inaugurated at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. This section is built at a project cost of Rs 5,750 crore and is funded by the World Bank.

Notes:
The Bihar Government took an initiative to transfer financial assistance directly to the accounts of beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic, through its ‘Bihar Sahayata Mobile App’.
For this step, the Chief Minister Secretariat, Disaster Management Department and National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the state have jointly been chosen as winners in the ‘Pandemic category’ Digital India Awards 2020 of the Central Government.

Notes:
The United Kingdom recently announced several measures to tackle obesity and improve public health in the country.
As a part of the plan, the Government is to ban “buy one get one free” promotions for the food products that are high in fat, sugar or salt. Free refills of sugary soft drinks in restaurants will also be banned from April 2022. This has been announced amid rising concerns over increase in obesity.

Notes:
The 23-year-old Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal has been given a singles wildcard entry for the Australian Open 2021.
Sumit and Wang Xiyu of China will compete in the main draw of the event. Former world number one Andy Murray has received a wild-card entry into the event, which is going to take place at Melbourne park in February 2020.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah has recently inaugurated Thoubal Multipurpose Project (Thoubal Dam) in Imphal, Manipur through virtual mode.
The project was originally launched in the year 2014. The 462-crore project aims to irrigate 35,104 hectares in the state. The Minister also laid foundation stone for projects including an Integrated Command and Control Center.

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:
Bank of Baroda (BoB) has recently launched a Digital lending platform (DLP) to enable retail clients to get loans digitally through a paperless process.
Under the platform, ‘In Principle approval’ for Home Loans, Car loan and Personal Loans are granted in 30 minutes without human intervention. Micro personal loans are also offered to shop through partner channels and pay later in EMIs.

Notes:
As per a research paper authored by RBI Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra and another official, maintaining 4 per cent inflation is appropriate for India.
The paper highlights that targeting a lower rate could create a deflationary stand to the monetary policy. At present, RBI has been mandated to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent +/- 2 per cent. The inflation target is to be reviewed by March 2021.