Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2020

Notes:
The central Government has released a e-book named ‘Putting Farmers First’.
It is a 106-page book that portrays the success stories of farmers who have benefited from contract farming, after enactment of the three farm legislations / reforms. The book has been released in Hindi as well as in English.

Notes:
The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications operator is co-owned by Bharti Global and the United Kingdom government.
The Operator has recently launched 36 satellites from a cosmodrome in Russia. This step will expedite the launch of high-speed internet services in India by mid-2022. At present, a foreign satellite operator should go through Antrix (ISRO’s commercial arm), for selling bandwidth capacity to users in India.

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 Kilauea volcano located on the Big Islands, the largest island in the United States’ Hawaiian archipelago, erupted recently.
As per the U.S. Geological Survey, the eruption was followed by an earthquake of magnitude 4.4. Multiple fissures opened on the walls of Halemaumau crater and the volcano spewed ash and steam into the atmosphere.

Notes:
Veteran Congress leader and former Governor of Uttar Pradesh Motilal Vohra recently passed away at the age of 93.
He also served as the 13th Madhya Pradesh Chief minister in 1989 and a Rajya Sabha member from Chhattisgarh from 2002 to 2020.

Notes:
After the coalition of the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu failed to pass a budget, the Parliament of the country dissolved.
This has triggered a fourth election in two years in the country, likely on March 23, next year. As per the three-year coalition deal, Netanyahu serves as Premier for 18 months, and Benny Gantz, the Alternate Prime Minister, was to take over in November 2021.

Notes:
Renowned Malayalam poet, conservationist and women’s rights activist Sugathakumari passed away at the age of 86.
The writer has released 15 collections of much-acclaimed poems. Sugathakumari was also the first chairperson of the Kerala State Women Commission and led the launch of Kudumbashree Missions. She had received various awards including the Padma Shri, the Saraswati Samman among others.

Notes:
The State of the Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries 2020 (SoMFi 2020) was released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM).
As per the report, 75 per cent of fish stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Sea marine ecosystems were subject to overfishing. But the number of such overfished stocks has decreased for the first time in the past decades.

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:
Madhya Pradesh cabinet has recently approved the Dharma Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill 2020.
This ordinance outlaws the marriages which are done with an aim of religious conversions. Under the new Bill, forcing religious conversion on someone will attract 1-5 years of imprisonment and a minimum Rs 25,000 fine. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh cabinet passed a similar ordinance.