Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Petr Fiala  – the leader of the Civic Democratic of Czech Republic, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of the country. His appointment comes after a 5-party coalition secured a majority of 108 votes in the 200-seat parliament.
Petr Fiala previously served as the country’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sports from 2012 to 2013 and has been leader of the Civic Democratic Party since 2014.

Notes:
Leading Indian Private Bank – ICICI Bank has launched an online platform named Trade Emerge, which offers banking and other digital services to exporters and importers across India.
The platform makes cross border trade hassle-free and convenient and acts as a single point of contact for various Export – Import services.

Notes:
After 396 years of becoming a British Colony, the Caribbean island country Barbados has recently become the world’s newest republic.
The country removed Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the state. Dame Sandra Mason was sworn in as the President by the chief justice of the country. Barbadian singer Rihanna was declared a national hero.

Notes:
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has extended the timeline for the implementation of Smart Cities Mission to June 2023 due to the Covid pandemic and other reasons.
As per the earlier deadline, the cities were expected to complete their projects within five years of selection under the Smart Cities Mission. Hundred smart cities were selected through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018.

Notes:
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organization and implements the Chemical Weapons Convention 1997. It is headquartered at The Hague, Netherlands.
Recently, “Prohibition of chemical weapons as tools for law enforcement” has received the approval of OPCW based on 85-10 voting.

Notes:
The new species of butterfly, now named the Chocolate-bordered Flitter, has been discovered at Dzongu in north Sikkim.
It carries the scientific name Zographetus dzonguensis, after the place where it was discovered. The closest relatives of the butterfly are in south-eastern China, near Hong Kong. This was discovered through a photograph uploaded on to the ‘Butterflies of India’ website National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru.

Notes:
Russia won the Davis Cup title in 2021 by defeating Croatia, after a brilliant performance from Daniil Medvedev. The 25-year-old player defeated Marin Cilic in the second singles match, to make the country win its first Davis Cup title since 2006.
It was also the fifth consecutive straight-set victory in the Davis Cup for the No. 2 Medvedev. Russia’s first Davis Cup title was in 2002. Croatia also was seeking its third title after title wins in 2005 and 2018.

Notes:
New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel became only the third bowler in the 144-year-old history of Test cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings.
He achieved this feat on the second day of the second match against India. England’s Jim Laker and India’s Anil Kumble had achieved this significant feat in Test cricket. The 33-year-old player is playing in his 11th Test.

Notes:
The United States has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. The White House announced that no official delegation would be sent to the Games because of concerns about China’s human rights record.
It also said that US athletes could attend and would have the government’s full support. China called this move as a ‘self-directed political farce’.

Notes:
The United States has recently warned Russia not to invade Ukraine and urged both countries to return to the agreements designed to end a separatist war by Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine.
In 2014, Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists agreed a 12-point ceasefire deal in the capital of Belarus- Minsk. Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, OSCE and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions signed a 13-point agreement in 2015 in Minsk. These are called Minsk agreements.