Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
‘Indian Organ Donation Day’ celebration has been organized by National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) in New Delhi on November 27.
The total number of organ transplants done per year in the country increased from 4990 in 2013 to 12746 in 2019. India now ranks third in the world only after USA and China as per the data available on the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) website.

Notes:
Merriam-Webster is an American company which publishes reference, especially dictionaries and is one of the oldest dictionary publishers in the USA.
Merriam-Webster has chosen the word “vaccine” as the 2021 word of the year, since it was the word that was extremely high in its data every single day in 2021.

Notes:
National Cadet Corps (NCC)  is the youth wing of the Indian Armed Forces with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
NCC is the largest uniformed youth organisation in the world. It recently observed its 73rd anniversary of its raising on November 28. NCC is open to school and college students on a voluntary basis as a ‘tri-services organisation’, comprising the army, the naval, and the air wings.

Notes:
Shillong’s famous Cherry Blossom Festival was held between November 25 and 27, this year. The festival was cancelled due to COVID outbreak last year.
Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Cornad Sangma announced about the festival in Twitter. Several cherry blossoms are seen across Meghalaya’s capital city, Shillong. The festival includes various competitions, programmes and other art events.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank’s annual publication titled ‘State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2021-22’ was released recently.
As per the report, the combined debt-to-GDP ratio of states is expected to remain at 31 per cent by end-March 2022 which is higher than the target of 20 per cent to be achieved by 2022-23 (FY23).

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the report titled “State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2021-22”.
It is an annual publication that provides assessment of the finances of State governments for 2021-22 against the actual and revised outcomes for 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. The theme of this year’s Report is “Coping with the Pandemic: A Third-Tier Dimension”. For 2021-22, States have budgeted their consolidated gross fiscal deficit to GDP Ratio at 3.7 per cent.

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:
Several tribal outfits in Tripura have joined hands to push their demand for a separate state for indigenous communities in the region.
The demand has grown to carve out a separate state of ‘Greater Tipraland’ for the indigenous communities in Tripura under Article 2 and 3 of the Constitution. Among the 19 notified Scheduled Tribes in Tripura, Tripuris (also known was Tipra and Tiprasas) are the largest.

Notes:
Every year, the 6th December is celebrated by India as ‘Maitri Diwas” to remember the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Bangladesh.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Indo-Bangladesh ties as well as 50th year of Bangladesh Liberation. India was one of the first countries to establish bilateral diplomatic ties with Bangladesh on December 6, 1971.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates has entered into an arms deal amounting $19 billion, for procurement of 80 Rafale fighter jets and 12 military helicopters for its armed forces.
This deal is seen as the largest overseas sale of Rafale jets by France and is expected to directly support 7,000 jobs in France.