Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Indian professional squash player Saurav Ghosal has become the first Indian player to claim the Malaysian open. At the final event, Saurav Ghosal clinched the title by defeating former world No.4 Miguel Rodriguez of Colombia.
On many occasions, the two players have played together and at one point were even trained by the same coach David Palmer.

Notes:
Ministry of MSME implements the Zero Defect, Zero Effect (ZED) scheme. It is an MSME certification scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 to encourage the manufacturing of goods by MSMEs without any defects and without any effects on the environment.
According to the data shared by MSME Minister Narayan Rane in Rajya Sabha, the scheme has recorded around 25,000 MSME registrations. The scheme was upscaled in FY19 to benefit more MSMEs.

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:
India International Science Festival IISF 2021 is being organized jointly by Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, and NGO Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) and would be held from 10th December 2021, for 4 days in Goa.
This year’s festival would contain Science Film Festival, Science Literature Festival, Engineering Students Festival, Village Festival etc.

Notes:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), released its annual overview of future needs.
As per the report, a record 274 million people is predicted to require emergency humanitarian aid next year in countries such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen. It also projects a 17% jump in the number of people who will need urgent assistance in 2022, and appeals to donors to provide $41 billion to help 183 million needy people.

Notes:
To mark 75 years of Mahindra and Mahindra Group, the Government of India has released commemorative postage stamps.
The Indian conglomerate was founded by KC Mahindra & his brother JC Mahindra in the year 1945 and established themselves as steel traders with the British suppliers. Soon in 1947, the company started manufacturing Willys Jeeps.

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:
President Ram Nath Kovind was speaking at the centenary celebration of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament.
He said that the PAC ensures “administrative accountability of the executive towards the legislature”. The President released a souvenir depicting the 100 glorious years of the PAC’s journey and 67 articles, including 15 from the Commonwealth countries.

Notes:
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently laid foundation stone for Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor which would be constructed at a cost of Rs.8300 crore. This is expected to bring down the travel time between the two places to 2.5 hours from the existing 6 hours.
The corridor would have 7 major interchanges for connectivity and would have Asia’s largest wildlife elevated corridor for a stretch of 12 kilometres.

Notes:
The state of Tamil Nadu was awarded the best State for promoting empowerment of persons with disabilities (PwD), by the Government of India.
The National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities is awarded every year on 3rd December (International day for the disabled persons) by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.