Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Indian Navy’s Sail Training Ship INS Sudarshini visited Port Sultan Qaboos, Oman for a three-day Operational Turn Round (OTR).
The ship is part of the 1st Training Squadron based at Kochi which trains sea trainees of the Indian Navy. INS Sudarshini is an indigenously built Sail Training Ship (STS) built by Goa Shipyard Limited and based at Kochi, Kerala.

Notes:
India successfully test-fired the air version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the integrated test range of Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.
The air version of the missile was test-fired from supersonic fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30 MK-I. As per DRDO, the launch has cleared the way for serial production of air-version BrahMos missiles.

Notes:
Japanese Entrepreneur and Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and producer Yozo Hirano, blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
They are the first self-paying space tourists to visit the space station since 2009. Maezawa and Hirano are scheduled to spend 12 days in space.

Notes:
The funding and implementation of the Ken-Betwa inter-linking of rivers project were approved by the Union Cabinet with a total cost of Rs 44,605 crore. It is the first project under the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers.
It seeks to transfer water from the Ken river to the Betwa river, both tributaries of the Yamuna.  A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA) will be set up.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has granted Observer Status to International Solar Alliance (ISA).
The International Solar Alliance is an alliance of 124 countries initiated by India, headquartered at Gurugram. The fourth general assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), was held earlier in October.

Notes:
Switzerland has retained its top spot on the latest World Talent Ranking report, which is published annually by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
The report ranks 64 economies based on a range of factors including how they invest in and develop local personnel, their ability to attract and retain skilled workers, and the quality of domestic talent pools. All the top 10 countries are from European region.

Notes:
Telangana is currently witnessing cases of Covidengue, which occurs when a COVID-19 patient is infected with the Dengue virus.
Over 8 cases of Covidengue cases have been recorded in Telangana. The symptoms of this syndemic disease include “distress, shortness of breathing, chills, body pains and joint pains. COVID-19 and Dengue have similar kinds of symptoms.

Notes:
Nauru, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are island countries located in the western Pacific Ocean.
The United States, Australia and Japan have announced that they will jointly fund the construction of an undersea cable to boost internet access in three small Pacific countries. This is regarded as the counter to the rising Chinese influence in the region.

Notes:
The Log4j vulnerability is a software flaw as reported by cyber-security researchers that could allow attackers to have uncontrolled access to computer systems.
Dubbed CVE-2021-44228, it could impact several products from those of Apple to Microsoft. US government’s cyber-security agency has also issued a warning on the same. The issue was discovered in Microsoft-owned Minecraft.

Notes:
As per a new research, Quetzalcoatlus was the largest known flying animal to have ever lived on Earth.
The animal is claimed to have a 12-metre wingspan, as per a research collection published by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. The research team found that the creature took flight like a fighter jet off an aircraft carrier after years of research.