Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Eminent Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, has been jointly selected for the inaugural $5,000 Ciprian Foias Prize.
He was awarded for his contribution in Operator Theory by the American Mathematical Society (AMS).Along with Professor Srivastava, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, two other awardees are Adam Marcus and Daniel Spielman.

Notes:
Yidan Prize is regarded as the world’s highest education accolade. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation, has been awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development.
The award has been announced for her work in improving learning outcomes. One of the team’s pioneering works is the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) assessment that revealed literacy and numeracy gaps among children who have spent many years at school.

Notes:
36-year old Top British Racing Driver Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Tournament.
He passed Max Verstappen with six laps remaining in the race on the street circuit on the 30-kilometer coastal resort area in Jeddah. With this victory, Hamilton also levelled points with Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.

Notes:
Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh announced that the third phase of the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana will be completed by the year 2025.
The scheme would focus on providing easy access to markets, hospitals and schools. The first phase of the central scheme focused on connectivity and the next phase on upgradation of rural roads.

Notes:
The Indian Navy launched ‘Sandhayak’, the first of the four large survey vessels, in Kolkata. The primary role of these survey ships would be to conduct full-scale coastal and deep-water hydrographic survey of ports and harbours.
The ships would be deployed for collecting oceanographic and geophysical data and determination of navigational routes. The contract for building four survey ships was signed between the Defence Ministry and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) in 2018.

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.

Notes:
Bangalore-based Byju’s is an Indian multinational educational technology (ed-tech) company. It is the world’s most valuable ed-tech company with the m-cap of $18 billion.
Byju’s has acquired Austria-headquartered GeoGebra and the value of the transaction is about $100 million. GeoGebra is an interactive mathematics learning tool. This is also the ninth major acquisition of Byju’s.

Notes:
The USA recently announced a new bill named ‘Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA)’.
The bill establishes new rules which could compel social media platforms to share data with “Qualified researchers”. They are defined as university-affiliated researchers pursuing projects that have been approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Notes:
On National Energy Conservation Day, the Power Ministry will distribute LED bulbs at a subsidised rate at 10 Rupees in over 2,500 villages in five states – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.
This will be done under the expansion of flagship Gram UJALA programme. The programme has been launched in March 2021 and achieved a distribution mark of more than 33 lakh LED bulbs in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) is a US government program, launched in 2019, under former President Donald Trump. It is also dubbed as “Remain in Mexico” policy.
It mandates that certain citizens and nationals of countries other than Mexico be returned to Mexico while their American removal proceedings are pending. UNICEF has expressed concern about the re-implementation of the program.