Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

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:
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:
Semeru is the tallest mountain on Java Island, Indonesia, spewed up towers of ash and hot clouds. The eruption of Semeru volcano has killed at least 14 people and injured many people in the island.
The eruption also destroyed buildings and damaged a strategic bridge connecting two areas in the district of Lumajang with the city of Malang. Around 1,300 people have been evacuated, while nine people were unaccounted for.

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.

Notes:
The number of ATMs across the country stood at more than 2.13 lakh by the end of September 2021, as per the data given by the Finance Ministry said in Parliament.
Over 47 per cent of the ATMS are in rural and semi-urban areas. According to the RBI data, scheduled commercial banks have installed 2.13 lakh ATMs up to September 2021. In addition to this, 27,837 White Label ATMs (WLA) were also installed.

Notes:
Yutu-2 is a robotic lunar rover which was launched in 2018, as a part of Chang’e 4 mission to the Moon.
The rover has recently detected a strange-looking, cube-shaped object on the surface of the Moon. The rover spotted the object as it crossed the Von Karman crater on the far side of the Moon. The object has been dubbed “mystery house” and scientists are set to drive the rover closer to get a better look.

Notes:
The Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $150 million loan to provide access to resilient and sustainable housing for the urban poor in the state of Tamil Nadu.
The Indian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a $125 million loan pact to improve access to safe and affordable drinking water and city-wide inclusive sanitation services in Dehradun and Nainital cities of Uttarakhand.

Notes:
World Malaria Report 2021 has been released by the World Health Organization (WHO). As per the report, global efforts to tackle malaria suffered due to COVID-19 in 2020.
There were estimated 627,000 malaria deaths in 2020, which is an increase of 12 per cent over 2019. The report also warns that if expeditious action is not taken, the world is in the danger of seeing an immediate resurgence of the disease, especially in Africa.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to demonstrate the use of indigenously developed active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
With this, India will be one of the few countries to have an indigenous force-multiplier. The developed AESA radar is 95% indigenous, with only one imported subsystem. It has the capacity to track as many as 50 targets in the sky at a range in excess of 100 km.

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.