Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

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:
The Pinaka MLRS has been successfully developed by two DRDO laboratories in Pune – Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) – in partnership with two private sector firms, L&T and Tata Power Company Ltd (TPCL).
Recently, Pinaka Extended Range (Pinaka-ER) Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), was successfully tested with rockets built by the two private firms.

Notes:
December 11 is celebrated as International Mountain Day every year, as designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
International Mountain Day creates awareness about the importance of mountains to life. This year’s theme for International Mountain Day is Sustainable Mountain Tourism. According to the UN, mountain tourism attracts about 15-20 per cent of global tourism.

Notes:
The International Maritime Organization is headquartered at London. Recently, the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization has elected the some countries to be Members of its Council for the 2022-2023.
India has been selected as the Category (b), which are 10 States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade.

Notes:
The present world chess champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway defended his title and won the FIDE World Championship in Dubai.
Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, crossing the seven point threshold to win the global tournament held at Dubai’s Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates.Carlsen clinched his fifth world championship title.

Notes:
Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program is implemented by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The program comes under the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 and was designed to recognize pilots and flight crew. Recently, FAA announced that it will no longer issue Commercial Space Astronaut Wings, the pins given to individuals reaching space but instead recognise on its website.

Notes:
Chief Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose inaugurated the digital platform named LokpalOnline, which enables people to file corruption complaints with the Lokpal.
At present, complaints are being sent by post, e-mail or hand-delivered. The new portal can be accessed by the citizens of the country and complaints can be filed from anywhere, anytime at lokpalonline.gov.in. In 2019, Justice Ghose was appointed as the country’s first Lokpal.

Notes:
Malini Parthasarathy, the chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing, is among four veteran journalists who are named by US-based Columbia Journalism School as the 2022 alumni award winners.
The other winners include Eric Marcus, founder and host of “Making Gay History” podcast, Stuart Schear, American Jewish World Service, and Thomas Maier, investigative journalist. Wendy Lu (HuffPost) and Mukhtar Ibrahim (Sahan Journal), jointly bagged the First Decade Award.

Notes:
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is co-hosting the Global Refugee Forum together with Switzerland.  The first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum has started.
The two-day virtual event will be opened by the President-elect of the Swiss Confederation, Ignazio Cassis and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. The meeting commences on UNHCR’s 71st anniversary, on December 14. The next Global Refugee Forum will be held in 2023.

Notes:
India’s leading public sector bank “bob World Wave” has launched a solution for digital banking payments, named bob World Wave.
The bob World Wave is a wearable device, which will allow customers to monitor their Sp02, body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. BoB has partnered with NPCI to offer the wearable payment solution.