Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Union Minister for Ports Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the River Cruise Services at the Marmugao Port in Goa.
Mormugao Port is a 32- year- old port, located in South Goa. As per the Ministry, any entrepreneur can start a new and similar type of Service from this berthing facility, which is available in the Port.

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:
India’s Harnaaz Sandhu won the new Miss Universe title. The 21-year-old contestant from Punjab won the title 21 years after Lara Dutta won the title in 2000.
Harnaaz Sandhu represented India today at the 70th Miss Universe 2021, held in Eilat, Israel. Ms Sandhu claimed the crown edging out Paraguay’s Nadia Ferreira and South Africa’s Lalela Mswane. Only two Indians have won the title of Miss Universe – Sushmita Sen in 1994 and Lara Dutta in 2000.

Notes:
UN recognised the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberian region of Russia, as the new record high for the Arctic
The heat equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit was seen on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. It marked the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, as per the World Meteorological Organization.

Notes:
“Q-Commerce” stands for “Quick commerce”, which essentially involves delivering customer orders faster than it does currently, by setting up micro-warehouses located closer to the point of delivery.
Online grocer Grofers has rebranded itself “Blinkit”, with a focus on “quick commerce”. Grofers decided to change its business model from the conventional grocer model to the quick-commerce model.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank trimmed its 2021 growth forecast for India to 9.7% from the earlier estimate of 10.0% made in September. However it left the 2022 growth forecast unchanged at 7.5%.
The growth forecasts for developing Asia for this year and next were also slashed to 7.0% and 5.3%, in order to reflect risks and uncertainty brought by the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

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.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) for 2021-26 with an outlay of Rs.93,068 crore. PMKSY was launched in 2015-16.
The three components: Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), Har Khet ko Paani (HKKP) and Watershed Development components have been approved for continuation during 2021-26.  AIBP is implemented by Ministry of Jal Shakti; Per Drop-More Crop and Micro Irrigation scheme of Agriculture Ministry and Watershed Development by Rural Development Ministry.

Notes:
The Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), Ministry of Railways has been the first organisation to be Bureau of Indian Standards, under the BIS scheme of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).
As per BIS Act 2016, BIS is empowered recognize or accredit any institution in India or outside which is engaged in standardization.

Notes:
The ‘Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy’, an indicator of literacy among children below 10 years was released by Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).
The Index was prepared by ‘Institute for Competitiveness’. West Bengal (58.95) topped the chart and Bihar was placed at the bottom in the ‘large states’ category. In the ‘small states’ category, Kerala (67.95) grabbed the top spot. Lakshadweep (52.69) and Mizoram (51.64) are top-scoring regions in the UT and Northeast state category, respectively.