Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Operation Devi Shakti was an operation of the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Afghanistan.
Recently, a special flight arrived at Delhi Airport from Kabul in Afghanistan carrying 10 Indians and 94 Afghans including members of the Afghan Hindu-Sikh minority community. The special Kam Air flight was arranged by India under Operation Devi Shakti. India has evacuated over 565 Indian nationals from Afghanistan so far.

Notes:
Government think tank NITI Aayog recently announced the launch of ‘e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition’, to share knowledge on e-bus adoption in India.
The Coalition has been launched in partnership with Convergence Energy Service Ltd (CESL) and World Resources Institute, India (WRI India), with support from Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI).

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:
A Royal Bengal Tiger has been spotted in Buxa tiger reserve in West Bengal, after at least 23 years, as per the West Bengal government.
A picture of a tiger was captured on a trap camera in the forest of East Damanpur of Buxa tiger reserve.  It was in 1998 that images of a Royal Bengal Tiger were captured at the reserve earlier. The reserve had lost its identity as a tiger reserve from the National Wild Life Board.

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:
The National Unity Government in Myanmar, the unofficial government, led by those faithful to Aung San Suu Kyi, has adopted stable-coin Tether as a legal currency.
As per the NU Government, Tether (USDT) will be domestic use to make it easy and accelerate the current trade, services and payment systems. The military forces currently control the country after declaring a one-year state emergency in February 2021.

Notes:
World Trade Organization (WTO) panel has asked India to withdraw its subsidies under the ‘Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, and Marketing and Transportation Schemes.’
Australia, Brazil and Guatemala raised complaints against India over its policy measures in the sugar sector, at WTO in the year 2019.  WTO also asked India to conform to its obligations under the Agreement on Agriculture and the SCM Agreement.

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:
The Supreme Court of India has permitted the state of Maharashtra to hold bullock cart races in the state till the pendency of the issue before the constitutional Bench. Generally, such races would be held in several parts of the state like Pune and western Maharashtra region and is considered to be a  400-year-old tradition.
Bullock cart races were banned in Maharashtra state after the apex Court ruled that the race is violative of the provisions Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister of India has approved the construction of the Lakhwar Multipurpose Project in Uttarakhand, on the Yamuna River.
The project includes construction of a dam and a underground power house, to be constructed by Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. This project would benefit Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.