Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Ministry of Civil Aviation launched the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal in August 2020 for seamless air travel during Covid pandemic.
Recently, in the wake of the Omicron threat, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare mandated contactless self-declaration at Air Suvidha portal. It aims to provide hassle-free air travel to all international passengers arriving in India.

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 United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its new working week of 4.5 days, with Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday forming the new weekend for government employees.
The UAE currently has a Friday-Saturday weekend, which corresponds with other countries in the region.  The new plan will align the working with Western schedules. The UAE is the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week.

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.

Notes:
UPI is the single-largest retail payment system in the country, with 14 crore transactions per day in October 2021 and 50% transactions were below Rs 200.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently proposed to increase the transaction limit for payments made through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for the Retail Direct Scheme and initial public offering (IPO) applications to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh. RBI also proposes td launch UPI-based payment products for feature phone users.

Notes:
West Bengal government has launched a bridge course of 100 days for the students named ‘Setu Pathakram’
The course to be introduced in the new academic session starting January, will be made available for students of all classes. It is being introduced to help the students understand the subjects to fill the gaps that may have raised during online classes.

Notes:
Kerala recently reported bird flu cases in the Alappuzha district and a total of 12,000 ducks were culled in Thakazhi gram panchayat, which has been declared as a containment zone.
More samples from different areas have also been sent to ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal for testing and the identification of bird flu cases.

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:
Mouse opossums are relatively small members of the Neotropical marsupial family Didelphidae. They are endemic to Americas, especially to South America.
Recently a newly-identified species, named the Adler’s mouse opossum (Marmosa adleri), is among the smallest subgenus Micoureus. It was named after the researcher Greg Adler and  has larger ears, with a short furry tail.

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.