Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whales have been classified as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act.  They are the only known resident baleen whales in the Gulf of Mexico, with less than 100 individuals left in the population.
The carcass of an endangered Bryde’s whale was washed ashore near the border of Puri and Ganjam districts of Odisha.

Notes:
The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river situated in northern France. The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26, 2024, will be held on the River Seine.
Athletes and officials from more than 200 countries will sail almost 6 kilometres (4 miles) between the Pont d’Austerlitz and Pont d’Iena bridges in Paris.

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:
Majhi Vasundhara Abhiyan is implemented by Maharashtra Government. The state’s Department of Environment and Climate Change and UNICEF have developed the Majhi Vasundhara curriculum on environment for school students.
The curriculum for Class I-VIII includes Biodiversity Conservation, Solid Waste Management, Water Resources Management, Pollution & Climate Change.

Notes:
For the first time in European Union, Malta has become the first country to legalise cannabis at home and for personal use.
Under the new law of Malta, people aged 18 and above will be allowed to have up to seven grams of cannabis and grow up to four plants at home. But consuming cannabis in public remains illegal and punishable by a fine. The new law is set to go to the President for approval.

Notes:
As per a new study published, Bubbler is a breathalyzer, which performs viral RNA detection to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, just by making the patient exhale into the device.
Its name is derived from the bubbling sound that occurs when the patient exhales. The Bubbler reverse transcribes RNA from airborne virus particles into DNA to be tested via PCR. It can also barcode that DNA, allowing samples to be linked directly to the patient they have come from and be used for sequencing.

Notes:
National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has awarded a fuel-cell based Green Hydrogen Micro-grid Project at Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh.
According to the Power Ministry, this will be India’s first green hydrogen-based energy storage project and one of the world’s largest Green Hydrogen Micro-grid Projects. The hydrogen would be produced using the advanced Solid Oxide Electrolyser by taking power from Floating Solar project.

Notes:
India and Vietnam have signed a letter of intent for enhanced cooperation in the field of postal sector.
It includes cooperation in the field of posts and telecom, cooperation in HR development and postal designated operators and service providers. The two countries also signed MoU for cooperation in marine science and ecology.

Notes:
World Arabic Language Day is observed on 18 December to honour the language, which is spoken by over 400 million people globally.
It has been celebrated since 2012 to mark the adoption of Arabic as the sixth official language of the United Nations by the UN General Assembly. This year, the theme of the World Arabic Language Day is “Arabic Language, a bridge between civilisations”.

Notes:
Defence minister Rajnath Singh laid the foundation stone of the ‘Sainya Dham’ in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
It is to be built to honour the defence personnel of Uttarakhand who sacrificed their lives for the country, ever since World War I. The programme also marked the conclusion of the Uttarakhand government’s ‘Shaheed Samman Yatra’, which was conducted to collect soil from the homes of martyrs.