Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
The 94-year-old renowned Indian architect Balakrishna Doshi has recently won the Royal Gold Medal 2022, by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
It is the highest honor for architecture in the United Kingdom. During the architect’s 70 year career, which included 100 projects, he has significantly contributed in both practice and his teaching.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) hosted an event titled ‘Digital Payment Utsav’.
The day celebrated the journey and rise of digital payments in India and the event also included the unveiling of the DIGIDHAN logo, launch of an awareness campaign called Digital Payments Sandesh Yatra with a digital payments anthem.

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:
Mathematician Neena Gupta from Kolkata’s Indian Statistical Institute has been awarded the ‘2021 DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from developing countries.
She became the third woman to receive the award ever it was introduced in 2005. She was honoured for her contribution in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. The Ramanujan Prize is given to an eminent Mathematician less than the age of 45.

Notes:
Indian weightlifter Jhilli Dalabehera has won the gold medal in the women’s 49kg category at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Earlier, Sanket Mahadev Sargar clinched the gold medal in the men’s 55kg snatch category and also created a new snatch national record. India is competing in both Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships and World Weightlifting Championships.

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:
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:
As per a new research, Quetzalcoatlus was the largest known flying animal to have ever lived on Earth.
The animal is claimed to have a 12-metre wingspan, as per a research collection published by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. The research team found that the creature took flight like a fighter jet off an aircraft carrier after years of research.

Notes:
The Indian government has recently finalized an air bubble agreement with Australia, which will allow all eligible passengers to travel between the two countries.
India currently has bilateral air bubble agreements with 33 countries, which include Afghanistan, Australia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Russia, Rwanda, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, and the USA among others. Australian airline Qantas has recently started flights between Sydney and New Delhi.

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.