Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
U.S. health regulators have authorised the first pill against COVID-19. Named Paxlovid, it is a Pfizer drug that has been approved by Food and Drug Administration.
The drug has been authorised for adults and children ages 12 and older at home with a positive COVID-19. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an Intraveneous Drug or an injection.

Notes:
SilverLine, is a semi high-speed railway project being constructed in the state of Kerala. The project includes deploying trains running at 200 km/h between the state’s northern and southern ends.
Protests are taking place across Kerala against SilverLine, being executed by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL). The estimated cost of the project Rs 63,940 crores. The deadline of the project is 2025.

Notes:
Agathiyar, a saint and practitioner is associated with the Siddha system of medicine. It is one of the oldest traditions of healthcare originated in the Indian sub-continent.
It has been officially recognized as one among the Ayush systems in India. Ministry of Ayush observes Siddha Day on eve of Agathiyar’s birthday every year, which falls during the Margazhi (Tamil) Month.  The Fifth Siddha Day celebration on “Strength of Siddha Medicine for Communicable Diseases” has been jointly organized.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently extended the tokenisation rules till June 30, 2022. The deadline for wiping off card data on merchant sites and applying tokenisation has been extended by another six months.
This step has been taken by the Central Bank as merchants and payment companies expressed their inability to meet the earlier deadline of December 31, 2021. Card on file tokenisation (CoFT) is used to register card data with a merchant site.

Notes:
The Indian Army has launched a messaging application named ASIGMA, with features such as multi-level security and message prioritisation.
ASIGMA stands for ‘Army Secure IndiGeneous Messaging Application (ASIGMA)’. It is a new generation, state-of-the-art, web-based application. A team of Corps of Signals has developed it in-house.

Notes:
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru based DRDO laboratory along with other DRDO labs has developed the High-speed expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) Abhyas.
Defence research and development organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted the flight test of the indigenously developed Target system, recently off the coast of Odisha.

Notes:
Surya Regional Water Supply Project is being implemented in Mumbai, which will provide 403 million litres per day (MLD) water supply to two Municipal Corporations, at the western sub-region of Mumbai.
Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) has achieved the first tunnel breakthrough of the project. The project is expected to be completed in phases till 2023.

Notes:
Under the new programme of Tejas, or Training in Emirate Jobs & Skills, the Government has partnered with leading employers in the UAE to train certify and place Indian workers in the Gulf countries.
It aims to train, certify and place 10,000 Indian workers in a year and 100,000 workers across the Gulf Cooperation Council region over the next five years.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India released a report on “Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2020-21”. It presents the performance of the banking sector, including co-operative banks, and NBFCs during 2020-21 and 2021-22 so far.
Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) declined from 8.2 per cent at end-March 2020 to 7.3 per cent at end-March 2021 and further to 6.9 per cent at end-September 2021.

Notes:
Grotto temples are the key form of Chinese Buddhist art. They are religious sites carved into mountains or rock and were introduced to China along the ancient Silk Road in the 3rd century.
China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration announced that closer links will be made between the Chinese Grotto temples and their overseas counterparts along the ancient Silk Road. There are 5,986 grotto temple sites in the country.