Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
Maharashtra state government has set up ‘Inter-caste/ Inter-faith marriage-family coordination committee (state level).
The committee is to be headed by the state’s Women and Child Development Minister and BJP leader Mangal Prabhat Lodha. It aims to gather detailed information about couples in such marriages, and maternal families of the women involved if they are estranged.

Notes:
The UK, France, and UAE have extended their support for India’s permanent membership at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
India is holding the presidency of United Nations Security Council for the month of December 2022. UK supported new permanent seats for Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. The UN Security Council is the global body for maintaining International peace and security.

Notes:
‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme is being implemented by the state of Telangana. The government offers crop investments to farmers through this programme at a rate of ₹10,000 per acre for both the Kharif and rabi seasons
The State government would deposit ₹7,600 crore in the bank accounts of farmers, by January this year before the Sankranti festival.

Notes:
Argentina’s ace footballer Messi clinched the Golden Ball award for the best player at the Fifa World Cup 2022 while Mbappe took the golden boot for being the top goal-scorer.
Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez won the Golden Glove for being the best goalkeeper. Argentina won the World Cup after defeating France in penalties in the final.

Notes:
On December 19, 1961, then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent armed forces to the coastal state and the Portuguese surrendered. As a result, Goa, Daman, and Diu became Union Territories of India.
Goa Liberation Day is celebrated annually to mark the success of ‘Operation Vijay’ of the Indian armed forces to defeat Portuguese colonial forces and liberate Goa in 1961.

Notes:
As per the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Science & Engineering Indicators 2022 report, India has jumped from 7th to 3rd global ranking in scientific publications.
This was informed by the Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh. India’s scholarly output has increased from 60,555 papers in 2010 to 1,49,213 papers in 2020.

Notes:
India has recently launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, during its current presidency of the UN Security Council.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that New Delhi will soon have a database that will record all crimes against the peacekeepers. India, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal are co-chairs of the group. India, among the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping, has lost 177 of its peacekeepers in the line of duty.

Notes:
National Test House is to set up EV battery testing facilities in Mumbai and Kolkata and a transformer testing facility at Jaipur.
New initiatives include state-of-art ‘Transformer testing facility’ at Jaipur, fully Digital Laboratory Management Information System (LIMS) for consumers, Quality testing of fertilisers, a state-of-the-art Microbiology lab for testing Drinking Water at Guwahati.

Notes:
The Speedtest Global Index for November has been released by network intelligence company Ookla.
In November, India jumped 40 ranks to the 71st spot globally in terms of mean download speed to 50.26 Megabits per second (Mbps), nearly double 27.13 Mbps in October. Qatar had the highest media mobile download speed. Chile, meanwhile, had the highest fixed broadband download speed.

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a four-month ‘Program Monitoring with Board involvement (PMB)’ for war-hit Ukraine.
The program is aimed at maintaining economic stability following Russia’s invasion of the country, and helping promote donor financing. IMF estimates the country will need between USD 40 billion and USD 57 billion in external financing in 2023.