Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
The UNAIDS agency said in its annual World AIDS Day Report that community-led responses are unrecognised, under-resourced and in some places under attack.
The UN first set out in 2015 the target of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.  There are 39 million people around the world living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Of them, 20.8 million are in eastern and southern Africa and 6.5 million are in Asia and the Pacific.

Notes:
Karnataka government on signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with tech firm Meta to launch two initiatives aimed at raising awareness among students and educators about online safety and digital citizenship.
The state government plans to train 1 lakh teachers and 10 lakh students in digital safety and AR/VR skills by 2025 through this partnership with Meta.

Notes:
India’s Union Ministry of Tourism hosted an industry round-table on developing the country as a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) tourism destination in New Delhi.
During India’s G20 Presidency, more than 200 meetings have been organized in 56 cities across the country.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved Central Sector Scheme for providing Drones to the Women Self Help Groups (SHGs), with an outlay of Rs. 1261 Crore for the period from 2024-25 to 2025-26.
The scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 selected Women SHGs during the period 2023-24 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purpose. the scheme seeks to empower women Self Help Groups (SHGs) and bringing new technologies through drone services in agriculture sector.

Notes:
World AIDS Day is observed on December 1st every year. The theme for 2023 is “Let Communities Lead”. This theme highlights the importance of communities in the HIV response and the goal of ending AIDS by 2030. World AIDS Day is an international day that raises awareness of the AIDS pandemic and mourns those who have died from the disease. It also celebrates victories, such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.

Notes:
Several nations are witnessing outbreaks of a bacterial lung infection or pneumonia among children, which antibiotics are unable to treat effectively. In China, such cases being reported likely involve the mycoplasma pneumoniae pathogen. The ‘white lung’ syndrome leads to distinctive marks on scans. Beyond China, rise in the US, Netherlands and Denmark point to a wider spread.

Notes:
Anthrobots are tiny, self-assembling robots made from human cells. They can move around in a lab dish and are capable of healing neurons and damaged tissue. Anthrobots are made from human tracheal cells and can be created without genetic modifications. They are made up of a few hundred cells and only last a few weeks before breaking down. This means they can be easily reabsorbed into the body after their work is done. Anthrobots could be used in personalized medicine. They could help heal wounds or damaged tissue by forming large structures that span the width of a wound.
A team at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute created anthrobots.

Notes:
The government has approved a five-year extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), its flagship free foodgrain scheme for the poor, beyond December 2023. Launched in 2020 to provide relief during the COVID-19 crisis, the PMGKAY supplies 5 kgs of free ration monthly to over 800 million beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act. The scheme will now continue till 2028 at an estimated expenditure of Rs 1.18 lakh crore annually.

Notes:
Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has clarified that Brazil is seeking OPEC+ membership to convince member nations to move away from fossil fuels, not to cap its own oil output. Lula said Brazil aims to persuade major oil producers to invest profits into renewable energy development assistance for poorer regions like Africa and Latin America instead.
Brazil seeks a leadership role in rallying OPEC+ oil economies to finance global south’s green transition through proceeds earned from essentially the last fossil fuel boom before inevitable decline. Joining the 23-member group controlling 40% of world’s oil reserves aligns with Lula’s climate justice advocacy, with rainforests protection another priority. Hence Brazil is eyeing OPEC+ as platform for climate action cooperation.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has been publishing the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) since 2018. So far two editions CWMI (June 2018) and CWMI 2.0 (August 2019) have been published.
Subsequent edition of CWMI was prepared in August 2022 with delay due to the nationwide Covid-19 situation. NITI Aayog will come up with a combined report from the third to sixth edition of the Composite Water Management Index.