Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
The Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh won the right to host the Expo 2030 world fair, in another diplomatic victory for a Gulf country after soccer World Cup.
South Korea’s port city of Busan and Rome in Italy were also in the running to host the five-yearly event that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment.

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:
French ambassador to India honoured Lalithambika, former director, Directorate of the Human Spaceflight Programme of ISRO with Legion d’Honneur.
Lalithambika has worked extensively on various ISRO rockets, especially PSLV. Lalithambika is the second ISRO scientist after former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar to be awarded the Legion d’Honneur of France for promoting Indo-French space cooperation.

Notes:
The common term used for tactics like false scarcity claims, confirm-shaming, forced bundling, and subscription traps in online transactions, which were recently addressed by the Indian government, is “dark patterns.” Government of India has notified guidelines banning online platforms from deploying deceptive designs or ‘dark patterns’ tricking users into certain choices benefitting the company. Any commercial entity systematically offering goods or services in India must refrain from such practices numbered in the rules. With e-commerce expanding, curbs became imperative as exploitative mechanisms undermine consumer autonomy and fair competition. Companies could face penalties for violations. As digital adoption rises, informed consent and transparency in interface flows matter. Hence regulations aim safeguarding web-use.

Notes:
India is aiming to expand its clean energy capabilities by proposing 13 new hydroelectric projects in Arunachal Pradesh, which would contribute 13,000 megawatts to the national grid. The state government signed MoUs with central public sector undertakings to construct these ventures, which require an investment of Rs 1.4 lakh crore and would quadruple the region’s per capita income. This supports India’s goal to better utilize its hydropower potential, currently at only 35% of capacity. The 2,000 megawatt Subansiri dam, the largest hydroelectric project underway in India, will also boost Arunachal Pradesh through its environmentally friendly run-of-river model that maintains downstream river flow.

Notes:
The recently announced roadmap by the National Biofuels Coordination Committee (NBCC) lays out a phased plan for mandating blending of compressed biogas (CBG) into city gas distribution (CGD) networks across India. As per this roadmap, CGD entities will have to start blending CBG with compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation and piped natural gas (PNG) for households from the financial year 2025-26.
The blending percentage will be 1% of total CNG and PNG consumption in FY26, progressively increasing to 3% in FY27 and 4% in FY28. From financial year 2028-29 onwards, the obligatory CBG blending percentage has been set at 5% of overall CNG and domestic PNG demand.

Notes:
The Governor of Punjab Banwarilal Purohit, inaugurated a Deeptech Startup Accelerator Program for innovation in agriculture and water technology called SAMRIDHI (Strategic Acceleration for Market, Research, Innovation & Development: a Holistic Initiative for ICPS Startups) hosted by iHub AwaDH, a Technology and Innovation Hubs set up UNDER National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS).
The SAMRIDHI conclave in which five strategic collaborations were formalized, featured five deep-tech innovations. A total of 13 startups shortlisted through rigorous evaluation, presented their ideas while 25 startups showcased their solutions at the exhibition.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has extended the timeline for implementation of linking SEBI Complaint Redressal (SCORES) with the online dispute resolution platform to April 1, 2024.
Earlier, the deadline for linking both the platforms was December 4. The SCORES platform, launched in 2011, was an initiative by SEBI to provide a facilitative platform for investors to file their grievances against listed companies or registered intermediaries which are unresolved.

Notes:
‘Meidias hydria’, an Ancient Greek vase from 420 BC, on loan from the British museum for the temporary exhibition titled Meanings’ at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.
The ‘Meidias hydria’ leaves London for the first time in 250 years. The loan comes amid a dispute between Greece and Britain over the permanent return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British Museum to Athens. The 2,500-year-old hydria, signed by Athenian potter Meidias, is decorated with red figures reflecting the mythical encounters of humans with ancient Greek gods, among them half-mortal Hercules, the goddess of love Aphrodite, and Zeus.

Notes:
Google introduced Gemini as its most capable and general model yet. The first version, Gemini 1.0, is optimized for different sizes: Ultra, Pro, and Nano.
These are the first models of the Gemini era and the first realization of the vision as the company formed Google DeepMind earlier this year.