Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

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The Sri Lankan cabinet has given clearance to allow China’s energy major Sinopec to establish a new $4.5 billion petroleum refinery plant at the strategic Hambantota port in the island nation.
The upcoming plant of Sinopec, which entered the Sri Lankan market in July this year, would be the largest foreign direct investment with $4.5 billion for Sri Lanka.

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Sri Lanka has reached an agreement in principle with India and the Paris Club group of creditors including Japan, on a debt treatment plan.
It will help the crisis-hit island nation tap the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund’s nearly-$3 billion recovery package.

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Tushar Shelke and Sangeeta claimed the recurve men and women titles in the National archery championships.
Prathamesh Jawkar and World champion Aditi Swami took the men and women top titles in the compound division.

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The National Water Mission of Ministry of Jal Shakti is organizing ‘Jal Itihas Utsav’ at Shamsi Talab, Jahaz Mahal situated in Delhi.
It aims to raise public consciousness about safeguarding water heritage sites, creating a sense of ownership among the masses as well as promote tourism and restoration of such heritage structures. The Ministry of Jal Shakti has successfully implemented the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ 2023 with the theme “Source Sustainability for Drinking Water”.

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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.

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Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is an intergovernmental body that develops food standards, guidelines, and codes of practice. The CAC was established in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The CAC’s headquarters are in Rome. Recently, India’s proposal at Codex Alimentarious Commission (CAC) meet for standards for millets, covering parameters like moisture content and quality, was unanimously endorsed. The standards cover 15 varieties and will aid the promotion of millets in global trade and food markets. The CAC praised India’s specifications. The decision comes as 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets to boost production and consumption.

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Virgin Atlantic operated Flight100 from London to New York, the first ever transatlantic passenger flight fully powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The Boeing 787, with Rolls-Royce engines, aims to demonstrate SAF’s viability as a safe, low-carbon substitute for conventional jet fuel. As the aviation industry faces pressure to reduce emissions and climate impact, SAF has potential as a compatible drop-in replacement requiring no new infrastructure. Flight100 represents an important first step in testing and scaling up commercial use of 100% SAF on long flights. Its completion will help make the case for ramping up SAF production and adoption across more routes. The flight proves such ambition is technologically possible with today’s planes and engines while we continue striving to make SAF affordable and available at scale.

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India aims to reach 500GW non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 under “Panchamrit” pledge made at COP26 to combat climate change. Half of India’s energy requirement will come from renewables while reducing carbon emission intensity of GDP by 45% over 2005 levels. The targets underscore India’s commitment to fight climate crisis through clean energy even as a developing economy. At COP28, India outlined plans to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 in collaboration with nations like the UAE. PM Modi presented the Panchamrit (five nectar elements), five time-bound climate pledges to: (1) Reach 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 (2) Meet 50% of India’s energy requirement from renewable energy (RE) sources by 2030 (3) Reduce the carbon intensity of the economy by 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 (4) Reduce total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030 (5) Achieve the target of net-zero emissions by 2070.

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As per a report by the Environment ministry and UNDP, India has successfully phased out ozone depleting and climate warming chemical HCFC 141b (1,1-Dichloro-1-fluoroethane) and is ahead of schedule in eliminating another such gas in new equipment manufacturing.
As against the 35 per cent phase-out target for HCFCs, India has achieved an impressive 44 per cent reduction.

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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has enabled two-factor authentication for all e-waybill and e-invoice systems to further enhance the security of the goods and services tax systems.
The feature was enabled on December 1 and was rolled out on Monday. Currently the pilot rollout has been done for a state of Haryana and after seamless operation of the same in the state, it is being rolled out for Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Delhi taxpayers in the first phase. In the second phase, it will be rolled out across the country.