Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
New Zealand’s new government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts.
In 2022 the country passed pioneering legislation which introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes. The law was designed to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths and save the health system billions of dollars.

Notes:
India’s AstroSat space telescope has crossed a major milestone by detecting 600th Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB). The Gamma Ray Bursts represent either the death of a massive or merger of neutron stars.
AstroSat was launched in the year 2015 by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was designed to last for five years. However, it has exceeded its lifespan and is still functioning fine making important observations.

Notes:
A critically endangered species as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, has been recorded for the first time in Manipur’s Tamenglong district.
The Saurauia Punduana plant was recorded during a recent Rapid Biodiversity Assessment (RBA) field survey. The survey covered the key areas of the biodiversity heritage sites of Longku forest. The local people call this plant as Anoibang.

Notes:
Rahul Dravid has been reappointed as the head Coach of the Indian men’s cricket team till the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Paras Mhambrey (bowling coach), Vikram Rathore (batting coach) and T. Dilip (fielding coach) have also been reappointed.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Angadvir Singh Bajwa and Ganemat Sekhon won the mixed skeet gold for Punjab in the 66th National shooting championship.
In the women’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Asian Games champion Sift Kaur Samra beat Olympian Anjum Moudgil by 1.9 point for the gold.

Notes:
A Goa government appointed committee has determined that the deadly Sattari landslides in July 2021 were caused by a combination of geological factors, human activity, and extreme rain. Their report states that deep chemical weathering of rocks creating structural weaknesses, combined with naturally steep slopes, made the terrain prone to landslides during heavy precipitation. Additionally, anthropogenic activities like unscientific road cutting, construction, mining, etc further aggravated slope instability in protected forest areas of Sattari such as Satre, Karmali-Budruk, Karanzol-Savarde, and Maushi-Zarme.

Notes:
India has declined to sign on to a global renewable energy pledge launched at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. The pledge commits 118 nations to tripling installed renewable energy capacity globally by 2030. However, India opted out, along with China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran.
India remains committed to its own national renewable energy targets but could not agree to the terms of this specific pledge which could potentially hurt development priorities. India aims to have 50% non-fossil fuel installed electric capacity by 2030.

Notes:
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar recently inaugurated the 5th edition of Global Ayurveda Festival in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The Global Ayurveda Festival (GAF) 2023 with the theme ‘Emerging Challenges in Healthcare and a Resurgent Ayurveda’ was held from 1 – 5 December.
The conclave witnessed the participation of Kerala Governor, Chief Minister of Kerala, Union Ayush Minister, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry Parshottam Rupala, President of the Republic of Mauritius, Minister of State for Indigenous Medicine of Sri Lanka, among others.

Notes:
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.