Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

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:
The Special Jury or Silver Peacock Award was given to the Kannada film ‘Kantara’, directed by Rishab Shetty at the 54th International Film Festival of India.
Abbas Amini directed ‘Endless Borders’ which bagged the Best Film or the Golden Peacock Award, while the Best Director award went to Stephan Komandarev for the film ‘Blaga’s Lessons’.

Notes:
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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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:
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:
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 Indian Government cleared for submission the country’s Third National Communication (TNC) and Initial Adaptation Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The submission will fulfil India’s obligation to furnish information under the Convention and the Paris Agreement. In a press brief, key points were highlighted from the TNC, emphasising India’s commitment to addressing climate change, reducing emissions, and enhancing adaptive capacities. India currently has a 41 per cent share of clean power in terms of capacity, while India generated 73 per cent of its power from coal in 2022-23.

Notes:
The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) unveiled its 2023 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR).
According to IMD’s study, India has made significant in terms of cybersecurity knowledge but lacks on fronts like technology and future readiness. India has been ranked at 49th rank among 64 economies.

Notes:
The India Infrastructure Report 2023 on Urban Planning and Development was released by Venkaiah Naidu, former Vice-President of India, along with Amitabh Pant, G20 Sherpa of India and former CEO, NITI Aayog.
The Report has been a collaborative effort of the IDFC Foundation, Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). It contains 25 chapters by prominent names in the urban development and policy ecosystem on the current state of urban development in India. The India Infrastructure Report (IIR) series was initiated by the IDFC Foundation in 2001.

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.