Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
The annual Raas Mahotsav or Raas Leela has started in Assam’s Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island.
Majuli is the core of Assamese Neo-Vaishnavism. The river island over the river Brahmaputra has dozens of Vaishnavite monasteries, locally called Satras. Locals perform Bhaona, a traditional form of drama where artists play various mythological characters. Bhaona was started in the fifteenth or sixteenth century by a social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of Assam, Srimanta Sankardeva.

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:
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 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:
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 UK will deploy surveillance aircraft over Israel and Gaza to locate over 130 people still held hostage by Hamas since its October attack on Israel. At least 5 missing British nationals are feared captive amid rescued hostages. The unarmed Shadow R1 drones conduct intelligence gathering for UK forces. While the offensive has resumed after a temporary Gaza truce, the reconnaissance flights starting soon will solely focus on hostage recovery without any combat role. The visuals and data obtained on captives’ whereabouts will be shared with Israeli authorities coordinating rescue operations. The UK move follows similar US aerial scanning assistance to pinpoint Hamas hostage locations through unarmed drones.

Notes:
India’s Aditya L1 satellite has begun unravelling solar wind enigmas as two cutting-edge particle spectrometers commenced data gathering in recent months. The SWIS and STEPS instruments on the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment payload have detected protons, Helium ions and energy histograms exhibiting solar wind behavior fluctuations near Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L1.
SWIS’ 360-degree coverage and directional monitoring capacities will significantly further comprehension of solar wind properties, variability and links to space weather influencing Earth. Researchers eagerly anticipate more revelations to address enduring questions about the complex solar wind and corona heating as Aditya L1 nears L1 orbital point for uninterrupted solar observation.

Notes:
Indian Navy will conduct its biggest ever multilateral exercise Milan-2024 in Vizag deploying both its aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and new indigenous INS Vikrant. The event involving 50 friendly foreign navies aims to demonstrate India’s expanding military prowess as security provider in the Indian Ocean region.
Flagship participation of the carriers equipped with fighter jets and helicopters will showcase naval aviation capabilities across mission spectrums from combat preparedness to humanitarian aid.

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.

Notes:
The third edition of the IIGF is being conducted under the overarching theme “Moving Forward – Calibrating Bharat’s Digital Agenda”.
The India Internet Governance Forum is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF). It is a hybrid event and the event is being held at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The event is an effort to focus on issues such as building a secure, trusted and resilient cyberspace for, Enabling Innovation for India’s Developmental Goals etc.