Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
A diplomatic row sparked between Greece and the UK after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the status of the Parthenon Sculptures housed at the British Museum.
Over the years, Greece has repeatedly asked for the sculptures’ permanent return to Athens, but Britain refused to do so. The Parthenon Sculptures are more than 30 ancient stone sculptures from Greece that are more than 2,000 years old. Most of them adorned the walls and grounds of the Parthenon temple on the rocky Acropolis hill in Athens. Completed in 432 BC, the temple is dedicated to the goddess Athena.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Terms of Reference for the Sixteenth Finance Commission.
The 16th Finance Commission’s recommendations, upon the acceptance by the government, would cover the period of five years commencing April 1, 2026. Article 280(1) of the Constitutions lays down that the modalities for setting up of a Finance Commission. The Fifteenth Finance Commission was constituted in 2017, whose recommendations are valid up to the financial year 2025-26.

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:
Several nations are witnessing outbreaks of a bacterial lung infection or pneumonia among children, which antibiotics are unable to treat effectively. In China, such cases being reported likely involve the mycoplasma pneumoniae pathogen. The ‘white lung’ syndrome leads to distinctive marks on scans. Beyond China, rise in the US, Netherlands and Denmark point to a wider spread.

Notes:
The concept of Special Category States (SCS) emerged in 1969 when the Indian government recognized that certain states faced more developmental challenges than others. The criteria for SCS classification includes hilly terrain, low population density, sizable tribal population, strategic border locations, and economic backwardness.

Initially in 1969, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland were granted SCS status. Currently, 11 states hold this status – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

The preferential categorization aims to channel additional funds and incentives to remote, underdeveloped regions facing geographic handicaps. SCS states receive central assistance for programs tailor-made to their unique needs. The classification also enables access to separate Center-State funding mechanisms and industrial promotions to spur growth.

Notes:
The researchers of NOAA Ocean Exploration, in a major discovery, found a massive underwater mountain, also known as a seamount, on the Pacific Ocean’s floor off the coast of Guatemala.
The seamount is likely to be a remnant of an extinct volcano, similar to other seamounts. The seamount found is 1,600 metres (5,249 feet) tall, which is nearly twice the height of Burj Khalifa in Dubai – the world’s tallest building.

Notes:
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has announced a seed fund scheme to offer start-ups focusing on urban development and disaster management a financial assistance of up to Rs 1 crore each.
It has launched the scheme in collaboration with ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to provide a leg-up to companies that leverage space technology for societal benefit.  The selected start-ups will receive seed funding for transforming an original idea into a prototype using space technology, ISRO facility support.

Notes:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo reported 12,569 suspected mpox cases, including 581 deaths, from January 1 through November 12, 2023, according to World Health Organization (WHO) situation report.
This is the highest number of annual cases ever reported, noted WHO. The first confirmed sexually-transmitted mpox infections and the first cases in the country’s capital. The cases were recorded in 22 out of 26 provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Notes:
Local villagers of Odisha have expressed fear of environmental degradation and loss of livelihood due to the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mines by Vendanta Ltd.
The concerns were raised by the locals during the public hearing for the proposed mining area of 1,549 hectares. A large variety of flora and fauna will be endangered due to the proposed mining activity in the said project areas. The local tribal people fully depend on the Sijimali and Karlapat forest for their livelihood and fuelwood for cooking, which will be hampered drastically.

Notes:
To assess and measure the progress made by Grassroots level Institutions in achieving Localized SDGs and thereby attaining SDG 2030, Ministry has released a report on Panchayat Development Index (PDI).
Panchayat Development Index would play a significant role for performance evaluation and progress assessment in achieving the LSDGs in rural area. Under the revamped RGSA, Ministry has been incentivizing best performing Panchayats through National Panchayats Award (NPA) by assessing their performance in the attainment of SDGs to generate positive competition among Panchayats.