Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
The UNAIDS agency said in its annual World AIDS Day Report that community-led responses are unrecognised, under-resourced and in some places under attack.
The UN first set out in 2015 the target of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.  There are 39 million people around the world living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Of them, 20.8 million are in eastern and southern Africa and 6.5 million are in Asia and the Pacific.

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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:
Mahe, Malvan and Mangrol, the first three ships of Shallow Water Craft (CSL) project were launched recently.
The contract for building eight ASW SWC ships was signed between the Ministry of Defence and Cochin Shipyard Limited in 2019. The Mahe class of ships will be equipped with indigenously developed, state-of-the-art underwater sensors, and are envisaged to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters as well as Low Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) and Mine Laying Operations.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his official approval to a significant increase in military spending that will see around 30% of fiscal expenditure directed towards the armed forces in 2024.
The President signed draft budget plans into law. Russia is diverting ever more resources towards prosecuting its war in Ukraine. Spending on defence and security combined is set to reach around 40% of all budget expenditure next year.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin unveiled a statue of pioneering anti-caste activist Iyothee Thass Pandithar in Chennai in December 2023. The statue and memorial cost Rs 2.49 crores to build. Stalin hailed Iyothee Thass as the forerunner to Periyar in politically popularizing ‘Tamizhan’ and ‘Dravidian’ identity terms. Born in 1845 in Madras, Iyothee Thass promoted Dravidian ideology through the Dravida Mahajana Sabha he founded in 1891 with Rettamalai Srinivasan. In 1876, Thass had set up the Advaidananda Sabha and launched the magazine ‘Dravida Pandian’ alongside Rev. John Rathina. A prominent activist and Siddha medicine practitioner, he organized Nilgiri Hills tribes into the freedom movement in the 1870s. His most revolutionary declaration in 1886 was that Scheduled Castes were not Hindus, inspiring their separate socio-political mobilization. This declaration laid the grounds for the later Dravida Kazhagam. Thass urged Dalits to register as ‘Casteless Dravidians’ in the 1891 census. His anti-caste activities inspired Sri Lanka’s Anagarika Dharmapala as well. After a life dedicated to social justice, Iyothee Thass passed away on May 5, 1914.

Notes:
India is aiming to expand its clean energy capabilities by proposing 13 new hydroelectric projects in Arunachal Pradesh, which would contribute 13,000 megawatts to the national grid. The state government signed MoUs with central public sector undertakings to construct these ventures, which require an investment of Rs 1.4 lakh crore and would quadruple the region’s per capita income. This supports India’s goal to better utilize its hydropower potential, currently at only 35% of capacity. The 2,000 megawatt Subansiri dam, the largest hydroelectric project underway in India, will also boost Arunachal Pradesh through its environmentally friendly run-of-river model that maintains downstream river flow.

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Indian activist Safeena Hussain has been awarded the prestigious $500,000 WISE Prize for her work promoting girls’ education across rural India. Her NGO Educate Girls has helped over 1.4 million girls re-enroll in schools in remote villages, drawing global recognition to grassroots education reform. Her interventions that focus on community participation have also boosted learning outcomes. The WISE prize validates the impact of her innovative model that is empowering India’s most marginalized girls to access their right to education.

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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:
Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII) was launched at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The ambitious programme to upscale and accelerate green industries and businesses across Africa was launched by presidents and representatives from Kenya, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia, as well as COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. The initiative underscores the importance of green industrialisation to harness Africa’s vast and quality resources to secure prosperity for all.

Notes:
In order to encourage the Spatial Planning by the Gram Panchayat, Ministry of Panchayati Raj had launched the Geographic Information System (GIS) application “Gram Manchitra”. This application facilitates and supports Gram Panchayats to perform planning at Gram Panchayat level using geo-spatial technology.
It provides a unified Geo Spatial platform to better visualize the various developmental works to be taken up across the different sectors and provide a decision support system for Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP). Ministry has launched mActionSoft, a mobile based solution to help in capturing photos with Geo-Tags (GPS Coordinates) for the works which have asset as an output. Geo-tagging of the assets is done in all three stages.