Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has become the fourth largest insurer in the world, ahead of US-based MetLife and Prudential Financial Inc.
The LIC is only behind Germany’s Allianz SE, China’s China Life Insurance (CLI), and Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance, according to a new ranking by capital market company S&P Global.

Notes:
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), launched the India-Korea Electronic Origin Data Exchange System (EODES).
It is aimed at facilitating the smooth implementation of the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by way of electronic exchange of origin information between the two customs administrations in respect of the goods traded under the CEPA.

Notes:
The death toll from a volcano eruption in Indonesia has risen to 23 after 10 more bodies were discovered.
Mount Marapi on the island of Sumatra spewed an ash tower 9,800 feet into the sky. About 75 climbers who had started their way up the mountain and stranded, and about 52 of them were rescued after the initial eruption, while 11 more were initially confirmed dead. New eruptions spewed additional columns of hot ash into the air, reducing visibility and temporarily halting the search and recovery operations.

Notes:
Telangana government has issued guidelines for the implementation of Maha Lakshmi scheme, aimed at providing free travel to women in TSRTC buses.
The Maha Lakshmi scheme aims to provide free travel for girls, women of all age groups, and transgender persons in state-run Palle Velugu and express buses operated by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) within the borders of Telangana State.

Notes:
The Assam cabinet approved a socio-economic survey of the state’s indigenous Muslim population. A year-and-a-half ago, the Himanta Biswa Sarma government recognised five communities as “indigenous Assamese Muslims”.
The Directorate of Char Areas Development, which will be renamed as Directorate of Minority Affairs and Char Areas, will carry out the socio-economic assessment of indigenous Muslims. According to the 2011 Census, Muslims comprise more than 34% of Assam’s population, the third highest among all states and Union Territories after Lakshadweep and J&K. Of the state’s total population of 3.1 crore, over 1 crore are Muslims.

Notes:
In October, Bangladesh became the first country in the world to be officially validated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for eliminating kala azar as a public health problem.
After missing the deadline thrice, India is set to achieve the elimination target for visceral leishmaniasis or kala azar this year with no block in the country reporting more than one case per 10,000 people. India needs to sustain its momentum over the next three years in order to receive the WHO certification. Kala azar is a parasitic infection transmitted by sandflies. It causes fever, weight loss, and spleen and liver enlargement.

Notes:
India, the US and South Korea will set up an informal “trilateral technology dialogue” in the first quarter of 2024. The announcement came as US and Seoul launched their Next Generation Critical and Emerging Technologies Dialogue, in Seoul.
The dialogue is in response to China’s rapid progress in critical technologies within the Indo-Pacific region.

Notes:
Nearly 1,000 seals and sea lions in southern Brazil have died from bird flu outbreaks. The southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has confirmed 942 sea mammal deaths following infection by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
The infection was reported for the first time ever in the South American country this year.

Notes:
Litani River forms part of the border between Lebanon and Israel. The river was in news in December 2023 after a cruise missile launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen struck a commercial oil tanker ship 60 nautical miles north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. This attack was part of rising tensions between Israel and the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance”, which includes groups like Hezbollah and Houthi rebels. These groups have been targeting Israeli and US interests in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians since October 2023.

Notes:
The saiga antelope has had its conservation status upgraded from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, marking a conservation success story. Once-abundant saiga numbers dropped massively since the 1990s largely due to poaching. But Kazakhstan’s leadership in recent protection efforts, reducing poaching and disease outbreaks, has led to revival of numbers, enabling the status change. Saiga has two sub-species: Saiga tatarica tatarica (found in most of the range) and Saiga tatarica mongolica (found only in Mongolia). The antelope were once found throughout the Eurasian Steppe, the great band of grassland that stretches from Hungary in Europe to Manchuria in Asia. Today, the animal is found in fragmented populations within Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan