Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
Indian Institute of Astrophysics or IIA recently decided to send its first winter expedition team to Norway’s Ny-Alesund research base in Svalbard starting. IIA already has an all-year polar research station Himadri in Svalbard. The winter expedition crew will study atmospheric and space weather phenomena like northern lights till March 2023 during the Arctic’s dark season.

Notes:
The National Sports Awards 2023, as declared by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, are scheduled to be conferred by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024. Among the recipients, badminton players Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj will be honored with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023. Additionally, 26 players are set to receive the Arjuna Award this year.

Notes:
The SASTRA-Ramanujan Awards for 2022 and 2023 were presented to two mathematicians from the University of California, Berkeley. Yunqing Tang received the 2022 award, while Ruixiang Zhang received the 2023 award. The ceremony took place at the SASTRA campus located in Kumbakonam.

Notes:
The 8th edition of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) Conclave of Chiefs (CoC) was conducted by Royal Thai Navy at Bangkok, Thailand from 19 – 22 Dec 23. Chiefs of Navies/ Senior Delegates from 27 Members/ Observer countries participated in the event. IONS was conceived by the Indian Navy in 2008. The inaugural edition of IONS was held in Feb 2008 at New Delhi, with Indian Navy as the Chair for two years (2008 – 2010).
India is also scheduled to take over as the Chair of IONS (2025-27) during 9th CoC planned to be conducted in India in end 2025.

Notes:
Recently, unusual shiny clouds called nacreous clouds were seen in the skies over parts of Scotland, northern England, and the West Midlands. These rare clouds look like mother of pearl and shine with pale, rainbow-like colors during sunset and sunrise. This effect happens as sunlight bends around tiny ice crystals in the clouds, creating colors like a thin layer of oil on water does. The process that causes these colorful iridescent clouds is optical diffraction – when light waves interact with small particles and bend or spread out into spectral colors.

Notes:
Styangkung village shrine of Islamic preacher Akhone Muhammad Shareef in Ladakh has been included in sustainable development programme by Kargil Development Authority for preservation as a heritage site. Shareef and his descendants contributed immensely to the culture and history of Purig region. Restoration of his shrine will boost village development.

Notes:
It is located in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. On his Arunachal visit, Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the government is committed to develop NEIAFMR as the national hub of folk medicine. Additional Rs 53 crore infrastructure will help build its capacity towards research on Ayurveda and folk medicine and enable introducing quality Ayurveda education.

Notes:
Vijayakant, founder of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) party in Tamil Nadu, passed away on December 28th 2023 at age 71. Known affectionately as “Captain” after playing the title role in hit film “Captain Prabakaran”, he entered politics in 2006. Rattling stalwarts Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi, Vijayakant emerged as a surprise third force by securing 8.38% votes in 2006 state elections as an independent. His vote share later crossed 10% in 2009 parliamentary polls. Allying with AIADMK in 2011, DMDK became second largest party in Assembly, making Vijayakant Leader of Opposition with 29 MLAs. However, in later years his political fortunes declined after falling out with AIADMK.

Notes:
A Turkish parliamentary committee has approved Sweden’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military pact formed in 1949 by 12 founding nations. Now comprising 31 member states after Finland’s 2023 inclusion, the alliance was originally established through the Washington Treaty to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
Founding Members: The original members of NATO, were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Notes:
On December 27, 2023, Pakistan’s military successfully conducted a flight test of the indigenously developed guided multi-launch rocket system Fatah-II. Fattah-2, new and improved hypersonic weapon has been launched by Iran in November 2023.