Test: December 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been nominated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) as a member on the GAVI Board, said a release by the Ministry.

The Assam cabinet approved the Assam Official Language Amendment Bill for making Bodo (in Devanagari script) an associate official language of the state.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis released the book ‘Ayodhya’ written by BJP’s State Vice President Madhav Bhandari in Mumbai.

The country’s first hot air balloon wildlife safari in a tiger reserve was launched in the world famous Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve by Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Vijay Shah. It is the first in any tiger reserve in the country.

State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd. and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. (PPBL) have led the pack in November among the top remitter banks, initiating close to half or 1.1 billion of the total Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions processed in November, according to latest data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The prestigious Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize is jointly awarded to Mobilizing the Marginalised: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements by Amit Ahuja, and A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of VK Krishna Menon by Jairam Ramesh

Kerala government said the Gender Park in partnership with UN Women will organise the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-II) at Kozhikode in February 2021.
The focal theme is ‘Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment’.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched Mobile Application and web portal called ‘PR Insight’ to improve the delivery of citizen centric services, based upon the feedback of its citizens on government policies.

Autobiography ‘In Pursuit Of Justice’ By Justice Rajindar Sachar

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s new book titled ‘Covid-19: Sabhyata ka Sankat aur Samadhan’ has been launched by former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.

Shri V.K. Yadav, Chairman & CEO, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways has been conferred with the prestigious “Eminent Engineer Award for the Year 2020’ by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for his outstanding contribution towards modernization and reforms over Indian Railways.

A 12-year-old Indian boy in the UAE has entered into the Guinness Book of World Records by identifying the most aeroplane tails in a minute.
Siddhant Gumber, an Abu Dhabi-based homeschooled boy who identified 39 aeroplane tails in 60 seconds, is also the youngest Indian to identify top 100 tallest buildings.

The government has decided to constitute a high-level committee, headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, to decide on activities for a year-long commemoration of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary starting next year.

Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan, virtually inaugurated India’s highest Meteorological Centre in Leh.
After Itanagar Centre in Arunachal Pradesh, Leh Met centre at 3500 meters highest from mean sea level is the highest in the Himalayan region.

Managing Director of logistics major Transport Corporation of India Limited Vineet Agarwal has taken over as the new President of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the industry body said.

The Uttarakhand forest department dedicated the newly built Pollinator Park to the public, claiming it to be the country’s first such park, spread over 4 acres in Haldwani in Nainital district.

The Bureau of the FIFA Council canceled the 2021 editions of men’s U-20 and U-17 World Cup due to the ongoing pandemic and decided to give the hosting rights to Indonesia and Peru for the 2023 editions.
The two host countries, Australia and New Zealand will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) has granted the go-ahead to small lender Suryoday Small Finance Bank to float its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

India has added Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site, which is a second one in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan released a book titled “Element of Quantitative Genetics” by Prof. Dr. Stuti Sharma of Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur at his official residence.

An Indian Navy warship undertook a “passage exercise” with the Vietnamese Navy in the South China Sea as part of efforts to boost maritime cooperation between the two countries.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the construction of a new world class hockey stadium in Rourkela.
The proposed stadium, being built as the largest one in the country, will host the Men’s World Cup Hockey World Cup in 2023 with a seating capacity of 20,000 spectators.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its expectation for India’s FY21 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to negative 7.8 per cent from negative 11.8 per cent due to easing of Covid-19 headwinds and better-than-expected 2Q FY21 GDP numbers.

ICICI Bank has announced a partnership with Google which will allow users to issue FASTag using Google Pay. The announcement makes ICICI Bank the first bank to join hands with Google Pay for the issuance of FASTag.

India, which appears to have been pushed back to being the world’s sixth biggest economy in 2020, will again overtake the UK to become the fifth largest in 2025 and race to the third spot by 2030, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said in an annual report.
India had overtaken the UK in 2019 to become the fifth largest economy in the world but has been relegated to 6th spot in 2020.
The CEBR forecasts that the Indian economy will expand by 9 per cent in 2021 and by 7 per cent in 2022.