Daily Current Affairs Quiz : December 22, 2023

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Indian Armed Forces have been honored with the coveted ‘Golden Owl’ award for their outstanding performance. In a remarkable display of excellence, three officers from the Indian Armed Forces, undergoing the prestigious Command and Staff Course at Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) in Sri Lanka, have been honored with the coveted ‘Golden Owl’ award for their outstanding performance. The award, presented by Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, recognizes their exceptional achievements in analytical skills, strategic thinking, and their potential for future leadership.

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Ministry of Mines has launched the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) Portal on 19th December 2023 in a ceremony in New Delhi. NGDR is a comprehensive online platform for accessing, sharing, and analyzing geospatial information across the nation.
The NGDR initiative, spearheaded by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Bhaskarachaya Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N) represents a significant leap forward in democratizing critical geoscience data, empowering stakeholders across industries and academia with unprecedented access to invaluable resources.

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The Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 15th December 2023 signed a $250 million policy-based loan that will continue support to industrial corridor development to make manufacturing more competitive, strengthen national supply chains and links with regional and global value chains, and create more and better jobs.
The National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICP) has been conceived to promote world-class manufacturing facilities and develop futuristic industrial cities in India. 11 Industrial Corridors are being developed under the programme. It is under the administrative control of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

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The fourth unit of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP-4) in Gujarat, with a capacity of 700 MWe, achieved criticality recently, marking the initiation of a controlled fission chain reaction.
The Kakrapar facility, houses the largest indigenous nuclear power reactors built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). These pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) utilize natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as coolant and moderator. The NPCIL is a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy which already operates indigenous PHWRs at other facilities.

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Scientists using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have discovered hydrogen cyanide, a crucial molecule for life formation, in the oceans of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. Published in Nature Astronomy, the study suggests that Enceladus subsurface oceans may possess more chemical energy than previously thought, potentially supporting the creation and persistence of complex organic compounds.
The research, based on Cassini’s data collected between 2004 and 2017, identified hydrogen cyanide, along with methanol, ethane, and oxygen, in the plumes of water vapor erupting from Enceladus’s surface. Saturn has 62 confirmed moons, and its largest moon is Titan, which is larger than Earth’s own moon and has a thick, opaque atmosphere.