Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
As per UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan is the top producer of Opium poppy.  By 2021, Afghanistan’s harvest will account for more than 90% of worldwide illegal heroin production.
Since 2001, the country has been the world’s biggest illicit drug producer. Afghanistan produced around 6,800 tonnes of opium during the previous harvest season, which concluded in July. This was an increase of 8% from 2020.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh Government recently passed a Bill to recover property damages from protesters.
The bill also provides for setting up a tribunal which would look into the claims of property damage during riots or public protests. The State Assembly also passed a resolution that panchayat elections will not be held without Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation.

Notes:
Agathiyar, a saint and practitioner is associated with the Siddha system of medicine. It is one of the oldest traditions of healthcare originated in the Indian sub-continent.
It has been officially recognized as one among the Ayush systems in India. Ministry of Ayush observes Siddha Day on eve of Agathiyar’s birthday every year, which falls during the Margazhi (Tamil) Month.  The Fifth Siddha Day celebration on “Strength of Siddha Medicine for Communicable Diseases” has been jointly organized.

Notes:
Ryugu, also known as 1999 JU3, is a carbon-rich, diamond-shaped, near-Earth asteroid. An analysis of the JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 sample of material returned to Earth from Ryugu shows that the material is very dark, reflecting only 2% of light.
The sample also shows that the material is porous and similar to clay, contains carbonates, as well as compounds rich in nitrogen and hydrogen.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently extended the tokenisation rules till June 30, 2022. The deadline for wiping off card data on merchant sites and applying tokenisation has been extended by another six months.
This step has been taken by the Central Bank as merchants and payment companies expressed their inability to meet the earlier deadline of December 31, 2021. Card on file tokenisation (CoFT) is used to register card data with a merchant site.

Notes:
A professor of Japan has developed a prototype of a lickable TV screen which can imitate food flavors. The technology has been named Taste the TV (TTTV), which uses a carousel of 10 flavour canisters that spray to create the taste of a particular food. The flavour sample then rolls on hygienic film over a flat TV screen for the viewer to experience.
This prototype is seen as a step towards achieving multi-sensory viewing experience in the media industry.

Notes:
As per a recent research, Matterhorn, one of the highest summits in the Alps, moves back and forth in every two seconds.
The peak is located on the border of Switzerland and Italy at nearly 4,478 m above sea level. As per the data, the mountain is moving in the north–south direction at a frequency of 0.42 Hertz and similarly in the east-west direction. This movement is stimulated by seismic energy in the Earth.

Notes:
Tsongmo or Changu Lake, is located in the state of Sikkim, near India’s boundary with China. It was seen in the news, as many tourists were stuck near the lake in Sikkim due to heavy snowfall.
Over 1024 tourists were given shelter by the Indian Army near Nathula pass. They were then guided to reach Gangtok, which is around 40 km away, on foot.

Notes:
The Cumbre Vieja volcano is located in Spain’s Canary Islands. The volcano was spewing lava and ash since September and the eruption is set to over shortly.
The volcano on La Palma Island destroyed several properties and hundreds of acres of farmland. There have been no earth tremors since December and this is the longest period without any activity.

Notes:
Industrialist Viral Desai, popularly known as Greenman, has been awarded the prestigious Global Environment and Climate Action Citizen Award in Dubai.
Viral Desai along with the other winners were felicitated with the Bharat Gaurav Samman by Sanskruti Yuva Sansthan. Twenty-eight personalities from 11 countries were felicitated with the prestigious awards.