Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2023

Notes:
The Essequibo region is a 159,500 KM² area west of the Essequibo River. The region is disputed by Guyana and Venezuela, and is also known as Esequibo or Guayana Esequiba in Spanish. The territory is controlled by Guyana based on the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award, but is also claimed by Venezuela. Venezuela has long maintained that the 1899 decision to award the region to the UK was unfair. The matter is currently before the International Court of Justice, although Venezuela says the court does not have authority to rule on it. In December 2023, Guyana and Venezuela agreed not to use force to settle their dispute over the oil-rich region. The meeting was brokered by neighboring Brazil, along with CELAC and CARICOM, intergovernmental organizations representing Latin America and the Caribbean nations.

Notes:
Bhashini is an AI-led language translation system that enables people to speak in their own language while talking to speakers of other Indian languages. Its aim is to facilitate convenient internet and digital service accessibility in Indian languages, incorporating voice-based access, and fostering the generation of content in these languages.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi utilized ‘Bhashini’ during his speech at the Kashi Tamil Sangamam event in Varanasi on December 18th. This aided those in the audience more conversant in Tamil to comprehend his Hindi address. The use of such technology for language translation was a new beginning per the Prime Minister, potentially easing communication barriers.

Notes:
Recently, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, addressed the UNSC Open Debate on Small Arms to highlight India’s suffering from cross-border terrorism executed using smuggled weapons. A veiled critique of Pakistan, she emphasized that such illicit arms trafficking by non-state actors necessitates coordinated efforts to identify points of diversion. Her remarks also urged zero tolerance for state sponsors of terror entities.

Notes:
Recently, the Minister of State for Education, in a written response in the Lok Sabha, announced that the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, has initiated the SATHEE (Self-Assessment, Test, and Help for Entrance Examination) portal. The objective of the portal is to provide quality education to every student who intends to participate in competitive education such as JEE, NEET and various State level Engineering and other Examinations.
To support students preparing for JEE and other engineering examinations, a 45 days crash course of JEE has been launched. Course is curated by IIT toppers, academicians and subject experts. This crash course is available in 5 languages including English.

Notes:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a new US-led multinational security initiative under the Combined Maritime Forces, focusing on maritime security challenges in the Red Sea region. This comes following recent attacks on commercial shipping by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels based in Yemen using drones and missiles. The operation aims to ensure freedom of navigation in response to the escalating security crisis.
Before that, the Swan Atlantic, a Cayman Islands-flagged chemical/oil tanker, sent out a mayday call after being attacked by drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Houthi rebels while transiting the Red Sea on December 18th. The US Navy destroyer USS Carney responded to assist the vessel and assess damages.

Notes:
The potato disease that has ravaged crops across Punjab districts is called late blight (100 words). It displays symptoms like green circular spots on potatoes that expand into dark brown lesions. Over 50% of the state’s potato cultivation has been impacted by late blight fungal infestation. Excess moisture and humidity encouraged its proliferation, resulting in rotting of tubers.

Notes:
‘Children of Nobody’ clinched the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for Best Film at the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival. Other films like ‘Endless Borders’ and ‘Kantara’ received accolades at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), with ‘Kantara’ making history in the Kannada film industry. Michael Douglas was honored with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award, and ‘Panchayat Season 2’ was named Best Web Series. ‘Featherweight’ had its Asian premiere at the 54th IFFI.

Notes:
NASA’s TEMPO satellite, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution sensor, is a ground breaking Earth-observation satellite in geostationary orbit designed to provide hourly measurements of pollutants over North America.
TEMPO covers a vast area from Canada’s oil sands to the Yucatán Peninsula and spans across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, enhancing its ability to monitor air pollution comprehensively.

Notes:
Neelam Saran Gour was honored with the Sahitya Akademi English award for 2023 for her novel ‘Requiem In Raga Janki’. This historical fiction, set in British-era Allahabad, delves into the life of the renowned singer Janki Bai Ilahabadi. Arundhathi Subramaniam was also a notable contender in the shortlist for her poetic memoir ‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’.

Notes:
National Mathematics Day is celebrated on December 22nd every year to honor the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a renowned Indian mathematician. The day recognizes his contributions to the field of mathematics and aims to raise awareness about its importance. The International Day of Mathematics is celebrated on March 14th and is also known as Pi Day.
The number 1729 is known as the Hardy–Ramanujan number after a famous visit by Hardy to see Ramanujan at a hospital. About this number, Ramanujan remarked that “it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.”