DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS PART 1 GOALTIDE IAS ACADEMY 1 DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS PART 1 Introduction Hello Everyone, Every year more than 50 percent of the Prelims Paper is based on Current Affairs. It become important for us to have very good command on Current Affairs. Hundreds of publications are available in market. Aspirants are always confused how to prepare Current Affairs and most of the times they end up choosing wrong publications. We will not let you fall in this trouble. Three important courses are running simultaneously on our website for Current Affairs from Monday to Friday- Daily Quiz section, Daily Current Affairs section and Daily News Section. Daily Quiz will help you do the best preparation to handle any question in UPSC Prelims Exam, Daily News section contains best opinion based Articles important for your Mains Exam and Daily Current Affairs section will give you best Current Affairs which is relevant for you Exam from all important sources (PIB+ all government websites, The Hindu+ 10 different newspaper, etc. ). Nothing will be missed. This document is related to Current Affairs section. You might find it bulky but don’t worry. It contains lot of images to simplify your understanding. Hope you enjoy reading. Thanks, Abhishek Agarwal Founder, GoalTide IAS Prelims Academy GOALTIDE IAS ACADEMY 2 DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS PART 1 Table of Contents CA1. Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Oceans ....................................................................................... 5 CA2. Centre constitutes committee for implementation of 2015 Paris Agreement .................................... 8 CA3. Indian Oil Corporation launches country's first 100 Octane petrol ..................................................... 9 CA4. What are the Blue tides spotted at Mumbai beaches? ...................................................................... 10 CA5. Species in news ................................................................................................................................... 12 CA6. World Malaria Report 2020 ................................................................................................................ 14 CA7. New evidence pushes back by 30000 years first use of fire in India .................................................. 19 CA8. Warnings of Brahmaputra floods in Tree Ring ................................................................................... 21 CA9. Approval of new drug in India ............................................................................................................ 25 CA10. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme ......................................................................................................... 27 CA11. IUCN World Heritage Outlook 3 Report. .......................................................................................... 29 CA12. India and Pakistan: Basmati Battle in European Union .................................................................... 33 CA13. Technical Education in Mother Tongue ............................................................................................ 35 CA14. Ken-Betwa Interlinking Project Dam ................................................................................................ 37 CA15. Oman-India Friendship Association .................................................................................................. 39 CA16. Cannabis Removed from Dangerous Substances: UN ...................................................................... 40 CA17. Chang’e-5 lunar probe ...................................................................................................................... 42 CA18. Economy firmly on the path of a V-shaped recovery ....................................................................... 44 CA19. Indo Gangetic plain global hotspot of atmospheric ammonia ......................................................... 47 CA20. Cobalt Production in India. ............................................................................................................... 49 CA21. State Land (Vesting Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 (Roshni Act) ...................................... 50 CA22. International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). ............................................................... 52 CA23. Coal Mining in North East India. ....................................................................................................... 53 CA24. Right to Vote for NRIs ....................................................................................................................... 57 CA25. China turns on "Artificial Sun" .......................................................................................................... 59 CA26. Bauxite mining in India ..................................................................................................................... 60 CA27. Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) Scheme ...................................................................... 63 CA28. Technical Specifications of Floating Structures ................................................................................ 65 CA29. Central waqf Council......................................................................................................................... 66 CA30. Scientists discover 80-million-year-old dinosaur had a bone infection that humans have today ... 67 GOALTIDE IAS ACADEMY 3 DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS PART 1 CA31. Reforms in Agriculture Marketing .................................................................................................... 68 CA32. Inter-governmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) ....... 72 CA33. Lakshadweep Declared an Organic Union Territory ......................................................................... 74 CA34. New Height for Mount Everest ......................................................................................................... 77 CA35. National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) ........................................................................ 80 CA36. Climate Change Performance Index ................................................................................................. 81 CA37. Blockchain Technology ..................................................................................................................... 82 CA38. Kerala’s ‘pink phenomenon’ in water bodies. .................................................................................. 86 CA39. Partners in Population and Development Initiative (PPD) ............................................................... 87 CA40. Cattle, buffalo meat residue found in Indus Valley vessels .............................................................. 88 CA41. How Neural Network works? ........................................................................................................... 89 CA42. Rise in AI Adoption in India Amidst Pandemics ................................................................................ 91 CA43. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) ..................................................................................................... 94 CA44. Israel set to open up parts of Herod’s palace ................................................................................. 96 CA45. ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus .......................................................................................... 97 CA46. Urban-Rural and Gender divide observed in access to School Education........................................ 98 CA47. Diversity of food culture prevalent in the Indus Valley Civilization ............................................... 101 CA48. Miyawaki Method of Afforestation ................................................................................................ 103 CA49. Delimitation Commission. .............................................................................................................. 104 CA50. Formulation of policy on 3D printing ............................................................................................. 105 CA51. Electoral Bonds ............................................................................................................................... 106 CA52. 23rd Meeting of Financial Stability and Development Council ...................................................... 109 CA53. New Ramsar site designated in Bihar ............................................................................................. 112 CA54. Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) ................................................................... 115 CA55. What is ‘the great conjunction’? .................................................................................................... 116 GOALTIDE IAS ACADEMY 4 DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS PART 1 CA1. Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Oceans Link: https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/impacts-sand-and-dust-storms- oceans This small discussion will be based on the report- Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Oceans: A Scientific Environmental Assessment for Policy Makers. Sand and dust is raised by strong winds from areas of bare or sparsely vegetated ground. While some of this material falls back to the surface near the source, the smaller dust particles are carried further in the wind sometimes thousands of kilometres before being deposited. Each year, an estimated two billion