Current Affairs Quiz - May 2022

Notes:
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the ‘Mandate document’ for National Curriculum Framework (NCF).
The National Education Policy 2020 recommended the development of NCF in four areas — school education, early childhood care and education, teacher education and adult education. The development of the NCF is guided by the National Steering Committee (NSC), chaired by Dr K Kasturirangan, and supported by the Mandate Group, along with NCERT.

Notes:
The United States, all European Union member states, and 32 non-EU countries recently announced a “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”.
The Document is an agreement to prevent digital authoritarianism. It highlights goals like affordability, net neutrality, and removing illegal content without curtailing free expression. India, Russia and China are big countries which are not part of the declaration.

Notes:
Calcutta University has been ranked first among all the central and state-aided public universities in the country by Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2022.
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was placed at 41st place in the overall table. India is the fourth most-represented nation across the rankings, with 64 universities featuring in total along with Turkey. Australia’s Western Sydney University is ranked at the top spot in the overall ranking, which includes 1,406 institutions.

Notes:
The ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)’ scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1st May 2016 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
It was a major step towards social inclusion by providing Free LPG connection to every BPL household. To celebrate the achievements of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) decided to celebrate 1st May 2022 as Ujjwala Diwas. Oil marketing companies will organise more than 5000 LPG panchayats on the occasion of Ujjwala diwas.

Notes:
India’s ace shuttler P V Sindhu won her second Asian Championships bronze medal as she lost the women’s singles semifinal to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
She faced a three-game loss to top-seed and defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan though Sindhu clinched the opening game 21-13. Lee Zii Jia defeated Jonatan Christie for title to win Men’s title while Wang Zhi Yi defeated Akane Yamaguchi in Women’s singles.

Notes:
India and Germany recently inked a joint declaration of intent on Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force
India and Germany also agreed to work together with focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups as well as AI research and its application in sustainability and health care. India’s Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh visited Germany as part of his official tour.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved appointment of Tarun Kapoor, as an advisor to the Prime Minister, in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in the rank and scale of Secretary to Government of India, initially for a period of two years
Former petroleum secretary and 1987-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, superannuated as the Secretary of the Ministry of petroleum and natural gas in 2021.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank hiked the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40 per cent, after an unscheduled meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in May 2022. Next meeting of the MPC is scheduled during June 6-8.
All six members unanimously voted for a rate hike while maintaining the accommodative stance. The decision aimed to contain inflation, which remained above 6 per cent for the last three months. Cash reserve ratio was hiked by 50 bps to 4.5% effective May 21.

Notes:
In the annual Test rankings released by International Cricket Council (ICC), India under new captain Rohit Sharma finished the 2021-22 season as the world’s number one ranked T20 team.
New Zealand finished the last season as the world No.1 ODI team while Australia topped the list in the Test Cricket. It has also increased their lead over second-placed India from one to nine rating points. Pakistan overtook England to fifth position in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings.

Notes:
Maip macrothorax, the newly identified megaraptor dinosaur, has been unearthed in South American country Argentina.
The dinosaur which inhabited the Argentinian Patagonian70 million years ago is displayed at the Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Science, in Buenos Aires. It is the largest megaraptor unearthed to date. The ‘Maip macrothorax’ measured between 9 and 10 meters long with sharp, curved claws.