Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has appreciated the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
It highlighted that the program provided insurance to the poor and prevented an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty in the country. Without any food subsidies, extreme poverty in the pandemic would have increased by 1.05 per cent.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates has been selected as the host country of COP28 Climate Summit 2023. The UN Climate Summit is to be held at Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi announced that it would start banning single-use plastic bags from June. It plans to completely get rid of single-use styro-foam cups, plates and food containers by 2024. UAE has also declared it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Notes:
India and Kyrgyzstan carried out a two-week-long Joint Special Forces Exercise, in reflection of growing defence ties between the two countries.
The exercise at Bakloh in Himachal Pradesh concluded recently. Combat shooting, sniping, survival in mountains, hostage rescue drills and unarmed combat were practised during the exercise.

Notes:
According to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the frequency and intensity of forest fires have increased in the past two decades.
The study, ‘Managing Forest Fires in a Changing Climate’, found that there has been a ten-fold increase in forest fires in the past two decades. More than 62 per cent of Indian states are prone to high-intensity forest fires. Mizoram had the highest number of forest fires in the last two decades, with more than 95 per cent of its districts being forest fire hotspots.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent for the 11th consecutive time.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the MPC had voted unanimously to maintain the accommodative stance and added that the reverse repo rate too was kept unchanged at 3.35 per cent. Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and bank rate also were kept unchanged at 4.25 percent.

Notes:
The BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, launched a collaborative ‘BRICS Vaccine R&D Centre’
The Centre will comprise basic research and development, preclinical and clinical studies and strengthen BRICS countries’ laboratory capacities to develop infrastructure for testing vaccine candidates.

Notes:
Mission Raftaar introduced by the Indian Railways in 2016-17 targeted an average speed of 50 kmph for mail/express and 75 kmph for freight trains by 2021-22.
A recent audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that travel time of trains has increased over the past few years, and overall punctuality of trains has declined. The punctuality of mail/express trains over IR declined from 79 per cent (2012-13) to 69.23 per cent (2018-19) at the terminating stations.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the guidelines on setting up of digital banking units (DBUs). Commercial banks (other than RRBs, payment banks and LABs) with past digital banking experience are permitted to open DBUs in tier 1 to tier 6 centres
The Budget speech for 2022-2023 announced setting up of 75 DBUs in 75 districts to commemorate 75 years of independence of the country.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained an accommodative stance and cut the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for the 2022-23 to 7.2 per cent, against the earlier projection of 7.8 per cent.
The inflation forecast has also been hiked from 4.5 per cent to 5.7 per cent for the FY 2022-23. The reasons are excessive volatility in global crude oil prices and extreme uncertainty over the evolving geopolitical tensions.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) flight-tested the Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) booster at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
SFDR-based propulsion enables the missile to intercept aerial threats at very long range, even at supersonic speeds. The SFDR has been developed by Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories.