Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
India recently celebrated the 59th National Maritime Day which falls on April 5 every year. This year’s theme is ‘Sustainable Shipping beyond Covid-19’.
The first anniversary of the day was held in 1964 to raise awareness about international trade and economy.  An award ceremony is held to honour those who made important contributions to the Indian maritime industry.

Notes:
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that India’s merchandise exports rose to a record high of USD 418 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal.
The rise is due to the higher shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods, gems and jewellery and chemicals. India’s goods trade (exports and imports) crossed USD 1 trillion during 2021-22. India’s imports also touched an all-time high of USD 610 billion.

Notes:
Punjab National Bank has recently made the Positive Pay System (PPS) compulsory for cheque payments worth Rs 10 lakh and above.
Under the Positive Pay System (PPS) developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a customer issuing the high-value cheque has to reconfirm some essential details before clearing. It aims to protect the customers from security threats

Notes:
The Blue Nile, a subsidiary of the Nile River originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and travels through Ethiopia and Sudan.
A shipwreck on the Blue Nile River happened in Sudan’s Sennar province has killed 23 people, all of them female. The Blue Nile is an important transport route for people and goods in the African nations.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government recently formed a 13-member panel to frame the state education policy.
The panel is headed by Delhi High Court retired Chief Justice D Murugesan and the panel members include education experts, writer S Ramakrishnan, former chess world champion Viswanathan Anand and Carnatic musician T M Krishna, among others.

Notes:
World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a loan of Rs 7500 Cr for the Gujarat government’s Mission School of Excellence project.
Under the Mission School of Excellence project, the state government will spend Rs 10,000 crore in the next five years, to be spent on building new classrooms, smart classrooms, new computer labs and tinkering labs in government and grant-in-aid schools across the state.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology formed a 17 member advisory committee to guide the Rs 76,000 crore-Semiconductor Mission.
The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw will be the Chairperson of the committee. NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat, Principal Scientific Advisor, and Secretaries from the Ministry of External affairs, Departments of expenditure, economic affairs, and promotion of industry and internal trade, will be members of the committee.

Notes:
India is procuring 24 MH-60 Romeo Multi-role helicopters as part of an Rs 15,000-crore deal with the US Government.
The first batch of the aircrew of the Indian Navy has completed its training in the US to operate the MH-60 ‘Romeo’ multi-role helicopters. MH-60R helicopter, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, is an all-weather helicopter designed to support multiple mission.

Notes:
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Washington DC as part of his five-day US visit which includes the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.
2+2 dialogue involves meetings between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and their respective American counterparts. Ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between India and the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Notes:
Veteran British author Jack Higgins, who wrote ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and several bestselling thrillers and espionage novels, passed away at the age of 92.
In 1975, his “The Eagle Has Landed” book was published, which was about a fictional World War II plot to kidnap British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Some of his other titles include “The Eagle Has Flown”, “Angel of Death”, ”Day of Reckoning”, and “A Darker Place”.