Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
Telangana launched its Space Tech Framework to promote domestic production of launch vehicles, satellite systems and subsystems, ground equipment manufacturing and other facilities.
It was also the first ever official government event to be hosted on Meta-verse. A space-themed Meta-verse environment was developed along with avatars of key participants including Industries and IT Minister KT Rama Rao, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, ISRO Chairman Somanath among others.

Notes:
U.S. President Joe Biden launched USD 6 billion ‘Civil nuclear credit program’, to rescue nuclear power plants at risk of closing.
It helps to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change. The U.S. Department of Energy opened the certification and bidding process for the program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors.

Notes:
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva held a meeting with India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sideline of the annual spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington.
During the meeting, both leaders discussed the current geopolitical situation and its economic impact on the economies. The IMF MD also lauded India’s high growth rate and noted India’s well-targeted policy mix has helped the economy to remain resilient.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a project to manufacture 9,000 Horsepower (HP) electric locomotives in Dahod district.
He inaugurated projects worth over ₹20,000 crore in Gujarat’s tribal belt Dahod and Panchmahal. India is one of the few countries that make 9,000 horsepower locomotives. The refurbished workshop would manufacture broad gauge electric locomotives for Indian Railways and standard gauge electric locomotives for export market.

Notes:
In the Asian championships being held in Ulan Baatar (Capital city of Mongolia), Greco-Roman wrestlers Arjun Halakurki, Sunil Kumar and Neeraj won bronze medals. Five more Greco categories, freestyle and women’s wrestling are yet to follow in the competition.
Greco-Roman category is seen as a weak link in Indian wrestling as No Greco-Roman wrestler qualified for Tokyo.

Notes:
Government think tank NITI Aayog and UNICEF India signed a statement of intent (SoI) on sustainable development goals (SDGs) with a focus on children.
The SoI seeks to formalise a framework of cooperation to launch the first report on the ‘State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development’.

Notes:
The Perseverance Mars rover of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has captured the eclipse involving Mars. It captured Phobos, Mars’ potato-shaped moon or satellite, crossing the face of the Sun.
The eclipse was captured with Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera. It lasted a little above 40 seconds, shorter than a solar eclipse involving Earth’s Moon, as Phobos is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s Moon. Deimos, Mars’ another Moon is still smaller.

Notes:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among five people named as recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his actions to protect democracy.
The foundation said four U.S. officials were chosen for standing up for free and fair elections including Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and Fulton County, Georgia, elections worker Wandrea Shaye Moss.

Notes:
Apple Inc has announced to protect the 2,400-hectare mangrove ecosystem in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.
With a grant from the tech giant, Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF) will work with the local community to protect the mangrove forest. Apple’s grant will support the restoration of mangroves across a 50-hectare area where they have degraded. It will also distribute portable bio-stoves that allow people to cook without cutting down mangroves for firewood.

Notes:
The Brazil Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil, H.E. Mr. Bento Albuquerque paid an official visit to India, on the invitation of the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas- Hardeep Singh Puri.
The leaders reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation across the energy sector and committed to enhance the partnership between the countries. The two sides also agreed to work towards developing an Indian-Brazil Alliance for Bioenergy and Biofuels.