Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
The 18th edition of the India-US joint military exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas’ is being held in Uttarakhand.
The military exercise is conducted annually between India and the US. As the exercise is held about 100 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), China said it was opposed to the military exercise.

Notes:
Uttarakhand has hired McKinsey, a global management consultancy, to help in achieving the target of doubling its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the next five years.
The State has the target of doubling GSDP from ₹2.73 lakh crore to ₹5.5 lakh crore by achieving a CAGR of 15% in the next five years. McKinsey has signed a two-year agreement with the state government under Shashakt Uttarakhand mission.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras is partnering with Australian Universities to launch ‘Australia-India Centre for Energy (AICE).
IIT Madras and Deakin University in Australia are leading the Centre, which aims to work on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also aims to promote collaboration among universities, research institutes and industry from both countries in energy domain.

Notes:
Mumbai is placed at 22nd rank in the ‘Prime Global Cities Index Q3 (July-September) 2022’, released by Property consultant Knight Frank.
It said that all three Indian cities namely Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi registered an increase in average annual prices. The global index measures annual price appreciation of premium residential properties. Bengaluru moved up to 27th while New Delhi moved to 36th rank.

Notes:
The servers of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) remains hacked for over a week, after AIIMS reported a failure in its server.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has joined the investigation into the alleged ransomware attack, with agencies including the India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Delhi Police, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Notes:
Three Indian-origin women are among 60 people who have been selected as Australia’s Superstars of STEM.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The initiative aims to break the society’s gender assumptions about scientists and increase the public visibility of females and non-binary people. The Indian-origin women are Neelima Kadiyala, Dr Ana Baburamani, and Dr Indrani Mukherjee.

Notes:
Researchers at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), IISc, have developed a highly energy-efficient computing platform that offers promise in building next-generation electronic devices.
Instead of using complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS), the team used components called ‘Memristors’ that can both store data and perform computation.

Notes:
The Chhattisgarh Assembly unanimously passed two amendment bills to raise Reservations in government jobs and admission in educational institutions to 76%.
According to the bills, Scheduled Tribes will now get a quota of 32%, Other Backward Classes 27%, and Scheduled Caste 13%, while the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) will get 4% reservation in public employment and admissions in educational institutions.

Notes:
The Madras High Court has banned mobile phones in temples across Tamil Nadu. As per the Court, the move to ban use of mobile phone is to maintain purity and sanctity of the places of worship.
The High Court also said that phone deposit lockers should be set up at temples, to avoid inconvenience to people and Security personnel will be appointed to ensure compliance of this order.

Notes:
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended the deadline for third party apps to comply with UPI Market share guidelines by 2 years.
The earlier deadline to meet the market cap norms was December 31, 2022. With this, UPI payments market leaders, PhonePe and Google Pay have to meet the market cap deadline of 30% to December 31, 2024.