Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
World Bank approved USD 250 million financing to help Bangladesh strengthen environment management and promote private sector participation in green investment.
The Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Project will help the country tackle key pollution issues. An E-waste management facility will be set up to process 3,500 metric tons of e-waste annually.

Notes:
Iran has abolished ‘morality police’ known as the Gasht-e Ershad or ‘Guidance Patrol’. The unit was established in 2006 and their patrols were feared among women.
The custodial death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was picked up by the vice squads in Tehran and declared dead created public outcry and led to protestors.

Notes:
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) saw a huge rise of 650 percent in value at the semi-urban and rural stores in India, according to a report by fin-tech company PayNearby.
According to the report, the demand for micro-ATMs and mPOS devices increased by 25 percent. There was sharp growth of over 200 percent in the cash collection business with a monthly average of Rs 1400 crores.

Notes:
India’s telecom regulatory authority recently floated a consultation paper about Calling Name Presentation (CNAP).
It seeks to help telephone subscribers identify and make informed choices about incoming calls from tele-marketers and others. The feature would provide the called individual with information about the calling.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations organized an opening ceremony for the International Year of Millets 2023 (IYM2023) in Rome, Italy.
An Indian delegation led by Sushri Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and other senior officials were present at the opening ceremony. Raising awareness to create ‘Millet Mindfulness’ is an important part of this movement.

Notes:
Bharti Airtel announced its partnership with Facebook parent Meta to jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure that would extend a subsea cable ‘2Africa Pearls’ to India.
Last year, Meta announced a new segment of 2Africa Pearls in collaboration with regional partners. The 37,000-km subsea cable connected 23 countries, when it was launched in 2020. The cable would connect Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Notes:
The USA’s White House has supported Congress to pass a legislation that seeks to eliminate the per country quota on green cards.
This seeks to allow U.S. employers to focus on hiring people based on merit, not their birthplace. The bill if passed would benefit several hundreds of thousands of immigrants specially Indian-Americans. A Green Card, or a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the U.S. as evidence of grant of privilege of residing permanently.

Notes:
The delegations from Sweden and Nepal last week visited the National Health Authority (NHA), to study India’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
NHA is the government department that is responsible for implementing the PMJAY scheme. The health assurance scheme aims to provide a health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 100 million poor families.

Notes:
UN General Assembly declared 2002 as the UN International Year of Mountains and designated 11 December, as “International Mountain Day” from 2003 onwards.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the coordinating agency for this celebration (IMD). ‘Women Move Mountains’ is the theme of this year’s International Mountain Day. International Mountain Day 2022 raises awareness about the need to empower mountain women.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually participated in a programme commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary, on 13th December.
The programme is being held in Kamban Kalai Sangam, Puducherry, under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. The Prime Minister also released a commemorative coin and postal stamp in honour of Sri Aurobindo. He was an Indian nationalist and editor of newspapers such as Vande Mataram. He later became a spiritual reformer and established Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry.