Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
Two entirely new minerals have been found in a huge meteorite that fell on Somalia. The official names for the new minerals are elaliite and elkinstantonite.
The name ‘elaliite’ marks the fact that the meteorite was unearthed in the district of El Ali in Somalia, and ‘elkinstantonite’ is named after the NASA expert Lindy Elkins-Tanton. A third unidentified mineral, is being analysed by the University of Alberta researchers.

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 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.

Notes:
Pakistan’s central bank said that Saudi Arabia has extended its term for a USD 3 billion deposit to support the foreign reserves of Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia agreed in October 2021 to revive its financial support to Pakistan, including about USD 3 billion in safe deposits and USD 1.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payments. Pakistan requested to help improve its foreign exchange reserves.

Notes:
Indonesian lawmakers unanimously passed a sweeping new criminal code that criminalizes sex outside marriage.
The new code, which also applies to foreign residents and tourists, bans cohabitation before marriage, apostasy, and provides punishments for insulting the president or expressing views counter to the national ideology.

Notes:
At least six children have died of a common bacterial infection, Strep A, in the United Kingdom. When the bacteria enter the bloodstream, the infection can get severe and it is called invasive Group A Strep (iGAS).
The symptoms of Strep A include fever, skin rashes and a sore easily treated with antibiotics. As many as 851 cases of Strep A were reported in a week of November, compared to an average of 186 for the same time in preceding years

Notes:
Chairperson of the Tata Group, N Chandrasekaran was appointed the chair of B20 India, to lead the business agenda during India’s G20 presidency.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is appointed as the B20 India Secretariat by the Centre to lead the B20 India process.

Notes:
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will launch India’s first-ever surety bonds insurance product to boost liquidity in the infrastructure sector, as per Union minister Nitin Gadkari.
The surety bonds will help in boosting the liquidity in the infrastructure sector by providing relief to the contractors’ working capital stuck in bank guarantees.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of greenfield international airport at Mopa in north Goa.
The airport would be named Manohar International Airport after former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar. The Mopa airport in North Goa is the second international airport apart from the existing airport at Dabolim.

Notes:
Paleontologists have recently identified a new genus and species of titanosaurian dinosaur from the fossilized remains in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Titanosaurs had small heads, long tails and necks, and included the largest terrestrial animals known. The newly-identified species, Caieiria allocaudata, lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, between 70 and 66 million years ago.