Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
As per the Economic Intelligence Unit Cost of Living Index 2022, New York and Singapore rank as the world’s most expensive cities.
As per the index, the average cost of living is up by 8.1 per cent in 2022, due to the Russian war in Ukraine and the effects of the pandemic.  The EIU evaluates more than 400 individual prices across more than 200 products and services in 172 cities, to produce the list.

Notes:
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued guidelines for the implementation of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to support the indigenous drone industry.
The government approved Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Drones and Drone Components in India. For the implementation of this scheme during 2022-23 to 2024-25, a corpus of Rs 120 crore was also allocated.

Notes:
After significant deterioration in air quality of Delhi-NCR in last 24 hours, the Stage III of revised Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was invoked.
This is in addition to the preventive/ restrictive actions mentioned in Stage I and Stage II of the GRAP. Delhi’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) crossed the 407 mark, which is likely to be a localized influence.

Notes:
The Chief Justice of India, Justice Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud has directed to organise a Hackathon event in the Supreme Court, for the first time in the history.
It is an initiative to identify innovative ideas for refining process of ‘filing to listing’ of cases. The event will be organised under the supervision and guidance of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Supreme Court Judge.

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:
Vice-President of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The winter session of the Parliament commenced as the Vice president Jagdeep Dhankar officiated as the chair of Rajya Sabha, for the first time.
The Centre’s agenda for the winter session of Parliament includes introduction of 16 new bills.

Notes:
Bernard Arnault & family, who own the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group of luxury brands, were briefly placed in the top position on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk was at second position for a while after a fall in his automobile company Tesla’s shares. With a net worth of USD 185.4 billion, Musk is now again followed in the Forbes list by Arnault at USD 184.7 billion

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework.
This agreement will enable the MMA to make withdrawals in multiple tranches up to a maximum of USD 200 million from the RBI.

Notes:
International Anti-Corruption Day is observed on 9 December, with the theme of ‘Uniting the World against Corruption’.
The 2022 International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) seeks to highlight the crucial link between anti-corruption and peace, security, and development. It also marks the start of twentieth anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

Notes:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got a vote-share close to 13% in Gujarat Elections. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) rulebook, a political party can apply to be recognised as a national party if it is ‘recognised’ in at least four states; or polled at least 6% of the total votes in any four or more states in the previous Lok Sabha or assembly election, and sent at least four MPs to the Lok Sabha in the previous Lok Sabha election; it has won at least 2% of the total seats in the Lower House, from no less than three states.