Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative jointly released ‘State of Finance for Nature 2022 ‘ Report.
It shows that current finance flows to nature-based solutions (NbS) are at USD 154 billion per year, which is less than half of the USD 384 billion per year needed by 2025.

Notes:
Dina Boluarte was appointed as Peru’s first female president amid a political crisis when her predecessor and former boss Pedro Castillo was ousted in an impeachment trial.
Peru’s leftist president Pedro Castillo was ousted by lawmakers and detained by police after he tried to illegally shut down Congress.

Notes:
Sushmita Shukla, Indian-origin veteran of the insurance industry, has been appointed as First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The appointment was approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System of New York. She has been appointed as First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective March 2023, as the second-ranking officer.

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:
Major social media company Twitter said it would let users buy subscriptions to Twitter Blue to get a blue checkmark and access special features.
Twitter is attempting to launch its premium service, a month after a previous attempt failed. The blue checkmark was originally given to companies, celebrities, government entities and journalists verified by the platform.

Notes:
Kashi Tamil Sangamam is a month-long programme organized by the Ministry of Education, as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Union Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a new train service named Kashi Tamil Sangamam Express between Kashi and Tamil Nadu to commemorate the event. He also announced that sleeper Vande Bharat manufacturing would commence soon to provide modern amenities.

Notes:
Special Window for Completion of Construction of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects (SWAMIH I),was  set up under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing.
The fund is sponsored by the Union Finance ministry, and is managed by SBICap Ventures Ltd. It aims to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield and RERA registered residential projects. It ultimately provides relief to homebuyers of stalled projects.

Notes:
The Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced that India is the largest connected nation in the world today with more than 800 million broadband users.
The announcement was made during ‘India Internet Governance Forum 2022’, held on the theme ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat’. It is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).

Notes:
India ranks at Number 5 as 20 Indian companies feature in 500 most valuable ones in the world, as per the 2022 Hurun Global list.
India rose from the 9th rank to 5th rank with 20 companies featured in the list. With USD 202 billion, Reliance Industries is the most valuable company ranked at followed by Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC Bank. Reliance Industries (34) and Tata Consultancy Services (65) are the only two Indian companies to feature in the top 100 list. US tops the list with 260 companies.

Notes:
According to the International Debt Report 2022 by the World Bank, debt of low and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) rose to a record high of 789 billion USD in 2021.
This is the region’s highest debt burden since 2010 and the region’s current debt burden is beyond its repayment capacity.