Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky recently addressed the US Congress. He appealed to lawmakers and citizens to continue supporting Ukraine.
He delivered a 25 minute-speech while unfurling the Ukrainian battle flag in the end and evoking the analogy of the ongoing war in Ukraine with second world war’s ‘Christmas of 1944’.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has introduced a new startup policy (2022-27), which aims to add around 10000 startups more in the state in the next five years.
The new policy has been framed by the Department of Electronics and IT/BT. As a part of the policy, the state government will launch an INR 100 Cr venture capital fund to support deep-tech startups working in AI&ML, electric vehicle, med-tech, robotics and drones, among others.

Notes:
Japan adopted a new policy promoting greater use of nuclear energy to ensure a stable power supply amid global fuel shortages and to reduce carbon emissions.
This is seen as a major reversal of its phase-out plan since the Fukushima crisis. The new policy seeks to maximise the use of existing nuclear reactors by restarting many of them and prolonging the operating life of old reactors beyond their 60-year limit, developing next-generation reactors to replace them among others.

Notes:
Harmanpreet Singh was named the captain of the 18-member Indian squad for the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup.
Hockey India announced the squad for the FIH men’s World Cup scheduled from January 13 to 29, 2023 in Bhubaneswar-Rourkela, Odisha. Amit Rohidas will be his deputy for the event.The Men in Blue will play its opening game against Spain at the newly built Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved pending One Rank One Pension (OROP) revision for retirees from armed forces and their families.
The scheme has been delayed since July 2019. Arrears will be paid from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022 which is approximately ₹23,638 crore. As per the Defence Ministry, over 25.13 lakh people, including over 4.52 lakh new beneficiaries, armed forces pensioners and family pensioners will benefit.

Notes:
India-assisted 720 Megawatts Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Power Project has been recently handed to Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) in Bhutan.
With this project, India and Bhutan have successfully completed four mega hydroelectric power projects. The commissioning of the project has increased Bhutan’s Electrical Power Generation Capacity by 44 per cent.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), ARTPARK (AI and Robotics Technology Park) and Google have partnered together for ‘Project Vaani’ Initiative.
The digital project aims to map the language diversity of India by collecting speech sets of about a million people across 773 districts. The project aims to record over 150,000 hours of speech, part of which will be transcribed in local scripts. The goal is to boost development of automatic speech recognition, speech to speech translation and natural language understanding.

Notes:
In India, the minimum wage for labourers has been fixed at Rs 178 per day. The labour ministry is considering a shift from the minimum wage to a living wage.
As per reports, India could seek help from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to arrive at living wages. A minimum wage is the amount required for subsistence and is set by law while the living wage is necessary for workers to meet their basic living requirements. The difference between the two may range from 10 to 25 per cent.

Notes:
Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered judges to fully enforce aspects of the Sharia system. It is the Islamic law that include public executions, stonings, floggings and the amputation of limbs for thieves among others.
‘Hudud’ refers to offences for which certain types of punishment are mandated under Islamic Law, while ‘Qisas’ is translated as retaliation in kind.

Notes:
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) releases the financial stability report (FSR) twice a year in every June and December.
As per the recent report, the gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) fell to a seven-year low of 5.0 per cent. The net non-performing assets (NNPA) have dropped to ten-year low of 1.3 per cent in September 2022.