Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has extended a USD 400-million loan to mortgage major HDFC for financing green affordable housing units.
The loan will help close the urban housing gap and improve access to climate-smart affordable homes by boosting green housing, creating jobs and ensuring long-term business growth.

Notes:
Union Cabinet decided to provide free food-grains to all 81 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) till December 2023.
The beneficiary families which used to pay ₹1 for coarse cereals, ₹2 for wheat and ₹3 for rice per kg will now get 35kg of food-grains free for the next one year and others will get 5kg for free in a month till December 2023. The Centre has estimated an additional amount of ₹2 lakh crore for the scheme.

Notes:
The Governor of Uttarakhand, Lt. Gen. (Retired) Gurmit Singh, approved the State’s Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act.
According to the amended bill, forced conversion in the State will come under the category of crime. Apart from a maximum imprisonment of up to ten years, those persons indulging in forceful and unlawful conversion in Uttarakhand will be slapped with a fine of at least Rs 50,000.

Notes:
The Delhi Metro has recently completed 20 years of operations, since it started its journey in December 2002 with a corridor of just 8.2 km spanning six stations on the Red Line.
The DMRC’s network span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations in 2022. An exhibition named ‘Tracing Delhi Metro’s Journey’ was launched to mark the 20^th year. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided financial support for rapid expansion of the metro network in Delhi-NCR.

Notes:
India and Bangladesh agreed to start negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) at an early date. The decision was taken in a meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Bangladeshi counterpart Tipu Munshi.
A joint feasibility study on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), has been carried out after the two countries agreed to explore the possibility of negotiating a trade pact. The bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh increased to USD 18.2 billion in 2021-22.

Notes:
Russia and India planned to drop all use of the US dollar and the euro in bilateral settlements and conduct all trade transactions in rupee and rouble.
As per the officials, it is necessary to address the imbalance in trade for a full-fledged transition to national currencies.

Notes:
Capital markets regulator SEBI said that it has initiated a detailed study of fees and expenses charged by mutual funds.
The study would seek to encourage new participants, encourage adoption of technology, discourage cross subsidisation across schemes, close arbitrage opportunities, and curbing malpractices if any in the practice.

Notes:
Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry released a policy draft for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics — Extended Reality (AVGC-XR).
It has an aim to boost India’s domestic capacities and develop opportunities in AVGC-XR sector. The policy at state and national levels talks about the framing of a new curriculum at school and college levels, under ‘Create in India’ campaign and creating more job opportunities. The taskforce on AVGC-XR was formed under the aegis of I&B Ministry secretary Apurva Chandra.

Notes:
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country’s first ever metro rail line in its capital city Dhaka.
Dhaka is regarded as one of the world’s most densely populated cities. The Metro project has been mostly funded by Japan and the train network has been in development for nearly 10 years.

Notes:
British Indian Army Memorial is set to be built in the Scottish city of Glasgow, to commemorate the sacrifice of millions of Indian soldiers who fought for the British during the two World Wars.
The memorial is visualised as Scotland’s first permanent memorial wall to recognise the service and sacrifice of the British Indian Army. Approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War One, and over 74,000 of them lost their lives.