Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

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 Unique Identification Authority of India is a statutory authority established under the provisions of Aadhaar Act 2016 under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
UIDAI has urged the residents to keep their documents updated in Aadhaar issued 10 years back, by uploading supportive documents either online through myAadhaar portal or offline by visiting the nearest Aadhaar centre.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid respects to Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, the sons of Tenth Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh’s sons who laid down their lives while defending their faith.
December 26 is observed as Veer Bal Diwas in Idia. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee as well as Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, opposed the government’s initiative.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Power and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up early warning systems for vulnerable hydro projects or power stations.
Specific tasks will be formulated between DRDO and respective project developer, under this agreement.

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:
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:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually laid foundation stone and projects worth more than ₹7,800 crore in West Bengal.
He also virtually inaugurated Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee – National Institute of Water and Sanitation (DSPM – NIWAS). It will serve as an apex body in the country on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the country, serving as a hub of information and knowledge for Central, State and local governments.

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.

Notes:
The US Census Bureau said the world’s population is projected to be at 7.9 billion on New Year’s Day 2023.
This is an increase of 73.7 million since January 2022 and an increase in global population of 0.9 percent over the previous year. The Census Bureau projected that there will be 4.3 births and two deaths globally every second in January 2023.

Notes:
The newly-discovered species named ‘Solanum scalarium’ belongs to Solanum, a large genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Solanum is the most species-rich genus in the family Solanaceae and among the largest in the angiosperms or flowering plants. Solanum includes the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (brinjal or aubergine).