Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
Union Road, transport, and highways minister Nitin Gadkari launched the country’s first-ever surety bond insurance product.
Unlike a bank guarantee, the Surety Bond Insurance does not require large collateral from the contractor, resulting in freeing up funds for the contractor, which they can utilise for the growth of the business.

Notes:
Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached their career-best world No. 5 rank in the BWF world rankings.
They clinched two world tour titles at Indian Open Super 500 and French Open Super 750 and claimed maiden gold at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the World Championships. HS Prannoy was ranked at world number 9. Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu continued to hold on to the number six position.

Notes:
‘Naatu Naatu’ song from the blockbuster Telugu film ‘RRR’ has been shortlisted for the 2023 Oscar Awards in the ‘Best Original Song’ category.
Gujarati film ‘Chhello Show’ was also shortlisted in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category. ‘RRR’ was nominated in two categories, ‘Best Picture – Non-English Language’ and ‘Original Song – Motion Picture’ in Golden Globe Awards 2023.

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:
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 Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs has recently released the draft guidelines for a new ranking system of cities based on their financial performance and beautification.
The ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’ aims to evaluate and reward urban local bodies on the basis of their strength across resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance systems. The ‘City Beauty Competition’ initiative aims to recognise efforts made by the cities and wards towards creating beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways has published its annual report ‘Road accidents in India 2021’.
This report is based on the information received from police departments of States/Union Territories collected on calendar year basis in standardized formats. The formats are provided by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). As per the report, there were 4,12,432 incidences of road accidents during 2021 which claimed 1, 53,972 lives.

Notes:
Telangana government has launched the 10th phase of Rythu Bandhu, the investment support scheme for farmers.
Under this phase, 7,676 crores will be deposited in the bank accounts of over 70 lakh farmers towards investment support for the Rabi crop season. The investment support is disbursed at a rate of 5000 rupees per acre.

Notes:
Tamil Nadu government has issued orders to conserve the Nilgiri tahr, the state animal, at a cost of Rs 25.14 crore.
This is regarded as the first Nilgiri Tahr conservation project in the country. The project would be implemented during a 5-year period from 2022-2027, and follow a strategy including synchronised surveys to estimate numbers of the tahrs. The tahr is an endangered species and is protected under Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras’ (IIT-M) BS in Data Science and Applications has won a silver prize in the ‘Best Online Program’ category in the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards.
It is also referred to as ‘the Oscars of Education.’ NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), a joint initiative of IITs and IISc, won the Gold in the ‘Lifelong Learning category.’ NPTEL is led by IIT Madras and is funded by the Ministry of Education.