Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has received in-principle approval from the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to set up a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) as a separate segment of the NSE.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Union Budget speech of 2019-20, proposed the creation of a Social Stock Exchange, under the regulatory ambit of SEBI, for listing social enterprises and voluntary organisations.

Notes:
After the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 196 parties was agreed at the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the final text of the framework has been released.
The framework, released Montreal city in Canada, includes four goals and 23 action-oriented global targets for urgent action to be achieved by 2030. It also has four long-term goals for 2050 related to the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

Notes:
Sitiveni Rabuka has been elected as the new Prime Minister of Fiji, after his People’s Alliance party secured the backing of Social Liberal Democratic party.
Frank Bainimarama’s reign as leader of Fiji has ended almost 16 years since he made himself as the Prime Minister after a coup in 2006.

Notes:
As many as 38 people recently died in incidents related to powerful Arctic winter storm. The vast storm extends more than 3,200km from Texas to Quebec.
Over 200 million people across the country were left without power and thousands of flights were cancelled. More than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings. As per the US National Weather Service, its recent depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather advisories ever.

Notes:
The Ministry of Railways has formulated a new scheme to modernise over 1,000 small stations over the coming years.
Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is a part of its station redevelopment drive. The key features of the proposed stations include provisions for roof top plazas, longer platforms, ballast-less tracks, and 5G connectivity.

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:
As per the Article IV Consultation report is based on International Monetary Fund bilateral discussions with the Indian authorities.
As per the report, for India’s economic growth is expected to moderate to 6.1% in FY24 from 6.8% estimated for the current fiscal because of high oil prices, weaker external demand, and tighter financial conditions. IMF cautioned that the emergence of a more contagious coronavirus variant could impact trade and growth further.

Notes:
Union Information and broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur released the Official Government of India Calendar for the year 2023.
It has 12 themes for the 12 months to highlight the efforts made by the Government towards public welfare. The calendar will showcase the achievements of the Government so far and the commitment for future, with the theme ‘Naya Varsh, Naye Sankalp’. It will be made available in 13 languages.

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).

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh has set up a five-member commission, which will conduct a survey to ensure that the OBCs are provided reservation on the basis of the triple test, as mandated by the Supreme Court. Earlier, the Allahabad High Court ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to hold urban local body elections without reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) because the ‘triple test’ requirement had not been fulfilled.