Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
Top seed Sasikumar Mukund beat Seydina Andre of Senegal 6-4, 6-1 in the semi-finals of the USD 15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
In the final match, Martyn Pawelski of Poland beat top seed Sasikumar Mukund to clinch USD 15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament.  It was the maiden professional title for the 18-year-old Martyn.

Notes:
The government has raised over Rs 4.04 lakh crore through disinvestment and strategic sale of public sector enterprises since 2014, the Finance Ministry said.
The largest amount of over Rs 1.07 lakh crore was raised through offer for sale in 59 cases. This was followed by a stake sale through Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in 10 tranches, amounting to Rs 98,949 crore. Strategic sales in 10 companies, including Air India, yielded Rs 69,412 crores. 17 CPSEs were listed since 2014-15, which yielded Rs 50,386 crore.

Notes:
The World Bank released a report titled ‘2022 in Nine Charts’, in which it said that the world is in its steepest slowdown since 1970 and 685 million people could be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2022.
This would make 2022 the second-worst year for poverty reduction in the past two decades, after 2020.

Notes:
Sethrichem Sangtam was awarded the first Rohini Nayyar prize for outstanding contribution to rural development.
Sethrichem Sangtam runs an NGO that works with farmers in eastern Nagaland. The prize has been instituted in memory of Rohini Nayyar, renowned economist who worked with the Planning Commission.

Notes:
Spain’s lower house of Parliament passed a law that allows people over 16 years of age to change their legally registered gender without any medical supervision.
Under the law, minors aged 12 or 13 will need a judge’s authorisation to make the change, while those between 14 and 16 will have to be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians. The law also banned conversion therapies, established fines and punishments for attacks on LGBT people.

Notes:
Flipkart and PhonePe announced the full ownership separation of PhonePe, India’s largest digital payments platform.
The PhonePe Group was acquired by the Flipkart Group in 2016 and is one among India’s largest digital payments platform. PhonePe has over 400 million registered users, as it builds products and offerings tailored to the Indian market.

Notes:
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has detected large-scale anomalies in the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam.
It also flagged the risk of data tampering due to improper software development for the exercise. The updation process of the 1951 NRC for Assam was done under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The updated final NRC was released on August 31, 2019 and it left out 1.9 million of the 33 million applicants on suspicion of their claims as Indian citizens.

Notes:
National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) App was launched by the Minister of Rural Development in 2021.
Digitally capturing the attendance of workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS) has been made universal from January 1, 2023.  The attendance is captured through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) mobile application.

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:
Ladakh is celebrating Losar Festival on December 24, to mark the Ladakhi New Year. The Losar festivities continue for nine more days from the new year.
This is the major socio-religious festival of Ladakh celebrated in winter. The New Year is welcomed with dough Models of Ibex Sun and Moon and flour-painted lucky signs on the walls of the kitchen.