Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

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:
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:
Russia will begin supplying India with the third squadron of the S-400 air defence missile system in January or February of next year.
India has already deployed its first two missile system squadrons to patrol the Ladakh sector, West Bengal’s Chicken’s Neck Corridor and the entire north-eastern region. India and Russia have agreed to a three-year ₹35,000 crore deal to buy five squadrons of S-400 air defence missiles.

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:
England player Sam Curran became the most expensive player in IPL history in the INR 18.50 crore deal signed by Punjab Kings.
Sam Curranwas the Player of the Final and the Tournament at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, and since September this year he has taken 25 wickets in 14 T20s at an economy rate of 7.08.
Ben Stokes became Chennai Super Kings’ costliest signing at INR 16.25 crore while Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Harry Brook for INR 13.25 crore.

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:
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:
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar mentioned that families with annual incomes up to 1,80,000 are being brought under ‘BPL family category’ and around 29 lakh cards will be made in this regard.
He also announced that the government’s official portal Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) will begin its Citizen Facilitation Center. The state government will celebrate 2023 as ‘Antyodaya Arogya Varsh, and under the ‘Chirayu Yojana’ 29 lakh families shall be given health insurance.

Notes:
Pharmaceutical company Hetero received World Health Organization Prequalification of Medicines Programme (WHO PQ) approval for its generic version of Covid-19 oral antiviral treatment candidate Nirmatrelvir.
Nirmatrelvir, which originated in Pfizer laboratories, is co-packaged with ritonavir tablets as Pfizer’s Covid-19 oral antiviral drug Paxlovid.

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).