Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
Death Penalty in India Report was released by the criminal law reforms advocacy group at the National Law University, Delhi- named Project 39A.
As per the report, the number of prisoners on death row at the end of 2021 stood at 488, the highest in 17 years. This is an increase of nearly 21% from 2020. This is also the highest the death row population has been since 2004 (563).

Notes:
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chest X-ray diagnosis technique using X-Ray that can detect COVID-19.
The AI-based solution can be an alternative to the regular RT PCR tests conducted across the world. The Researchers from the institute proposed a deep learning-based algorithm, COMiT-Net, which can differentiate between a COVID-19 affected lung and a non-COVID affected lung.

Notes:
Northern Ireland is marking 50 years of Bloody Sunday, on which British soldiers fired upon a crowd of protesters, killing 14 people.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin also tweeted that the country is paying tribute to the families of the victims. The violence took place during a march organized by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

Notes:
World Leprosy Day (WLD) is observed on the last Sunday of January. In 2022, World Leprosy Day is 30 January.
The “United for Dignity” campaign calls for unity in honoring the dignity of people who have experienced leprosy. WHO Goodwill Ambassador for leprosy elimination launched “Don’t forget leprosy” campaign. In India, Anti-Leprosy Day is observed on 30 January, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Notes:
NASA’s ‘Oceans Melting Greenland airborne mission’ has found that Greenland’s glaciers that empty into the ocean, such as Apusiaajik Glacier, are at greater risk of rapid ice loss.
It revealed that ice loss from Greenland’s ice sheet contributes more to the global rise of the oceans than any other single source. If all of Greenland’s ice sheet were to melt, global sea levels would rise by about 24 feet (7.4 meters).

Notes:
As per the latest data from National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP), a total of 65,147 new leprosy cases were detected during the year 2020-21 in India.
Leprosy, caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, affects the peripheral nervous system causing skin lesions, numbness, and other deformities. India accounts for over half of the world’s new leprosy patients. According to NLEP’s 2020-2021 report, 94.75% of patients in India were cured.

Notes:
The Lunar New Year was observed on February 1, 2022. It also known as the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival in China.
The celebration marks the end of the Year of the Ox and the start of the Year of the Tiger. The New Year is celebrated by nearly 2 billion people in Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam and in Asian communities, for more than two weeks.

Notes:
Two new Ramsar sites were announced on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. They are: Khijadiya wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat and Bakhira wildlife sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh.
India has a network of 49 such sites covering 10,93,636 hectares, which is the highest in South Asia. The Union Environment Ministry had earlier notified the Sultanpur National Park and Bhindawas wildlife sanctuary in Jhajjar as Ramsar sites in Haryana.

Notes:
Kerala State Government signed a MoU with the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC), for establishing a clean energy incubation centre.
The collaboration will handhold startups, guide research and development in the field as well as allow developers in the State to test their products in the CEIIC labs.

Notes:
World Cancer Day is observed every year on February 4. The theme for World Cancer Day 2022 is ‘Close the Care Gap’.
According to a Lancet Oncology study, India reports about 1.3 million cancer cases annually and eight per cent of total deaths. This is likely to increase in the next 5-10 years due to delay in diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.