Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has approved to set up India’s first Geo-Park at Lamheta village on the banks of the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh.
A Geo-Park is a unified area which aims to protect the geological heritage in a sustainable way. The site is already in the UNESCO Geo-heritage tentative list. Several dinosaur fossils had been found in the Narmada valley, in the Bhedaghat-Lameta Ghat area of Jabalpur.

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:
Aryabhatta Research Institute for Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Science & Technology
ARIES, along with Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune has organised Indo-US Workshop on “Space Radiation Workshop: Radiation Characterisation from Sun to Earth, Moon, Mars and Beyond”.

Notes:
Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine named ‘Spikevax’ has received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, for use in people ages 18 and older.
This is the second Covid-19 vaccine to receive full approval from the FDA after Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, which was approved in August. This is also the first product of Moderna to receive licensure in the U.S.

Notes:
World Wetlands Day is observed on February 2 every year to raise awareness about their importance and the need to preserve them. On this day, the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971.
World Wetlands Day 2022 is observed as a United Nations International day for the first time. The theme of World Wetlands Day this year is ‘Wetlands Action for People and Nature’.

Notes:
As per the Union Budget, linkage of National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) with the ‘One-Nation One-Registration Software’ will be promoted.
The Government has focused on digitisation of land records through its scheme Digital India Land Record Modernisation Programme (DILRMP). According to the Department of Land Records, (Ministry of Rural Development) over 90 per cent of land records have been digitised across 24 states.

Notes:
A new study has been done at an altitude of 3106 meters at the top of the mountain “Hoher Sonnenblick” in the “Hohe Tauern” National Park in Austria
The study is investigating the amount of plastic trickling down on us from the atmosphere. According to the study. About 30% of the nanoplastic particles measured on the mountain top originate from a radius of 200 kilometers, from cities. Around 10% of the particles measured in the study were blown onto the mountain by wind and weather over 2000 kilometers.

Notes:
As per a recent study by UK researchers, it has been found that Climate change is driving plants to flower earlier and earlier.
The average first flowering date of UK plants is a month earlier than it was before 1986. As per the research team, Plants flowering too early could be disastrous for hibernating and migrating animals, and for crops.

Notes:
The marine version of the French-made Rafale fighter jet has been successfully flight-tested at a shore-based facility in Goa.
The Rafale-M competes against the US-made Super Hornet, as both of which are being evaluated for a purchase by the Indian Navy for deployment on INS Vikrant. It is a 44,000-tonne indigenously developed aircraft carrier, that is undergoing trials for commissioning in August.

Notes:
Earth Trojan is an asteroid that shares the same orbit as our planet, going around the Sun. The second Earth Trojan was detected in 2020 and has been named 2020 XL5.
It is a near-earth asteroid (NEO) that is expected to stay in orbit for the next 4,000 years before deviating away. The asteroid was discovered by the Pan-STARRS S1 telescope survey. The first known Earth Trojan asteroid was 2010 TK7, about 0.3 km wide, and discovered in 2010.