Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
Manipur got its first-ever good freight train connectivity post independence, as the first freight train arrived at the Rani Gaidinliu station of the north-eastern state.
Earlier, a passenger train from Silchar in Assam reached the Bongaichungpao railway station in Manipur. This is a part of the 111 km long Jiribam-Imphal new line project, which will connect Imphal with Guwahati.

Notes:
The Union Budget announced a fund with blended capital, raised under co-investment model, will be facilitated through NABARD. It will be used to finance start-ups for agriculture and rural enterprise.
The Government would promote the use of ‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insecticides.

Notes:
The Union Budget announced a new scheme called ‘Parvat Mala’ or National Ropeways Development Programme.
The scheme will be launched for regions like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K, and the northeast to facilitate a modern system of transportation and connectivity in hills.

Notes:
The Union Budget has reduced the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) to be paid by Cooperative societies to 15 per cent.
At present, cooperative societies are required to pay AMT at the rate of 18.5 per cent, while companies pay the same at 15 per cent. The Budget proposed to reduce the surcharge from the 12 per cent to 7 per cent, for cooperatives with total income of Rs 1 crore up to Rs 10 crore.

Notes:
Chhattisgarh has recently implemented ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ (ONORC) plan, under which the people of the state can lift their food-grains quota from any ration shops across the country.
With the integration of Chhattisgarh, the ONORC plan is now operational in 35 States/UTs covering almost 96.8 per cent of about 77 crore NFSA beneficiaries in the country. This was announced by the Department of Food & Public Distribution.

Notes:
New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell was named the recipient of the ICC ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award 2021 for his significant gesture played during T20 World Cup semi-final versus England.
Mitchell, who opened the batting for New Zealand in the World Cup, won the award for his gesture during the game. He felt he had obstructed the way of bowler Adil Rashid in that moment.

Notes:
US President Joe Biden announced a relaunch of the “Cancer Moonshot” program started during the Obama administration.
The program was launched with the goal of ending Cancer that kills more than 600,000 people a year in the U.S. The revamped initiative aims to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years. The President also announced a campaign to get more people screened for cancer.

Notes:
Chimeric antigen receptor, CAR – T-cell therapy works by genetically engineering an individual’s T-cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells.
T-cells are a type of white blood cell of the immune system that can recognise and destroy foreign cells. Two first human patients who were treated with the therapy still possess cancer-killing cells a decade later. In the UK the therapy is approved for use in children, young adults and adults for certain types of blood cancers.

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.

Notes:
The Scheme of Assistance to NSFs is a Central Sector Scheme and the main source of funding for preparation of national teams for all major national and international competitions.
The Union Government has approved continuation of Scheme of Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs) with an outlay of Rs. 1575 crore for XV Finance Commission Cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26).