Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
The Department of Science & Technology (DST) has established the National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (NCOE-CCU) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
This is India’s first such centre centrally funded by the DST. This Centre of Excellence explores the potential of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) technologies, which will help India achieve its climate change goals.

Notes:
Ministry of Coal announced that a target of all India coal production of 1.2 billion tonne up to the year 2023-24 has been fixed.
The Union government launched Single Window Clearance portal in 2021 for the coal sector to speed up the operationalisation of coal mines. It is a unified platform that assists for clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India.

Notes:
Israel’s Ministry of Transport and Road Safety has announced the country’s first certification for unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) to operate in civilian airspace.
With this, it has become the first country to allow drones in civilian airspace. For safety purposes, international aviation regulations prohibit uncertified aircraft from flying in civilian airspace.

Notes:
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.
Russia and Belarus have started joint military exercises close to the Belarusian border with Ukraine. Russia has already amassed forces along its own border with Ukraine, and in the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Notes:
Madhwacharya was a Hindu philosopher and the chief proponent of the Dvaita (dualism) school of Vedanta.
Madhvacharya was born in the Karnataka in 13th-century India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his tributes to  Madhwacharya on the occasion of Madhwa Navami.

Notes:
U.S announced USD 5 billion to be made available under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program.
It aims to build a national electric vehicle charging network. The money will be used over five years to build thousands of electric vehicle charging stations.

Notes:
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) Scheme for farmers for installation of solar pumps and grid connected solar and other renewable power plants.
Recently, the Central government has set the target for replacing diesel with renewable energy in the agricultural sector by 2024.

Notes:
A team of Indian Scientists has recently identified the next-generation probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus Plantarum JBC5.
The bacterium promoted healthy aging on a model organism called Caenorhabditis Elegans. The team from Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, has also developed a yogurt using this probiotic bacterium.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has notified the Indian Railway Management System (IRMS) which will unify the eight existing services of the transporter.
IRMS is a new Group ‘A’ Central service and only the officers of IRMS will be eligible to become the functional members and chairman/CEO of the railway board.

Notes:
As per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, India reported an 11 per cent jump in cyber crime in 2020.
A total of 50,035 cases were registered under cyber crimes in 2020. This is an 11.8 per cent in registration over 2019 (44,735 cases). In 2020, 60.2 per cent of cyber-crime cases registered was for the motive of fraud. It is followed by sexual exploitation (6.6 per cent) and extortion (4.9 per cent).