Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
In India, women representation of board seats increased by 9.4 per cent from 2014 to 17.1 per cent in 2021 as per Deloitte’s Women in the Boardroom report.
But women comprise only 3.6 per cent of the board chairs, down by 0.9 per cent since 2018. The report finds that globally, women hold 19.7 per cent of the board seats, which rose by 2.8 per cent since 2018. At the current pace, the world could expect to reach near-parity only in 2045.

Notes:
Sovereign gold bonds (SGB) are government securities denominated in grams of gold, issued by the RBI on behalf of the Government of India.
The maturity period of the sovereign gold bond is eight years. The premature redemption is permitted after the fifth year from the date of issue of such gold bonds on the interest payout date.

Notes:
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, announced ‘European Chips Act’ that will enable 15 billion euros (USD 17.11 billion) in additional public and private investments until 2030.
The European Commission has already allocated 30 billion euros of public investments for chip production. This aims to avoid supply chain disruptions down the line and become less dependent on foreign firms.

Notes:
Scientists in the United Kingdom have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun.
A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in central England generated 59 mega joules of sustained energy during an experiment. A kg of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times energy of that of a kg of coal, oil or gas.

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:
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).

Notes:
The seventh round of India-EU consultations on disarmament and non-proliferation matters was held in a virtual format.
The consultations are part of dialogue mechanisms under the ‘Roadmap to 2025’ for further strengthening the India-EU Strategic Partnership.

Notes:
DigitalSky is a single window Platform through which a DGCA-approved drone school provides Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC).
Recently, the Civil Aviation ministry scrapped the requirement of drone pilot licence for operating drones in the country. The RPC is sufficient to operate drones in India

Notes:
The US Congress passed a legislation that ends forced arbitration in sexual assault and harassment disputes at workplaces.
After getting signed by the President Joe Biden, the bill will allow survivors to sue their abusers in a public court even if they have signed employment agreements that require them to settle disputes internally through an arbitrator.

Notes:
India is ranked 46 on the EIU’s Democracy Index report, which was released recently. In the Global index, India has scored 6.91.
Norway and New Zealand got the top two places respectively, while North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan were placed at the bottom. India has the lowest score of 5 on political culture and the highest score of 8.67 on electoral process and pluralism.