Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
Businessman Gautam Adani overtook Reliance Industries Chairperson Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The real-time data on the index showed that Adani’s net worth stood at USD 88.5 billion (approximately Rs 6.6 lakh crore) and Ambani’s at USD 87.8 billion (approximately Rs 6.5 lakh crore). Adani was the 10th richest person in the world as on the date.

Notes:
Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have found a new mammal species in the country namely the White Cheeked Macaque, in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Macaque was first discovered in China in 2015 and its existence was not known in India before this. The White Cheeked Macaque has white cheeks, long and thick hair on the neck and a longer tail than other Macaques. It is the last mammal to have been discovered in Southeast Asia.

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:
The Delhi government has digitised the whole process of disbursement of Pension. The entire process, from filling the application form to disbursement of pension, will be online.
The Social Welfare Department of the state has implemented the process successfully. It also announced that there will be no hindrance or delay in pension cases.

Notes:
The ACT Accelerator is a multinational and multi-institutional initiative launched by G-20. It includes WHO, CEPI, FIND, GAVI the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, the World Bank and governments, to raise financial support of R&D, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, therapies and vaccines.
The ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council’s has called for ‘Fair share’ of financing that the richer countries should contribute to the ACT-Accelerator’s global response.

Notes:
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog in collaboration with UNDP, India launched the Community Innovator Fellowship (CIF).
It was launched on the occasion of the “International Day of Women & Girls in Science”. It is a one-year-long fellowship program, developed as a pre-incubation model to guide innovators set up their social enterprise focusing on SDG based solutions.

Notes:
Veteran Nobel-winning virologist Luc Montagnier died in Paris recently. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS, along with his colleague Francoise Barr-Sinoussi.
He had also shared half of the Nobel with German scientist Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of Human papilloma viruses that cause cervical cancer.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh Police has initiated ‘Operation Parivartan’, a special operation to eliminate the cultivation of cannabis.
This operation was led by the Andhra Pradesh Police with the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) in Visakhapatnam. Recently, around 2 lakh kilograms of processed cannabis was seized while it was being shipped out.

Notes:
Cholendra Shumsher Rana became the second Chief Justice of Nepal to face ‘impeachment’ procedure in Parliament in seven years over allegations of corruption
The Chief Justice Rana has been suspended pending final disposal of the case, and Dipak Karki, the senior most Judge in the Supreme Court has taken over as the acting Chief Justice.

Notes:
The Ministry of Defence has signed up a design and development contract with NewSpace Research & Technologies, to develop a High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS).
The Bengaluru-based company was mentored under the ministry’s Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative. The HAPS aims to conduct surveillance operations and support communications by staying airborne for months.