Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s first launch mission of 2022 is scheduled for February 14. PSLV-C52 is designed to orbit the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-04.
The launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C52) is scheduled from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. EOS-04 is a Radar Imaging Satellite designed to provide high quality images under all weather conditions for agriculture, forestry, hydrology and flood mapping etc.

Notes:
Pratham Foundation annually conducts an extensive survey in schools, to analyse the learning outcome of students.
Recently, it released the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER, West Bengal). As per the report, the basic reading and numerical abilities of school children in West Bengal have reduced during Covid-19, without class rooms.

Notes:
India is the fifth largest exporter of millets in the world, according to 2020 data, with exports increasing at around 3 per cent CAGR in the last five years ending with 2020.
In 2020-21, India exported millets worth USD 26.97 million against USD 28.5 million in 2019-20. World export of millet has increased from USD 380 million in 2019 to USD 402.7 million in 2020.

Notes:
RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted unanimously to keep policy repo rate unchanged at 4 percent. Reverse repo rate also remains unchanged at 3.35 percent.
As per the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, the ‘accommodative’ stance will continue as long as needed.

Notes:
Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, along with astronomers from BITS Pilani have devised an Artificial Intelligence-based algorithm, to identify potentially habitable ones with a high probability.
As per current estimates, the number of planets in our Galaxy alone is estimated to be in billions. It is an ‘Anomaly detection method’, which is based on the assumption that Earth is an anomaly, with the possibility of existence of few other anomalies.

Notes:
The International Labour Organization has condemned China for racial and religious discrimination in the Xinjiang region.
The report said that as a ILO member state, the Chinese government is firmly committed to provide decent work for all China’s ethnic minority groups including Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Notes:
Brazil recorded the most deforestation ever in the Amazon rainforest for the month of January, according to new government data.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon totalled 430 sq kilometres last month, five times higher than January 2021. This is according to preliminary satellite data from government space research agency.

Notes:
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched the Central Sector scheme “SMILE: Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”.
This umbrella scheme is designed to provide welfare measures to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging. The Ministry has allocated Rs. 365 Crore for the scheme from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Notes:
Every year, World Radio Day is celebrated on February 13 with an aim to highlight the importance of radio.
The member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) first declared this day in the year 2011. It was later adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 as an International Day.

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.