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:
The researchers from the United Kingdom found an ancient Roman settlement site while investigating the route of the construction of upcoming high-speed railway called HS2.
In a recent excavation, Scientists could find 40 decapitated skeletons, which were likely to have been executed criminals. Many of these were buried in graves with their severed heads placed between their legs or at their feet. The team earlier found 1,200 coins, pottery, cutlery, gaming dice, bells and lead weights.

Notes:
One Ocean Summit is being organised by France in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank.
India supported the French initiative of a ‘High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the conference and said that India is committed to eliminating single-use plastic.

Notes:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre’s Gross domestic product (GDP) deflator projection for 2022-23 is 3 to 3.5 per cent.
GDP deflator is a measure of inflation and is the difference between nominal GDP and real GDP. Union Budget assumes a nominal GDP growth rate of 11.1 per cent for FY23.

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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.

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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:
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:
A team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the Sun.
The planet named ‘Proxima d’, is the third detected in the system. It is among the lightest of the exo-planets discovered so far. The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile to spot this exo-planet.

Notes:
The Delhi government has notified a draft policy mandating ride aggregators and delivery firms to induct electric vehicles (EVs) while procuring a new fleet.
This step aims to reduce air pollution in the national capital by 30 per cent in the next two years. Aggregators and delivery services will have to ensure that 50 per cent of all their new two-wheelers and 25 per cent of new four-wheelers are electric by March 2023.

Notes:
India is placed third in the globe on the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) 2021 global list for sustainable spaces.
It is a ranking of the top 10 nations and areas outside of the United States for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in 2021. India has 1,649 LEED certified buildings with a total area of 46.2 million gross square metres, with a 10% rise in LEED certified space since 2020.