Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
Geo-location technology specialist TomTom has released the 11th edition of its annual TomTom Traffic Index. It is a report analysing traffic trends seen in 404 cities in 58 countries, during 2021.
India fared better than the global average of 10% decrease in congestion. But, four cities from India featured in the Index’s global top-25 list namely Mumbai (5th), Bengaluru (10th), and New Delhi (11th) and Pune (21st).

Notes:
A piece of amber with a well-preserved juvenile ‘Retinosaurus hkamtiensis’ was recovered from the near the Jade mines in Myanmar
The newly-identified lizard species was trapped in an araucarian tree resin about 110 million years ago. It is a representative of Scincoidea, a superfamily that includes skinks, armoured lizards and night lizards.

Notes:
NITI Aayog released a report titled ‘Reimagining Healthcare in India through Blended Finance’. As per the report, about 65 per cent of hospital beds in the country cater to almost 50 per cent of the population concentrated in some states.
The report also stressed that the number of beds must be increased by at least 30 per cent to ensure equitable access to healthcare facilities for people.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is a regulatory authority established under the SEBI Act 1992. It is the principal regulator for Stock Exchanges in India.
SEBI has recently penalised the National Stock Exchange (NSE), its former CEOs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain for governance lapses in hiring of its chief operating officer (COO) Anand Subramanian.

Notes:
India and Australia have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism cooperation in New Delhi.
The Memorandum of Understanding in the field of tourism will enhance cooperation and encourage Expansion of bilateral relations in tourism. It will facilitate Exchange of information and data related to tourism, Cooperation between tourism stakeholders.

Notes:
French president Emmanuel Macron hosted the high-level session of the One Ocean summit in the city of Brest.
Nearly 27 EU states and 16 others agreed to pursue a global agreement by the end of year, to regulate sustainable use of oceans all across the globe. Many countries joined the “High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People” and “the High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction”.

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:
The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications, including the popular game Garena Free Fire.
In 2020, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) banned TikTok and other popular short video apps from China. MeitY banned these apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which states that the government has the “Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource.”

Notes:
Prorogation means discontinuing a session of the Parliament or a legislative assembly without dissolving it.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar prorogued the state Legislative Assembly with effect from February 12 after exercising power vested with him under Article 174 of the Constitution. The state government will have to take permission from the Governor to commence the next session of the Assembly.

Notes:
The Central Government has constituted the Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority to implement the first initiative under the national river interlinking policy.
The policy seeks to bring nearly 11 lakh hectares of land under irrigation in the Bundelkhand region spanning between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. KBLPA will be headed by a CEO at the level of additional secretary to the Government of India and assisted by five additional CEOs.