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:
“Winter Camp” is a regular military exercise by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This year’s exercise has commenced along NATO’s eastern border.
The exercise started in northeast Estonia, just 100 kilometres from the Russian border, included 1,300 British, Estonian and French troops operating in extreme conditions.

Notes:
China’s four government agencies including its central bank published a five-year plan for financial standardisation
The plan is to be implemented during the 2021-2025 period. China will strengthen its cross-border yuan payments system and explore setting up infrastructure standards for a digital fiat currency as part of the plan.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has announced the five most improved aspirational districts in the Agriculture and Water Resources sector for December 2021.
Malkangiri in Odisha tops the list. It is followed by Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir. This is as per the Delta Rankings published by NITI Aayog.

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:
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:
Israel’s Ministry of Transport and Road Safety has announced the country’s first certification for unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) to operate in civilian airspace.
With this, it has become the first country to allow drones in civilian airspace. For safety purposes, international aviation regulations prohibit uncertified aircraft from flying in civilian airspace.

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:
Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been elected to a second term as Germany’s President. A special assembly voted the veteran politician, to the President Post.
Steinmeier was elected by secret ballot by a majority of the assembly for another five years. German presidents are elected by special assemblies comprising lawmakers and hundreds of other prominent citizens.

Notes:
‘Carnival of Hope’ is a famous annual celebration held in the city of Venice. It is also known as “City of Bridges” and “The Floating City”. This year’s edition is expected to attract thousands of people.
The 2020 Venice Carnival, which usually draws tourists from around the world, was curtailed when the pandemic broke out in Italy.  The festival got cancelled the following year to contain infections.