Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

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:
‘World Pulses Day’ is celebrated on February 10 every year. The UN General Assembly in 2019 dedicated this day to increase awareness and access to pulses globally.
World Pulses Day 2022 is celebrated under the theme of “Pulses to empower youth in achieving sustainable agri-food systems”.

Notes:
NASA has announced two new science missions namely Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and HelioSwarm.
These two missions aim to study the sun’s corona and also measuring the magnetic field of the solar wind. NASA earlier announced the latest observations done by the Parker Solar probe on its way to the sun.

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.

Notes:
The Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) is a government printing and minting agency. It functions under the Ministry of Finance.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the first colour souvenir coin on ‘Panchtantra’ on the occasion of 17th foundation day of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL).

Notes:
India signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 MT of wheat.
India has committed to send relief to Afghanistan as part of a humanitarian assistance, to be sent in truck convoys through Pakistan by road. Rome-headquartered WFP thanked India for the agreement to support Afghans who are facing humanitarian crisis.

Notes:
Ministry of New & Renewable Energy is conducting a three-day program “New Frontiers” on Renewable Energy.
This has been conducted as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. A brainstorming meeting on “Roadmap to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070” will also be conducted

Notes:
UK has announced to be the co-host of an upcoming United Nations virtual pledging summit to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
As per the UK government, the virtual pledging conference is aimed to help the UN raise USD 4.4 billion for Afghanistan. It is the largest amount the UN has ever requested for a single country.

Notes:
Using the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) Telescope in Chile, astronomers have confirmed that the asteroid 2020 XL5 is an Earth Trojan.
Earth Trojan is an Earth companion following the same path around the Sun as Earth does. 2020 XL5 was discovered in 2020 by the Pan-STARRS1 survey. Study shows that it is much larger than the only other Earth Trojan known.