Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
In India, women representation of board seats increased by 9.4 per cent from 2014 to 17.1 per cent in 2021 as per Deloitte’s Women in the Boardroom report.
But women comprise only 3.6 per cent of the board chairs, down by 0.9 per cent since 2018. The report finds that globally, women hold 19.7 per cent of the board seats, which rose by 2.8 per cent since 2018. At the current pace, the world could expect to reach near-parity only in 2045.

Notes:
As per NASA’s recent announcement, there are currently 25,000 total objects tracked on-orbit and about 6,100 below 600 km.
SpaceX’s Gen2 expansion involves launching 30,000 satellites, which will double the number of tracked objects in orbit. As per NASA, this may impact NASA’s science and human spaceflight missions. Amazon also raised concerns that its Kuiper System may be impacted.

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:
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:
The Indian Railways has notified the Indian Railway Management System (IRMS) which will unify the eight existing services of the transporter.
IRMS is a new Group ‘A’ Central service and only the officers of IRMS will be eligible to become the functional members and chairman/CEO of the railway board.

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:
The Tata Group has appointed Ilker Ayci, former Turkish Airlines Chairman, as Air India’s Managing Director and CEO.
The decision is in line with the Tata Group’s plans to appoint an expatriate chief to run Air India, which it took over from the Indian government recently.

Notes:
The Lassa fever-causing virus is found in West Africa and was first discovered in 1969 in Lassa, Nigeria. The fever is spread by rats.
It is primarily found in countries in West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria where it is endemic. Recently, three persons were diagnosed with Lassa fever in the UK and died. The cases have been linked to travel to West African countries.

Notes:
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) hosted the latest edition of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the summit, which was based on the theme ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future’. The keynote addresses will be delivered by President of Republic of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali and Deputy Secretary-General of the UN.

Notes:
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has organised ‘Darkathon -2022’ initiative to find solutions to counter dark-net markets.
The initiative aims at involving students, youth and technical experts to find effective solutions to counter drug trafficking through darknet. NCB is a Law enforcement and intelligence agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs.