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:
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:
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:
The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) has instituted National Award for Innovations and Good Practices in Educational Administration.
The 5^th National awards were recently presented to the selected District and Block level education officers from 29 states/ UTs of the country. This year, over hundred officers received Award or Certificate of Appreciation.

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:
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:
Veteran Nobel-winning virologist Luc Montagnier died in Paris recently. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS, along with his colleague Francoise Barr-Sinoussi.
He had also shared half of the Nobel with German scientist Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of Human papilloma viruses that cause cervical cancer.

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.

Notes:
Cholendra Shumsher Rana became the second Chief Justice of Nepal to face ‘impeachment’ procedure in Parliament in seven years over allegations of corruption
The Chief Justice Rana has been suspended pending final disposal of the case, and Dipak Karki, the senior most Judge in the Supreme Court has taken over as the acting Chief Justice.

Notes:
The Archaeological Survey of India is an Indian government agency functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture
ASI is the process of reviving its ‘Underwater archaeology wing’ that has not been functioning over recent years. ASI appointed Alok Tripathi, an expert in underwater archaeology, as its Additional Director General in 2021.