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:
A team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the Sun.
The planet named ‘Proxima d’, is the third detected in the system. It is among the lightest of the exo-planets discovered so far. The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile to spot this exo-planet.

Notes:
The International Labour Organization has condemned China for racial and religious discrimination in the Xinjiang region.
The report said that as a ILO member state, the Chinese government is firmly committed to provide decent work for all China’s ethnic minority groups including Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Notes:
Southern Railway has introduced Quick Response (QR) code-based payment of ticket fare in Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs).
This aims to encourage cashless transactions and digital payments. As per the Railway administration, journey and platform tickets can be purchased using QR code facility. Renewal of season tickets can also be completed digitally.

Notes:
Brazil recorded the most deforestation ever in the Amazon rainforest for the month of January, according to new government data.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon totalled 430 sq kilometres last month, five times higher than January 2021. This is according to preliminary satellite data from government space research agency.

Notes:
The Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory, is located only 2500km southeast of Japan.
Japan has planned to dump more than 1 million tonnes of treated water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station into the Pacific Ocean. The Northern Mariana Islands has proposed another viable solution to the plan to be considered.

Notes:
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, issued advisory, saying Indian nationals particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily.
It also advised them to avoid all non-essential travel. This came at the backdrop of repeated warnings from US officials that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine. There are more than 20,000 Indians in Ukraine, including professionals, businessmen and some 18,000 students.

Notes:
Crimson Rose is a large butterfly with a mix of black, white and crimson colours on its wings and body. It belongs to the Swallowtails (Papilionidae) family and they are known to migrate along the coast, inland and cross the sea often.
Recently, thousands of Crimson Rose butterflies were seen flying from Dhanushkodi, at the southern-most tip of Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) Island towards Sri Lanka, which is around 25 km from the tip of Dhanushkodi.

Notes:
The Mumbai water taxi services to provide connectivity between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai were inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
The newly constructed Belapur jetty and water taxi services were inaugurated virtually. The Mumbai Port Trust, Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) and CIDCO coordinated in the implementation of the project.

Notes:
The Union Government has approved the ‘New India Literacy Programme’ for financial years 2022-27 which will cover all aspects of Adult Education in the country.
The program has been announced in line with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. ‘Adult Education’ will now be called ‘Education For All’. As per 2011 Census, the number of non-literates in the country (15 years and above) was 25.76 crore (9.08 crore male and 16.68 crore female).