Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
Union Power Minister R K Singh launched a hackathon, named Powerthon-2022, to find tech-driven solutions for quality power supply.
REC Limited, in collaboration with Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay, acts as the nodal agency. It is launched under RDSS (Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme). New ideas and concepts will be rewarded with licence.

Notes:
The lighthouse at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, is being developed under the Public Private Partnership mode for tourism. Infrastructure includes a museum, amphitheatre, open air theatre, cafeteria, children play area, gazebo, landscaping, and lifts. The development is part of a national project identifying 75 lighthouse sites in India for tourism promotion. Work at Mahabalipuram is confirmed as started under PPP mode.

Notes:
The Delhi government has digitised the whole process of disbursement of Pension. The entire process, from filling the application form to disbursement of pension, will be online.
The Social Welfare Department of the state has implemented the process successfully. It also announced that there will be no hindrance or delay in pension cases.

Notes:
A Parliamentary committee has recommended increase in guaranteed days of work from 100 to 150, in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
They also highlighted that the scheme is a last “fall-back” option for many in the rural areas. The Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, headed by Shiv Sena member Prataprao Jadhav tabled the report in Lok Sabha.

Notes:
Scientists in the United Kingdom have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun.
A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in central England generated 59 mega joules of sustained energy during an experiment. A kg of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times energy of that of a kg of coal, oil or gas.

Notes:
According to figures released by the US Census Bureau, India-US bilateral goods trade was worth USD 113.391 billion from January to December 2021.
This is the largest volume of goods trade in a calendar year in India-US economic history. India exported goods worth over USD 73 billion, and imported goods worth over USD 40 billion dollars. In 2020 trade fell to USD 78.2 billion due to pandemic, from the high of USD 92.1 billion in 2019.

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:
U.S announced USD 5 billion to be made available under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program.
It aims to build a national electric vehicle charging network. The money will be used over five years to build thousands of electric vehicle charging stations.

Notes:
Indian Army conducted its first-of-its-kind Hackathon was conducted at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Mhow.
The event, ‘Sainya Ranakshetra’ was conducted in collaboration with the Rashtriya Raksha University. The event was held under the overall guidance of the Shimla based Army Training Command (ARTRAC).