Current Affairs Quiz - February 2022

Notes:
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government to support its ‘Majhi Vasundhara’ campaign.
Majhi Vasundhara’ (My Earth) is an initiative of the Government of Maharashtra’s Environment and Climate Change Department, to empower citizens with knowledge on the impacts of climate change and environmental issues.

Notes:
Indian documentary ‘Writing with Fire’, directed by filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, has been nominated at the 94th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Writing with Fire is the only Indian documentary to be nominated at this year’s Oscar awards. It focuses on the rural newspaper run by Dalit women called Khabar Lahariya and her transition from print to digital in recent years.

Notes:
Elon Musk’s Starlink has lost 40 of the 49 satellites causing them to fall from orbit before they could be commissioned.
They were caught in a Geomagnetic storm a day after they were launched. A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave. It also occurs when cloud of magnetic field interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Notes:
India and Australia have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism cooperation in New Delhi.
The Memorandum of Understanding in the field of tourism will enhance cooperation and encourage Expansion of bilateral relations in tourism. It will facilitate Exchange of information and data related to tourism, Cooperation between tourism stakeholders.

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:
Mount Etna is an active strato-volcano located on the east coast of Sicily in Italy. Recently, the volcano has erupted causing a volcanic storm.
Volcanic storms can happen in particularly violent eruptions or with volcanoes located near the sea. Volcanologists observed volcanic lightning over the Mount Etna in 2021, after the one witnessed in 2015.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications, including the popular game Garena Free Fire.
In 2020, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) banned TikTok and other popular short video apps from China. MeitY banned these apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which states that the government has the “Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource.”

Notes:
Union Science and Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh announced that ‘Pan India 3D maps’ will be prepared for 100 cities.
He also said that mapping of six lakh villages will be done under the SVAMITVA scheme. He announced this during an event commemorating the 1st anniversary of the release of Geospatial Data. India’s geospatial market is set to cross 36 thousand crore rupees in three years.

Notes:
A career counselling workshop ‘Pramarsh 2022’ was launched for over one lakh students of the Bikaner District region.
It was conducted with the support of The National Institute of Career Services (NICS) which functions under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Directorate of Education, Rajasthan also extended support for the workshop.

Notes:
Nepal will be the very first nation outside India to adopt India’s UPI (Unified Payment Interface) system.
NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) which is an international arm of NPCI along with Gateway Payments Service (GPS) and Manam Infotech has implemented this service in Nepal. This move is expected to play a major role in boosting the digital economy of Nepal.