Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
India’s Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) improved by 19 points at National level, from 918 in the year 2014-15 to 937 in 2020-21. This was announced during the Year End Review of Women and Child Development Ministry.
The “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme” is being implemented across India, covering 640 districts across the country. The Poshan Tracker application ensures real-time monitoring of supplementary nutrition. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana scheme is implemented for pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Notes:
In the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievement 2021 award list released, IIT Madras was named the most innovative educational institute of India in the technical category.
IIT-M has retained the top rank for three years in a row. Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, College of Engineering, Pune and PSG College of Technology topped in their respective categories. Under ‘non-technical institutions’, the top central universities were IGNOU and IIM, Kozhikode.

Notes:
Mohammed Shami recently achieved the milestone of 200 Test wickets, during the first Test against South Africa.
The 31-year-old bowler is third-fastest among Indian pacers to reach the landmark, as he achieved this feat in his 55th Test match. He is only behind Kapil Dev (434), Ishant Sharma (311), Zaheer Khan (311), and Javagal Srinath (236), at present.

Notes:
China’s Shanghai has maintained its position as having the longest metro rail network in the world by adding two new lines that went into operation recently.
The new lines took the total length of the city’s metro network to 831 km, also bringing the total number of fully automatic driverless metro lines in the city to five.  Shanghai city now includes 508 stations. Shanghai’s Metro network is followed by Beijing, and Delhi was ranked third

Notes:
The GST Council decided to defer the increase in the rate for textiles to 12% from 5%. It has referred the matter to a panel of Ministers, to review Rate Rationalisation.
The GST on all readymade textile items, except those made with cotton, was earlier hiked to 12 per cent. The GST on footwear, except those below Rs 1,000, was also hiked to 12 per cent from 5 per cent. State representatives from Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu opposed the hike.

Notes:
After the recommendation by the three-member committee, the Centre has decided to continue with the existing annual income limit of ₹8 lakh for identification of economically weaker section (EWS).
The Supreme Court raised doubts over the 10% quota while dealing with NEET-PG admissions and the Centre set up the committee to revisit the income limit of EWS quota. The committee comprised former union finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey among others.

Notes:
Indian solar power producer Azure Power has fully commissioned its largest project, a 600-MW solar park in the state of Rajasthan.
The independent Power producer now owns and operates India’s largest solar power project at a single location. The solar park is located in Bikaner and is connected to the Interstate Transmission System (ISTS). It will supply its power to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) over 25 years.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has notified the latest amendments to the Environment (Protection) Act.
As per the notification, all coal and lignite-based thermal power plants (TPPs) should utilise 100 per cent fly ash in an environment friendly manner for making construction sector products. This aims to  reduce the requirement of land for disposing fly ash in ash ponds.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a framework to allow offline payments up to Rs 200 per transaction.
This framework is subject to an overall limit of Rs 2,000. An offline digital payment is a transaction that does not require internet or telecom connectivity. These transactions will not require an additional factor of authentication (AFA).

 

Notes:
The Mines Ministry has created a joint venture company called ‘Khanij Bidesh India (KABIL)’. The equity participation of National Aluminium Company (NALCO), Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Mineral Exploration Corporation (MECL) is 40:30:30.
India is working to acquire mines of strategic minerals such as lithium and cobalt in countries like Australia, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. India aims to ensure a committed supply of raw materials for renewable energy (RE) and e-mobility sectors.