Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
The 16th edition of India Digital Summit 2022 was organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
The report, titled ‘Creating 10 million Digitally Enabled Micro-entrepreneurs’ was also released during the summit. The report noted that micro-entrepreneurs are a crucial part of Indian economy, both for job creation and contribution to GDP.

Notes:
The Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) is prepared and released by the Labour bureau. As per the recent report, the total employment in July-September 2021 was 200,000 higher than that in April-June 2021.
The proportion of female workers in the second round was also higher than that in the first round. The Survey assesses the employment situation in organisations with 10 or more workers in nine sectors of India’s non-farm economy namely manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/BPO, and financial services.

Notes:
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 came into effect from January 2020. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked prison authorities to make separate facilities for trans men and trans women to preserve the right to privacy and dignity of the inmates.
The guidelines are released considering the Transgender Persons Act, 2019. According to a National Crime Records Bureau, there were 70 transgender prisoners in jails across the country in 2020.

Notes:
‘Global Economic Prospects Report’ is the flagship publication of the World Bank. As per the report, global economic growth will dip sharply from 5.5% in 2021 to 4.1% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023.
The Bank’s 8.3% growth projection for India in 2021-22 is unchanged from its June 2021 outlook. But the forecast for 2022-23 and 2023-24 has been upgraded to 8.7% and 6.8%, respectively.

Notes:
UK Archaeologists working on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway have found a vast and wealthy Roman trading settlement.
The discovery was made during excavations at the site in UK. The site is known as ‘Blackgrounds’ after the black soil found there. As per the archaeologists, it was an Iron Age village, formed of more than 30 roundhouses. The settlement became more prosperous during the Roman period, with new stone buildings and roads built.

Notes:
In a first of its kind, a constitution literacy campaign “The Citizen” is being organized in the District of Kollam, Kerala.
Kollam district panchayat, District Planning Committee, and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) would jointly educate over 7 lakh families on the basic principles of Indian Constitution. The aim of this initiative is to declare Kollam a totally Constitution literate district on August 14 midnight.

Notes:
As per a recent Oxfam report, 20 people in Asia (from India, China, Hong Kong, and Japan) mostly associated with the field of pharmaceuticals, saw their wealth zoom during the pandemic period.
As per the report, the richest 1 per cent owned more wealth than the poorest 90 per cent in the region. The total number of billionaires grew by almost a third from 803 in March 2020 to 1,087 by November last year, whom the report calls ‘pandemic billionaires’.

Notes:
As per the Commerce Ministry, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is first-of-its-kind initiative that aims to democratise e-Commerce.
ONDC initiative aims to promote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks. A pilot launch of ONDC will be rolled out in April, across two cities. The government has set up an advisory council, which includes Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and CEO of NHA RS Sharma, to design and accelerate ONDC.

Notes:
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 was passed to provide 75 per cent reservation in private sector to candidates from the state.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, applies to jobs offering a maximum gross monthly salary or wages of Rs 30,000 and it came into effect on January 15, 2022. A dedicated portal and a helpline number were also launched to monitor the implementation of the scheme.

Notes:
Legendary Kathak dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj passed away recently at the age of 83. He is also known as Panditji and Maharaj-ji by his disciples.
He is regarded as one of India’s best known artistes. He was awarded the ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’ in 1964 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1986. He was also awarded the National Film Award for Best Choreography.