Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
Telangana became the country’s first large state to record 100 per cent first-dose vaccinations. The state has vaccinated 2.77 crore citizens with the first dose, as per the Central government’s estimated adult population target.
The state is ahead of the national average by 9 per cent in terms of the first dose and ahead of the national average by 3 per cent in second dose.

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:
Thirty white rhinos were transferred from South Africa to Rwanda in a Boeing 747 chartered plane. This is the largest single transfer of white rhinos ever undertaken.
The rhinoceros species is threatened by illegal poaching. Southern white rhino, one of two subspecies of white rhino, is considered “almost endangered” by the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN).

Notes:
China complained to the United Nations that its space station was forced to avoid collisions with satellites launched by his Starlink Internet Services project.
As per China’s claim to the Vienna-based United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the country’s space station had two close encounters with Starlink satellites this year. Starlink is a satellite internet network operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Notes:
Veteran photographer Sabine Weiss, renowned for her images on the streets of Paris, passed away at the age of 97.
She was the last surviving member of France’s humanist photography school. The photographer moved to Paris after World War Two. She was also regarded as pioneer of Street photography, in which she captured the condition of ordinary people in Paris.

Notes:
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under the Ministry of Communication has constituted six Task Forces on 6 G technology.
The task forces are headed by various academia from across the country Directors of IIT-Madras, IIT-Kanpur, IISc among others. India is deploying 5G technology this year and the group will analyse the process and challenges in 6G.

Notes:
India’s current account balance posted a deficit of $ 9.6 billion in the second quarter ended September 2021 (Q2Fy22).
It forms 1.3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The current account was in surplus $ 6.6 billion (0.9 percent of GDP) in the first quarter ended June 2021(Q1Fy22). As per the RBI, the current account deficit (CAD) was mainly due to widening of trade gap and increase in outgo of investment income.

Notes:
Researchers have discovered two new species of very rare flower flies from north-eastern India and the Western Ghats.
The newly described species named Monoceromyia flavoscutata and M. nigra, belong to the Syrphidae family. The members of this genus are extremely rare as there are only 12 species reported from India earlier, with this discovery in India after 80 years.

Notes:
Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid political deadlock and widespread pro-democracy protests.
As part of an agreement with the military after the October Coup, former UN official Hamdok was appointed as the Prime Minister.  Now the military coup has again hindered the country’s transition to democratic rule.

Notes:
The country paid tributes to Rani Velu Nachiyar on her birth anniversary. She was the queen of Sivagangai, in Tamil Nadu and waged war against the British.
Born in 1730, she is known as the first queen to have fought against the British colonial power. She was trained in archery, horse riding, martial arts, and even weapon handling. After the British troops killed his husband, she fought and recaptured her kingdom and ruled Sivagangai for over 10 years.