Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
Union Minister Jitendra Singh launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven Start-Up named ‘Swajal Water Private Limited’ started by IIT alumni for water purification.
The company’s patented system, ‘Clairvoyant’ uses Artificial Intelligence to optimise purification systems and predict future breakdowns. They have also developed clean drinking water solutions in the form of Water ATMS, which combines Internet of Things technology with solar energy.

Notes:
The Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar was instituted by the Ministry of Education, formerly called as the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in 2016 to recognize the excellence in sanitation and hygiene practice in schools
The Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar (SVP) 2021 – 2022 was launched virtually. The sub-categories are: Water, Sanitation, Hand Washing with soap, Operation and Maintenance, behaviour change and capacity building and the newly added category on COVID-19 preparedness and response.

Notes:
India’s leading Edu-Tech firms / companies have come together to form a consortium named India EdTech Consortium (IEC), which would form and adhere to a “code of conduct”.
Edu-Tech start-ups like Byju’s, Careers 360, Times Edu-tech, Toppr, Unacademy, upGrad etc have formed this consortium.

Notes:
North Korea confirmed that it test-launched ballistic missiles from a train, seen as a retaliation against new sanctions imposed by the United States.
The missiles fired from rail cars appeared to be a solid-fuel short-range weapon North Korea has modelled after Russia’s Iskander mobile ballistic system. It was first tested in 2019, and the missile is designed to be manoeuvrable and fly at low altitudes.

Notes:
A driver airbag was made compulsory for all passenger vehicles since July 1, 2019. Dual airbags (driver and passenger in front row) became mandatory on all vehicles from January 2022.
Road Transport ministry recently approved a draft notification to make a minimum of six airbags compulsory for vehicles carrying up to eight passengers. The aim is to minimise the impact of ‘frontal and lateral collisions’.

Notes:
‘Houthi movement’ is an Islamist political and armed movement which emerged from Northern Yemen in the 1990s.
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had carried out an attack on the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi police said three fuel tanker trucks exploded near storage facilities of oil firm ADNOC and a fire broke out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.  They were possibly caused by drones.

Notes:
NASA’s Asteroid Watch informed that a near-Earth asteroid named 7482 (1994 PC1) will safely pass our planet on January 18, 2022.
It flew past the earth at a distance of 1.2 million miles or 1.9 million kilometres, which is about five times the distance between the Earth and Moon. The Near-Earth asteroid is around twice the size of world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa.

Notes:
Capital markets regulator SEBI launched its mobile App named ‘Saa₹thi’ to create awareness among investors about the basic concepts of securities market.
The app has been released among the recent rise in individual investors entering the market, and a large proportion of trading being mobile phone based. The App aims to create awareness about the basic concepts KYC process, trading and settlement, mutual funds, market developments, investor grievances redressal mechanism, etc.

Notes:
Global internet body ICANN-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group has roped in Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma as UA Ambassador.
The Group works on developing and recommending standards for languages script that are not currently used to access the internet. He is also part of a working group formed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT to prepare a roadmap on universal acceptance and multilingual internet.

Notes:
Centre-right lawmaker Roberta Metsola has been selected as the third woman to head the European Parliament.
The 43-year-old from the European Union’s smallest nation Malta is also the youngest President of the European Parliament. She is viewed as a political moderate in spite of the controversy over her anti-abortion stance.