Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
West African nations will close their borders with Mali, cut diplomatic ties and impose tough economic sanctions in response to delay in holding elections.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the 15-state regional bloc announced this stance, as Mali’s interim authorities have proposed holding elections in December 2025 instead of this February as originally agreed with the bloc.

Notes:
India and South Korea set a bilateral trade target of USD 50 billion before 2030. South Korea’s Trade Minister Yeo Han-Koo and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal held bilateral talks in New Delhi.
In 2021, South Korea’s exports to India increased 38.5 per cent (USD 7.4 billion), imports increased 37.4 per cent ( USD 3.6 billion), and the trade balance recorded a surplus of USD 3.8 billion.

Notes:
The President of Sri Lanka has asked China to restructure its debt repayments, to help the country navigate its economic crisis.
In the last decade China has lent Sri Lanka over $5 billion for projects including roads, an airport and ports. China is Sri Lanka’s fourth biggest lender, behind international financial markets, the Asian Development Bank and Japan.

Notes:
Canada has officially banned conversion therapy, joining a select list of countries that discontinued the treatment that claims to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The ban was passed by the Parliament in December 2021. Apart from Canada, there is only a small list of countries that have banned conversion therapies, which includes Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta. Under the law, anyone who looks to subject someone to conversion therapy could face up to five years in prison.

Notes:
‘The Power of a Dog’ was named the ‘Best picture (drama)’ at the Golden Globes 2022. The Benedict Cumberbatch-starring movie also won the best director for Jane Campion and best supporting actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ won the best picture (musical or comedy), best actress in a motion picture (musical or comedy) and best supporting actress in a motion picture awards. Will Smith, (King Richard) won the Best actor in a motion picture, drama award.

Notes:
As per a recent study, the European scientists announced that 2021 was the Earth’s fifth hottest on record.
The mean temperature globally last year was 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than it was before industrialization led humans to begin releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the air. The year was fifth warmest by a slight margin after 2015 and 2018, by Copernicus’ ranking. The hottest years are 2016 and 2020, on record.

Notes:
2022 Global Risks Report has been recently released by the World Economic Forum. WEF’s ‘Global Risks Perception Survey’ ranked ‘Climate action failure’ as the highest risk.
Erosion of social cohesion, livelihood crises and mental health deterioration were identified as risks which increased the most since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is released by the National Statistical Office of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (Base year 2012) is India’s benchmark inflation rate.
The index measures the changes in general level of retail prices of selected goods and services that households purchase for the purpose of consumption. The CPI released for the month of December 2021 by the Ministry stood at 5.59% year on year.

Notes:
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of LED (Light-Emitting Diode) in which emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. This is a competitive alternative to liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
Recently, team of researchers from University of Minnesota, MIT, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Pusan National University have demonstrated a printing technique which produces fully 3D-printed flexible OLED displays.

Notes:
The Philippines has given a $374 million contract to BrahMos Aerospace to supply shore-based anti-ship missiles for the country’s navy.
BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russian joint venture, produces Supersonic cruise missile ‘BrahMos’ that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms. India has already deployed a large number of the Brahmos missiles and other key assets in several strategic locations.