Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
State Bank of India (SBI) has raised $300 million through “Regulation S” Formosa Bonds for five years. It is the first Indian scheduled commercial bank to issue public Formosa Bonds.
The bonds have been benchmarked against five-year US Treasury notes and the lender has completed its issuance through its London branch.

Notes:
Tonga is a group of over 170 islands located in South Pacific Ocean. It is located in the continent of Oceania.
Recently, a volcanic eruption happened in Tonga, below the surface of the ocean and triggered tsunami waves around the Pacific. The US Geological Survey estimated the eruption caused the equivalent of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.

Notes:
The Union Textiles Ministry launched the ‘National Technical Textiles Mission’ (NTTM) in the year 2020. Recently, the textiles ministry cleared 20 strategic projects worth Rs 30 crore in the areas of Speciality fibres (16) and Geo-textiles (4) under the mission.
The projects of speciality fibres approved include projects in healthcare, industrial and protective, energy storage-textile waste recycling, and agriculture. Earlier, 11 research projects worth Rs 78.60 crore were cleared by the Ministry of Textiles on March 26, 2021.

Notes:
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) releases the ‘World Employment and Social Outlook’ every year.
This year, ILO downgraded its outlook for the labour market recovery. ILO expects unemployment to increase to 207 million in 2022, up from 186 million in 2019. Total working hours in 2022 are also expected to be at 2 percent below that of pre-pandemic levels.

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:
A team of researchers from India and Russia has discovered an unknown group of lizards of the family of skinks from Arunachal Pradesh.
The new genus and species has been named as ‘Protoblepharus Apatani’. These lizards are small and active, with a dark brown body with two stripes with a iridescent sheen to their scales. The new species is named after the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh’s Ziro valley.

Notes:
The Indian Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I participated in the multinational anti-submarine warfare exercise ‘Sea Dragon-22’.
The exercise recently concluded at Guam, USA. Aircraft from six navies namely the US, India, Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea participated in Sea Dragon-22 exercise. The exercise was aimed to enhance interoperability among them in response to security challenges in maritime domain.

Notes:
Professor Vinod Sharma, the founder co-ordinator of the National Centre of Disaster Management, has been selected for this year’s Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar, under individual category.
The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) was selected under the institutional category. Minister Narendra Modi presented the awards in an event, commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Notes:
Australia’s Online Safety Act, which was passed in July 2021, has come into effect recently. It allows adults to report cases of online bullying in the country to the eSafety Commissioner.
The act empowers the eSafety commissioner to order social media websites to take down content related to bullying against Australian adults within 24 hours and impose fines if not followed. This Act addresses bullying against adults as well as children.

Notes:
Last year, the Centre decided to celebrate Bose’s birth anniversary as ‘Parakram Diwas’ (the day of valour), West Bengal announced that the day would be observed as ‘Desh Nayak Diwas’ (the day of the national hero).
The Prime Minister unveiled the hologram statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate, until a grand statue of the freedom fighter will be installed. This year is 125^th birth anniversary of Netaji.