Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced the launch of the Open Data Week. It aims to encourage the adoption of open data and promote innovation across India’s urban ecosystem.
Open Data Week is part of the pre-event initiatives being undertaken by MoHUA to promote awareness and use of open data, for the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference to be held in Surat, during February 2022.

Notes:
The first of its kind ‘Climate Hazards and Vulnerability Atlas of India’ has been recently released by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.
As per the report, the Sunderbans in West Bengal, neighbouring districts of Odisha, and Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu are the most vulnerable to high storm surges of as much as 8.5 to 13.7 metres that are induced by cyclones.

Notes:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Odisha government have joined hands to improve the food security of small and marginal farmers.
The agreement aims to strengthen the farmers’ resilience to climate change. The WFP and the Agriculture Department will develop toolkits and guidelines to provide services to small farmers. Small farmers, who constitute 90 per cent of the state’s farmers will be guided to adapt to the impact of the climate crisis.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India releases the ‘Digital Payment Index’, which shows the deepening of payments through digital modes in India.
The Index rose by 39.64 per cent to 304.06 in September 2021 against 217.74 in the year-ago month. The DPI was constructed with March 2018 as the base period. The RBI-DPI comprises five parameters: payment enablers, payment infrastructure—demand-side, payment infrastructure—supply-side, payment performance and consumer centricity.

Notes:
Cabinet has approved the decision of the Government to infuse ₹ 1,500 crore in the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), which will raise its lending capacity to ₹ 12,000 crore.
IREDA is a Mini Ratna Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth jointly inaugurated India-assisted social housing units project in Mauritius virtually.
They also laid foundation stone for Civil Service College and a 8 MW Solar PV Farm, undertaken with India’s support. They also signed agreement for the extension of USD 190M Line of Credit from the India to Mauritius for the Metro Express and other infrastructure projects, and an MoU on the implementation of small development projects.

Notes:
MY2022 is the name of the application used by athletes and others attending the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing.
As per the recent report by Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group, the application has flawed the encryption that would make sensitive data and other data communicated through it vulnerable to being hacked.

Notes:
‘Operation Sajag’ was launched to curb the incidents of street crime in Delhi. After the launch of the programme, Police control room calls have reduced by 24 per cent.
According to the police, 8,006 criminals and anti-social elements, including robbers and snatchers, have been arrested since the launch of the operation. The main focus is on detection of source of fire-arms, drugs, illicit liquor and stolen property.

Notes:
United Kingdom based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released the report titled “Connecting the Dots: Plastic pollution and the planetary emergency”.
As per the report, a new global plastics treaty focussing on the entire lifecycle of plastics needs to be developed urgently. This was also proposed in the draft resolution by Peru and Rwanda at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).

Notes:
The Common Services Centers (CSC) has recently launched the “Yogyata” mobile phone application.  It aims to provide vocational education and skill enhancement opportunities to youth and other citizens in rural areas.
It includes the access to courses like Cyber Security, CAD and 3D printing, to increase employability The training content is on a continuous learning mode and the courses are yearly subscription-based.