Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
India has emerged as the largest exporter of gherkins in the world. India has exported cucumber and gherkins of around 1.2 lakh metric tonnes with a value of $ 114 million during April-October (2020-21).
Gherkins (Cornichons) are small cucumbers with thick bumpy skins, also called baby pickles or pickling cucumbers.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in association with ICEA, released a five-year roadmap and vision document for the electronics sector.
Titled “USD 300 bn Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing & Exports by 2026”, this is the second volume of a two-part Vision Document. The first part titled, ‘Increasing India’s Electronics Exports and Share in GVCs,’ was released in November 2021.

Notes:
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched the revamped ‘Central Government Health Scheme’ CGHS website and “MyCGHS” mobile application.
The website shall benefit over 40 lakh beneficiaries with real-time information. The site has been made Bilingual with Hindi and English. There is a direct link to the e-Sanjeevani Tele-consultation facility through the website. User friendly features for visually impaired persons were also added.

Notes:
Himachal Pradesh is the northernmost state of India and shares borders with the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the north.
The state is celebrating its 52nd full statehood day on 25 January, as it was formed as the 18^th Indian state on the same day in 1971, with Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar as its first Chief Minister. In 1950, Himachal became a Part ‘C’ state then became a union territory in 1956.

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook January 2022 assessment.
As per the update, India is estimated to grow at 9% in 2021-2022, down from 9.5% projected in October 2021. It also projects 9% growth for the Indian economy in 2022-23 Global economic growth will dip from 5.9% in 2021 to 4.4% in 2022.

Notes:
The President of India Ram Nath Kovind approved to confer 128 Padma Awards this year, on the eve of the 73rd Republic Day.
The 89-year old Kirana gharana Vocalist ‘Prabha Atre’ was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.  She holds a world record for releasing 11 books on music in Hindi and English from a single stage. She established the ‘Swarmayee Gurukul’. Radheyshyam Khemka (Posthumous; Literature, UP), General Bipin Rawat (Civil Service) and Kalyan Singh (Posthumous; Public Affairs, UP) were also awarded the Padma Vibhushan.

Notes:
The United States House of Representatives unveiled the ambitious America ‘Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength’ Act of 2022, or the America COMPETES Act of 2022.
It proposes to open up new arenas for talented individuals from across the world with a new start-up visa. The bill also provides grant to encourage semiconductor production in the US and to improve supply chain resilience and manufacturing.

Notes:
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) notified a ‘Drone certification scheme (DCS)’ to ensure minimum safety and quality requirements and to boost indigenous manufacturing.
The objective of this DCS, released under liberalized Drone Rules, 2021, is to provide the minimum requirements for security requirements for drones and enable their evaluation for certification. The liberalised Drone Rules, 2021,was released by the MoCA in August 2021.

Notes:
The European Union launched a case against China at the World Trade Organization over its forced practices against Lithuania and some exporters from other member states.
China, the EU’s main trade partner, started blocking Lithuanian products and some other European goods that contained Lithuanian components last December. This was done after Taiwan opened a representative office in Vilnius (capital of Lithuania) under the country’s name instead of Taipei.

Notes:
Union Minister for Power R K Singh interacted with renewable energy developers, industry and various government representatives to discuss on the Draft policy on the energy storage system’.
The Minister also indicated that people may be free to set up standalone energy storage systems (ESS). The Government has planned to de-license the setting up of those systems, under the policy for ESS.