Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
NITI Aayog, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), and RMI India released a report, titled ‘Banking on Electric Vehicles in India’.
It highlighted the importance of priority-sector recognition for retail lending in the electric vehicle sector.  The report also provided recommendations to inform the inclusion of EVs in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) priority-sector lending (PSL) guidelines.

Notes:
Twitter announced a new way for users to authenticate their profile pictures, created by non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The microblogging platform released an official verification mechanism for NFT profile pictures. NFT owners have been uploading jpeg images of their digital assets as profile pictures recently. The authentic NFT profile pictures will be shown with a new hexagon-shaped mask.

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.

Notes:
The Peruvian Government declared a 90-day “environmental emergency” in damaged coastal territories, after 6,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the sea.
The incident occurred at the La Pampilla refinery, where the “Mare Doricum” tanker belonging to the Spanish energy firm Repsol was transporting 965,000 barrels of crude oil. The spill has caused death of marine wildlife and the spill is investigated as an environmental pollution crime.

Notes:
India celebrates National Girl Child Day on January 24 every year. It is an initiative undertaken by the Ministry of women and child development, to create awareness and provide opportunities to the girls of India.
The government of India, in 2008, declared January 24 to be celebrated as the National Girl Child Day every year.

Notes:
“The International Day of Education” is annually celebrated on January 24. This year the theme of the fourth year of celebration is ‘Changing Course, Transforming Education’.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2018 proclaimed the celebration of this day. India celebrates ‘National Education day’ celebrated on November 11 to mark the birth anniversary of India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

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:
Veteran archaeologist, art historian and Padma Bhushan awardee R Nagaswamy has passed away at the age of 91.
He was the first director of Tamil Nadu government’s Department of Archaeology. He played a key role in bringing back the Chola-era bronze Nataraja to Tamil Nadu Nagaswamy founded the Institute of Epigraphy and Archaeology in 1973. He had also excavated many sites in Tamil Nadu, including Korkai, the ancient Pandyan port.

Notes:
In new research, a team of scientists at Tufts University demonstrated long-term regrowth of limbs in an African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).
They achieved this restoration of an amputated hindlimb after a 24-hour exposure to a five-drug cocktail delivered by a silicone wearable bioreactor. The researchers are exploring ways to extend this to human beings

Notes:
The drug regulator has granted Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin Covid-19 vaccines “conditional market authorisation”.
Since January last year, the two vaccines have been available under “Emergency Use Authorisation” (EUA). They have to submit the safety and efficacy data every six months, under the new authorisation against 15 days earlier. This is different from the Full Market Authorisation.