Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
The Government approved the plan for the amalgamation of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) with Unity Small Finance Bank (USFBL).
USFBL is a joint venture between Centrum Financial services and digital payments platform BharatPe. All the branches of the PMC Bank will function as branches of USFBL with immediate effect.

Notes:
India’s rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries in the Corruption perception index (CPI) of 2021.
Transparency International releases the index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. In a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean, India’s score was 40. The report also raised concerns over India’s democratic status

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, has given approval to Kerala for setting up India’s first ‘Graphene Innovation Centre’.
The state-run Digital University Kerala (DUK), along with CMET-Trichur, is to set up “India Innovation Centre for Graphene”, an R&D incubation centre. It will be implemented with the support of Government of Kerala, and Tata Steel Ltd will be the industrial partner of the centre. Graphene is the thinnest and strongest material in the world and could replace indium in OLED screens.

Notes:
Pakistan has raised USD 1 billion loan with Sukuk (Islamic Bond), at highest ever interest rate of 7.95%.
In return for the loan, Pakistan has also agreed to pledge a portion of the Lahore-Islamabad motorway, which is a national sset built in the 1990s. The last Islamic Bond issued by Pakistan was in 2017, which was a 5-year Sukuk at a rate of 5.6%.

Notes:
The Kerala Bird Atlas released recently is said to be Asia’s largest bird atlas in terms of geographical extent, sampling efforts, and species coverage.
It is also the first-of-its-kind state-level bird atlas in India, and was conducted as a citizen-driven exercise with the participation of over 1000 volunteers. The Atlas has provided data about the distribution of various bird species across major habitats.

Notes:
The National Conference on Agriculture for Summer Campaign 2021-22 was held through video conference. It is also called as Zaid Conference. Zaid crops are grown between Kharif and Rabi Seasons
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Kumar Tomar attended the conference. The objective is to review the crop performance during the preceding crop seasons and fix crop-wise targets for the next summer season in consultation with State Governments.

Notes:
A total of 246 rebels from the Tiwa Liberation Army (TLA) and United Gorkha Peoples Organisation (UGPO), formally surrendered and laid down arms in Assam.
TLA was formed in 2014 and UGPO was formed in 2007. They deposited 277 types of arms, grenades and 720 rounds of ammunition. As many as 462 former militants of five different terrorist outfits had surrendered last year in the state.

Notes:
Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar launched the Karnataka Brain Health Initiative, a first-of-its-kind plan in India.
The plan has been undertaken by NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences) in association with NITI Aayog. Under the new programme, Doctors will be trained in screening and treating mental health patients.

Notes:
The Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) of Tamil Nadu has been awarded the prestigious TX2 Award after its tiger number doubled since 2010.
STR is a protected area and tiger reserve in the Western Ghats in the Erode District of Tamil Nadu. The reserve is a part of the Nilgiri biosphere landscape, which is the home to world’s largest tiger population. The awards are presented by the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CATS), Global Tiger Forum (GTF), IUCN’s ITHCP, UNDP, WWF among other stakeholders.

 

 

Notes:
Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has authored a book titled , “The $10 Trillion Dream”.
It explores the policy issues that India faces today and suggests reforms for it to become a USD 10 trillion economy by the mid-2030s. S C Garg is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and was appointed as Finance Secretary in 2019.