Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
The Home Ministry announced the list of recipients of the Padma awards.128 people have been named this year for the Awards which are conferred in three categories – Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri.
The third highest award, Padma Bhushan will be conferred on Global  heads of tech giants Microsoft and Google Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai; Vaccine makers – Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institue and Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech. India’s first Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat was conferred the Padma Vibhushan posthumously.

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:
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:
Scientists from IIT Kharagpur have developed a portable, inexpensive device for detecting oral cancer. The estimated cost per device is within USD500.
The new technology enables a clinician in a community health centre detect potential vulnerable cases early enough, during the first examination.

Notes:
The findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Chhattisgarh (Rural) 2021 were released recently.
As per the survey, the proportion of primary school children who cannot recognize letters of the alphabet has doubled since 2018. Only a fewer students can now do basic subtraction or division. The survey covered over 46,000 children in 1,677 villages.

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 Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has revised the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for adopting and implementing the Integrity Pact.
It has been revised for the second time in eight months. The step aims to ensure transparency in public procurements and to provide a large number of of Independent External Monitors (IEMS) to examine government contracts.

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:
Telineelapuram International Bird Sanctuary is located in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district. Recently, mass deaths of migratory spot-billed pelicans happened at the Bird Sanctuary.
According to government data, about 113 species of exotic birds come to these areas each year from Siberia, Russia, Malaysia, Hungary, Singapore and Germany for breeding. This year, over 100 birds that prey on nearby water bodies have died.

Notes:
The Government has appointed V Anantha Nageswaran as its Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). He was Dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business.
He was also a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister from 2019 to 2021.The upcoming Survey has been drafted by a team led by Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal.