Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2023

Notes:
G Kamala Vardhana Rao has taken over the charge as the CEO of food regulator FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India).
The FSSAI is a statutory body established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Prior to this, Rao was serving as the Managing Director of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Tourism.

Notes:
Tata Motors said the acquisition of Ford India’s manufacturing plant at Sanand through its subsidiary will be completed by January 2023.
Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML) announced that would acquire Ford India’s Sanand plant in Gujarat for around ₹725 crore. The acquisition included the entire land and buildings, vehicle manufacturing plant along with machinery and equipment and transfer of all eligible employees of FIPL’s vehicle manufacturing operations at Sanand.

Notes:
Sweden has taken over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of the year, on January 1, 2023,
It followed Czech Republic, which headed the Council in the second half of 2022. This is the third time that Sweden has taken over the Presidency of the Council. The EU Council Presidency rotates every six months between the Member States of the EU.

Notes:
The new integrated food security Scheme was rolled out with effect from 1 January 2023. It would provide free food grains to 81.35 crore beneficiaries under National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The new scheme will subsume two current food subsidy schemes of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution namely the Food Subsidy to FCI for NFSA, and Food Subsidy for decentralized procurement states.

Notes:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a fresh public outreach programme to reach out to people of the State.
Under the initiative of Didir Suraksha Kawach (Didi Protection Shield) about 3.5 lakh volunteers of the Trinamool Congress will reach out to all households of the state about government’s flagship programmes. ‘Didir Doot’ app can be downloaded to register their problems.

Notes:
Satyendra Nath Bose was a Mathematician and physicist from India. He was born on January 1, 1894, in Calcutta, India. The Government of India honoured him with the title Padma Vibhushan in 1954.
Bose became a Fellow of the Royal Society and was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1958. Bose was also appointed as the National Professor, which was the highest honour in India for any scholar.

Notes:
Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is working on a new industrial policy.
The draft ‘Statement on Industrial Policy 2022-Make in India for the world’ has been circulated to different ministries for their views and comments. It proposes to increase financing sources for industry and a scheme for promoting Made in India brand.

Notes:
In December, 782 crore transactions in volume terms were done on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, as per the Department of Financial Services.
UPI payments have touched record high of ₹12.82 lakh crore in December. The platform was launched in 2016. In November, as many as 730 crore transactions worth ₹11.90 lakh crore took place via UPI.

Notes:
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that XBB.1.5 has more than doubled its share of the Covid-19 figures each week.
In the Northeast region of the country, XBB.1.5 is causing 75% of new cases. The XBB.1.5 strain is a relative of the Omicron XBB variant, which is a recombinant of the Omicron BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 subvariants.

Notes:
President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the ninth President of Guyana,  is one among the 21 recipients of the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA).
He will also be the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will be held this time in Indore. US-based businessman Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, and DSB Group CEO Piyush Gupta are among 21 recipients.