Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
Israel has signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates, its first big trade pact with an Arab state.
The agreement, which aimed at boosting trade between the two Middle Eastern nations, would encourage more Israeli companies to set up offices in the UAE, particularly in Dubai. The deal with Israel is UAE’s second bilateral free trade agreement after a similar accord with India in February.

Notes:
The second-year anniversary of ‘National AI Portal’ (INDIAai) is celebrated on May 30, 2022. The portal is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM. INDIAai released a book on the basics of AI titled ‘AI for Everyone’.
The portal focuses on promoting a unified AI ecosystem in the country and use AI for economic growth. The portal has a repository of over 1000 articles on AI and several news stories, reports, case studies and videos. It has the databases featuring details of government initiatives and start-ups related to AI.

Notes:
Indian Council for Cultural Relations organised a ten days programme named ‘Gen-Next Democracy Network’ concluded.
Under the Gen Next Democracy Network programme, Youth from various democratic countries come to India and get acquainted with India’s heritage, culture and functioning of Indian democracy. ICCR is an autonomous organisation involved in India’s global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries.

Notes:
Russia has launched a new “Foreign debt payment system”, an arrangement similar to that used for payments for its gas supplies to pay its dollar-denominated foreign debts.
Russia will offer the holders of its Eurobond obligations to accept a payment system bypassing the Western financial infrastructure. Russia has not defaulted on its international debts since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution when the Soviet Union was created.

Notes:
India recorded its highest-ever textiles and apparel exports in the financial year 2021-22 at USD 44.4 billion.
The exports including handicrafts recorded an increase of 41 per cent over corresponding figures in FY21. USA was the top export destination for the country’s textiles and apparel shipments with 27 per cent share, followed by the European Union (18 %), Bangladesh (12 %) and UAE (6 %).

Notes:
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu is on a visit to Gabon, Senegal, and Qatar, the first visit from India at the level of Vice President to the three countries.
Libreville is the capital of the Central- African country Gabon. The Vice President reiterated the commitment of the Government of India to be Gabon’s reliable partner. The bilateral trade between the countries reached USD 1.12 billion in 2021-22.

Notes:
Punjab government has recently launched e-stamping facility after abolishing physical stamp papers of all denominations.
The move aims to bring efficiency and is expected to save Rs 35 crore annually. Stamp papers of any denomination can be obtained only through e-stamp from stamp vendor or from banks authorised by the state government. The facility has been started with the assistance of National e-Governance Services Limited.

Notes:
The species, Eublepharis pictus, also known as the Painted Leopard Gecko, was originally found in Visakhapatnam in 2017.
The species, which was considered as East Indian Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis hardwickii), has now been identified as a member of a new species. It appears to be common in the forests of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The two species appear to be separated by the Brahmani River.

Notes:
Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) partnered with Accenture to digitally transform its lending business.
The collaboration includes a cloud-native lending platform with digital workflows for application, loan processing, credit underwriting and decision- making, disbursement and loan servicing. A machine learning-based decision engine is also used for risk mitigation.

Notes:
The Government has approved 8.1 per cent rate of interest on employees’ provident fund (EPF) deposits for the year 2021-22, from 8.5 per cent provided in the previous year.
The 8.1 per cent EPF rate of interest is the lowest since 1977-78, when it stood at 8 per cent. The interest rate on EPF deposits was decided by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) and was ratified by the finance ministry 2021.