Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
‘World Sea Turtle Day’ is celebrated on June 16 every year to highlight the importance of sea turtles in the marine system and save this aquatic species from extinction.
Sea turtles graze on sea-grass, preventing the sea-grass beds from becoming overgrown and stimulating new growth. Sea turtles in India are protected by the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which bans consumption of turtle meat and eggs by all except for indigenous tribal communities.

Notes:
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is marked every year on 17 June across the world. The day focuses on turning degraded land into healthy or fertile soil to combat desertification.
The theme for World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is – Rising up from drought together. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released a document titled “Payments Vision 2025”, with guidelines on payments.
The document also focussed on the architecture of digital finance. It includes regulations for BigTechs and fintechs in payments; guidelines on payments involving ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL) services; introducing the central bank digital currency (CBDC); and linking credit cards and credit components of banking products to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Notes:
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras have developed a robot to clean septic tanks without human intervention.
Named HomoSEP, the product development was further supported by GAIL (India). Initially, ten units are planned to be deployed across Tamil Nadu. The robots have been developed to eliminate manual scavenging.

Notes:
The 8th meeting of the heads of the border services of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of India.
The members approved the plan for the preparation and conduct of the Joint Border Operation Friendship Border 2022.  They also approved the work plan of the group of experts of the Border Services of the SCO member states for 2023.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the eighth International Day of Yoga (IDY) celebrations in Karnataka’s Mysuru. The theme of this year’s Yoga Day celebrations is ‘Yoga for Humanity’.
Over 25 crore people across the world took part in various events and doing yoga in unison. A programme in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs has also been organised for a mass Yoga Protocol around the world on the day following the movement of the sun.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has declared IT resources of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as ‘critical information infrastructure’.
The Information Technology Act of 2000 defines ‘Critical Information Infrastructure’ as a “computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”. The government has the power to declare any data, database, IT network or communications infrastructure as CII.

Notes:
Former rebel fighter Gustavo Petro secured majority of votes in the Colombia’s presidential election and is set to become the first leftist President of the country.
A shift of South American politics to the left has been observed with the victories in Peru last year, and in Chile and Honduras this year. During the pandemic, Colombia saw anti-establishment protests against corruption, stagnancy, increased taxation and a new health care reform.

Notes:
Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced on July 1, 2017, to revamp the country’s entire indirect tax structure and modify tax administration and compliance.
The system has completed five years of implementation. There has been a significant increase in the tax base in India at about 1.36 crore active GST registrations as on 31 March 2022.The revenues of May 2022 touched the INR 1.41 lakh crore mark and GST collections crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for 11 months in a row.

Notes:
Sri Lankan cabinet passed the 21st Amendment to the Constitution to empower Parliament over the executive president.
The 21st Amendment is expected to dissolve the section, which gives unfettered powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after abolishing the 19th Amendment that will strengthen Parliament. It also includes reforms including barring dual citizens from contesting elections to hold public office.