Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
The Ministry of Education (MoE) announced the launch of a special three-year skill based bachelor degree programme for ‘Agniveers’.
The degree programme offered by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will be recognised both in India and abroad for employment and education. Agniveers are the defence personnel to be recruited under the newly launched ‘Agnipath’ scheme.

Notes:
Egypt has hosted the Eighth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in Sharm El Sheikh. The conference is jointly organized by the House of Representatives and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Around 200 young MPs, from 60 countries are participating to discuss strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change. Nagaland’s first woman elected as Member of Parliament to Rajya Sabha S. Phangon Konyak is representing India at the Conference.

Notes:
India hosted the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS) Meeting in its capacity as chair of the SCO-RATS.
The meeting aims to deliberate on security challenges, including threats of terrorism. Delegations from China, Pakistan and other member nations of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) attended the meeting in New Delhi. India hosted a meeting of counter-terror experts from the SCO countries in May 2022.

Notes:
A team of scientists has discovered a new species of bamboo-dwelling bat from a bamboo forest in Meghalaya.
It was named as ‘Glischropus meghalayanus’ after the state of Meghalaya, which is celebrating its 50 years of statehood. With this discovery, the total number of bat species from India stands at 131 species with Meghalaya registering the highest bat diversity with 67 species.

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:
Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri recently launched a project for skill training of construction workers called ‘NIPUN’ i.e. National Initiative for Promoting Upskilling of Nirman workers.
It is an initiative of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM). It aims to train over 1 lakh construction workers, through skilling and upskilling programmes and provides them with work opportunities also in foreign countries.

Notes:
The Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has defined a list of items that will be banned from next month. The announcement of ban was made last year.
As per the notification, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from the 1st July, 2022.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojna’ a nutrition scheme for pregnant and lactating mothers- in Gujarat’s Vadodara.
The financial outlay of the scheme is Rs 800 crore. Every month, all identified beneficiaries will receive Poshan Kits along with other ICDS services. Poshan Sudha Yojana, which aims to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women, has also been expanded to all tribal- areas of Gujarat.

Notes:
The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is the nodal agency responsible for protecting India’s critical information infrastructure. It was established in 2014 under Section 70A of the IT Act, 2000. It is part of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), an intelligence agency under the NSA.

Notes:
UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize or the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education was established in 2005 with the help of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It gives recognition to the innovative use of ICT in the education sector.