Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
Australia’s new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced ambitious climate targets for his country.
He has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, up from the previous government’s target of between 26% and 28%. Australia is one of the world’s highest per capita carbon emitters. While Canada is aiming to reduce emissions up to 40% by 2030 from 2005 levels, U.S has a target of 52%.

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:
18 June is marked as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. In July 2021, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution “promoting inter-religious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance in countering hate speech”.
Hate speech goes against the core principles of the UN Charter such as equality, peace, and respect for human dignity leading to social disharmony.

Notes:
Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai has been nominated as Chairperson of the Press Council of India.
She replaced the retired Justice CK Prasad who vacated office in November 2021. Justice Desai has also served as the chairman of the Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir, Public prosecutor for the state of Maharashtra and as a Judge on the Bombay High Court.

Notes:
The ‘Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)’ functions under the aegis of Ministry of Labour and Employment.
ESIC has announced that its Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme will be implemented throughout the country by the end of 2022. The health insurance scheme is fully implemented in 443 districts and partially implemented in 153 districts. As many as 148 districts are not covered under the ESI Scheme at present.

Notes:
Article 263 of the Indian Constitution allows the President to establish the Inter-State Council, which brings together government entities on a common platform for discussing various governance issues. The Inter-State Council was established in 1990. Its chairman is the Prime Minister and its members include chief ministers and administrators of states and union territories.

Notes:
The year 2022 has been designated as the ASEAN-India Friendship year. This year marks the 30th anniversary of dialogue relations between India and ASEAN countries. The diplomatic ties between the two sides commenced in the early 1990s.

Notes:
Typhoid fever is caused by bacterium Salmonella Typhi. Humans are its only host. A new study found that Typhoid-causing bacteria are becoming highly resistant to popular antibiotics. Strains resistant to antibiotic azithromycin are found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. As per the recent study published in “The Lancet Microbe” most of the antibiotic resistant strains of Typhoid causing bacteria originated in South Asia.

Notes:
South Africa was the last member country to join the BRICS in the year 2010. Other BRICS countries are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Together, these countries account for around 40 per cent of the global population and some 30 per cent of the global GDP.

Notes:
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has renamed the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) as the Central Bureau of Communication. The BOC was set up in 2017 following the merger of the ministry’s erstwhile media units.