Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
Europe’s biggest start-up conference – Vivatech 2020 has recognized India as the ‘Country of the year”
Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated the India pavilion at the Vivatech technology exhibition. Around 65 start-ups from India are participating in the conference with government support. India has created 100 unicorns in few years while Europe has created 26 unicorns.

Notes:
Foreign bank HSBC India announced that it will lend USD 250 million to high-growth, tech-led start-ups in India.
India is the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world. Recently there is a rise in the debt needs of the start-ups in India and a ‘funding winter’ is impacting equity funding to the sector. This issue is set to be addressed by the commercial banking vertical of HSBC India.

Notes:
European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has released a set of new data, which has revealed the phenomena of ‘starquakes’.
Starquakes are massive movements on the surface of stars similar to earthquake. The star-mapping Gaia probe has covered almost 1.8 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The data has also revealed the largest chemical map of the entire Milky Way, showing the DNA of millions of stars.

Notes:
The Shriram Group has secured RBI approval for the merger of Shriram City Union Finance and Shriram Capital Ltd with Shriram Transport Finance Company.
This consolidation is set to create the largest retail finance NBFC in the country. The merger would help the group bring together all its lending products. The Group announced that it would focus on digital lending, with distribution on a newly built super application.

Notes:
Germany announced emergency measures including increased use of coal to boost gas storage levels and to phase out imports.
As Germany relies on Russia for most of its gas, it is affected after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which led to cut in deliveries. The new measures include increased reliance on coal-fired power plants and an auction system to incentivise industry to consume less.

Notes:
Red Bull racing driver Max Verstappen claimed his fifth win at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took his second podium of the season finishing the race in the third position.
Verstappen claimed his sixth victory of the season, and his 26th overall title. Spanish driver Carlos Sainz of Ferrari clinched the second position. Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion completed the podium, since the Bahrain season opener.

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:
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:
A 419-million-year-old Chinese Fossil recently proved the evolution of Human Middle Ear from fish gills. Embryonic and fossil evidence proved that the human middle ear evolved from the spiracle of fishes.
As per the study, many important structures of human beings can be traced back to our fish ancestors, such as our teeth, jaws, middle ears.

Notes:
The Sun Temple at Gujarat’s Modhera village was built under the administration of the Chaulukya king Bhima I in the early 11th century. It is located on the bank of River Pushpavati. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.