Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
The Russian enclave Kaliningrad is located on the Baltic Sea. It is sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. It was captured by the USSR from Nazi Germany in April 1945. It became part of the USSR territory as the result of the Potsdam Agreement. It was recently in news because of a row after Lithuania decided to ban goods part of EU sanctions from moving through its territory to reach Kaliningrad.

Notes:
The Ambubachi Mela is a 4-day long festival held every year at the Kamakhya Temple, which is situated at Assam’s Guwahati. It celebrates the goddess of motherhood and fertility. It marks Goddess Kamakhya experiencing the menstrual cycle.

Notes:
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has recently issued the draft Regulatory Guidelines for Child Participation in the Entertainment Industry to protect child artistes involved in films, TV, reality shows, social media and OTT platforms from physical and psychological stress.
The draft guidelines also protect child actors’ education by mandating the film producers to appoint a private tutor if the need is required. It also provides protection for minors in the industry under Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

Notes:
Launched in 2018, BepiColombo is the joint mission of the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission has two individual orbiters – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Jaxa’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.
It is the first European mission to Mercury and the first to send two spacecraft to take complementary measurements of the planet and study its environment at the same time. This joint mission recently made its second gravity assist flyby of the Mercury.

Notes:
The research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department has discovered a rare carnivorous plant species named Utricularia Furcellata in the Uttarakhand’s Mandal Valley.
This discovery is significant as this plant is found for the first time in western Himalayan region. The plant belongs to the genus bladderworts. It uses complex plant structures to trap targets ranging from protozoa to insects, mosquito larvae and tadpoles. It uses the mechanical process of creating a vacuum or negative pressure area to attract preys into the trap door.

Notes:
US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders re-launched the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” at their annual gathering at Schloss Elmau in Germany.
It aims to raise USD 600 billion in private and public funds over five years, to finance infrastructure in developing countries and counter China’s Belt and Road project. The United States would mobilise USD 200bn in grants, federal funds and private investment over five years, while Europe will mobilise 300 billion euros.

Notes:
The French-speaking West African countries Gabon and Togo joined the Commonwealth, becoming the latest nations with no historic ties to Britain to enter the Commonwealth of Nations.
The 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies accepted Togo and Gabon’s application for membership on the final day of its leadership summit held in Rwanda. They are the first new members to join the Commonwealth since Rwanda in 2009.

Notes:
The DRDO and the Indian Navy have successfully tested the indigenous ship-borne weapon system Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM).
The VL-SRSAM was designed based on Astra missile. It was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, as the first air-to-air missile. Astra is also an all weather beyond-visual-range missile.

Notes:
Hermit is the name of the latest sophisticated spyware seen in the news. It is believed to have targeted iPhones and Android devices in Italy and Kazakhstan.
The spyware has been developed by an Italian vendor called RCS Lab. Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) put out a detailed blog post recently, explaining how they believed Hermit was used to target devices.

Notes:
The National Insurance Awareness Day is observed on 28 June annually to make people aware about the benefits of investing in an insurance plan
After a huge fire in London, Nicholas Barbon set up the first fire insurance company in 1666 AD. Since then, the insurance market has expanded to several new sectors.