Current Affairs Quiz - March 2022

Notes:
The United States Senate unanimously passed a law making daylight saving time (DST) permanent. It has scrapped the biannual practice of putting clocks forward and back coinciding with the arrival and departure of winter.
After it is signed into a law, the practice of turning clocks back by an hour to standard time every November will stop and DST (which starts in March) will be in effect all year round.

Notes:
Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida held talks in New Delhi during the India-Japan Annual Summit 2022.
After the Meet, the Indian Prime Minister announced that Japan is set to invest 5 trillion yen or Rs 3.2 lakh crore in India over next 5 years. This is Japan PM’s first visit to India as the head of the Japanese government.

Notes:
NMDC Limited (erstwhile National Mineral Development Corporation) is a mineral producer, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India.
It is India’s largest iron ore producer and exporter, producing more than 35 million tonnes of iron ore. NMDC has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur for drone-based mineral exploration.

Notes:
The Narasingapettai Nagaswaram from Tamil Nadu has earned the Geographical Indication (GI) tag under ‘musical instruments of class 15’.
The instrument is handmade in Narasingapettai village in Thanjavur, unlike the other machine-made ones. A type of Ebony wood is chosen, which is 200 years old and does not absorb moisture. The reeds are made from the leaves of a locally grown plant named Naanal (Bamboo).

Notes:
40-year-old Serdar Berdymukhamedov has won the Presidential Election of Turkmenistan. He is the son of the country’s leader.
Berdymukhamedov secured 72.97 percent of votes in the recently held election and succeeded his father Gurbanguly, as per the Central Election Commission. Turkmenistan is a gas-rich country in Central Asia.

Notes:
Former India cricketer Suresh Raina was felicitated with the prestigious ‘Sports Icon’ award at the Maldives Sports Awards 2022.
He was nominated along with 16 international sportspersons, including former Sri Lankan captain and cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya, former Real Madrid player Roberto Carlos, Jamaican Sprinter Asafa Powell and Dutch football legend Edgar Davids.

Notes:
NITI Aayog organized the fifth edition of the Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards in March 2022. As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the WTI Awards were conferred on 75 women achievers to celebrate their contribution towards a ‘Sashakt Aur Samarth Bharat’.
The 75 awardees were chosen on the basis of nominations received on NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), and through shortlisting by a search-and-select committee.

Notes:
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test fired the surface-to-surface BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The extended range missile hit its target with pinpoint accuracy. One of the missiles earlier misfired due to a technical malfunction from an Indian Air Force unit during a Command Air Staff Inspection (CASI).

Notes:
The ‘India TB Report 2022’ was recently released by the Union Health Minister. As per the report, India reported a sharp 19 per cent rise in tuberculosis cases in 2021 over the previous year.
The total number of incident TB patients notified during 2021 were around 19 lakhs as opposed to that of 16 lakhs in 2020. There has been an increase in the mortality rate due to TB between 2019 and 2020 by 11 per cent in India.

Notes:
Lok Sabha Member and Actor Hema Malini asked the government if it has any plan to encourage artists from Mathura-Vrindavan involved in Sanjhi art.
Sanjhi art is a unique craft form that features exquisite designs and picture motifs, cut into paper. Originated in Mathura in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Sanjhi painting is also practised in Vrindavan.