Current Affairs Quiz - March 2022

Notes:
Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the Data-Driven Research to Eradicate TB named “Dare2eraD TB” by the Department of Biotechnology, on World TB Day.
“Dare2eraD TB” will be the umbrella TB program comprising initiatives like, Indian Tuberculosis Genomic Surveillance Consortium, Indian TB Knowledge Hub- Webinar Series and Host Directed therapies against TB and Evidence-based procedure for treating extra-pulmonary TB.

Notes:
The country has over 50,000 ODF plus villages, the government recently announced. An ODF plus village is one that sustains its open-defecation-free status, ensures solid and liquid waste management and is visually clean.
The top-performing states include Telangana with 13,960 ODF Plus villages; Tamil Nadu with 11,477; Madhya Pradesh with 3,849.

Notes:
A Marine Mammals Research (MMR) team of the Department of Environment and Forest in Lakshadweep has reported the first-ever live sighting of rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) in Indian waters.
During their diversity and distribution monitoring surveys, the marine mammal research team witnessed the species at Cheriyapani and later at Kavaratti.

Notes:
In the 94th Academy Awards, Sian Heder’s ‘CODA’ created history by becoming the first movie from a major streaming service to win an Oscar for best picture.
Will Smith was declared the best actor for ‘King Richard,’ and Jessica Chastain won the best actress award.  Ariana DeBose created history by becoming the first queer woman of colour to bag the award for the film ‘West Side Story’.

Notes:
The renowned hydrologist Wilfried Brutsaert is awarded the Stockholm Water Prize 2022 for his outstanding work to quantify environmental evaporation.
Professor Emeritus Wilfried Brutsaert, fondly known as Mr Evaporation, is the world’s leading authority on terrestrial evaporation. His works help to make accurate predictions of the impact that climate change has on local rainfall patterns and water sources.

Notes:
Recently, a record 1,14,305 Olive Ridley turtles arrived at the Rushikulya river mouth for their annual mass nesting. The Rushikulya beach is located in Odisha’s Ganjam district.
In spite of concerns over erosion in coastal areas due to high tide, this year marked a record mass nesting. Last year, the beach did not witness such mass nesting.

Notes:
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished passport and other border control at their mutual borders.
The area has a common visa policy and is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg. Recently, many countries have lifted Covid-19 entry rules for the EU/Schengen Area Travellers.

Notes:
As many as 313 central sector and centrally sponsored schemes from 53 ministries have been onboarded on the DBT Bharat Portal.
The Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) programme was launched to bring transparency through the transfer of subsidies to the beneficiaries through their bank accounts. There were 98 crore beneficiaries (cash) and 81.9 crore beneficiaries (kind) in 2020-21.

Notes:
The Union Government has appointed CS Rajan as Chairman and Managing Director of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) for a period of six months.
Till March-end, the company has resolved debt amounting to Rs 55,000 crore. Out of which, Rs 21,000 crore has been discharged by way of monetisation of assets and debt repayment. The resolved debt amounts to 90% of the total debt that was expected to be resolved.

Notes:
Tipu Sultan commissioned numerous significant paintings and many of those are being auctioned at huge sums.
A painting titled ‘The Battle of Pollilur’ is expected to fetch between £5,00,000 and £8,00,000. It is a 32-foot long monumental painting depicting the victory of the Mysore army led by Haidar Ali and his son Tipu, against the British troops of the East India Company in the Battle of Pollilur, 1780.