Current Affairs Quiz - May 2022

Notes:
The largest and most successful counter-insurgency operation in the country ever, Operation Dudhi was held in 1991 by the Assam Rifles troop.
Eight surviving personnel of the Assam Rifles eliminated 72 insurgents and captured 13 others alive in a single operation in Jammu and Kashmir. All eight surviving personnel of the Assam Riffles and family members of two others who died in the operation were felicitated by the Assam Rifles.

Notes:
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and UAE’s DP World to develop Skill India International Centre at Varanasi.
Skill India International Centres provide high-quality training to the Indian youth. NSDC also signed an MoU with Medhavi Skills University to promote skill-embedded degree/diploma courses among students who have completed either Class 10 or 12.

Notes:
Google has recently added 8 Indian languages including Assamese, Bhojpuri, Sanskrit, Dogri, Konkani, Meiteilon (Manipuri), Mizo, and Maithili.
Google has added 24 more languages to its Google Translate language translation tool, covering a total of 133 languages used around the world. Google is also adding Quechua (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador), Guarani (Paraguay and Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina), and Aymara (Bolivia, Peru, and Chile) for the first time.

Notes:
The rocket carrying NASA’s Endurance mission was successfully launched from Norway. According to NASA, the Endurance mission will attempt to measure Earth’s global electric potential.
As the electric potential is expected to be very weak, it is difficult to measure. It is also considered as one reason Earth can support life. The mission will measure electrons escaping from Earth’s atmosphere.

Notes:
NITI Aayog launched the National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) for open public use. The platform aims to democratize access to public government data by making data accessible, interactive, and available on a user-friendly platform.
It presents foundational datasets from various government agencies and provides tools for analytics and visualization. This public launch follows a beta release of the platform in August 2021 that had provided access to a limited number of users for testing and feedback.

Notes:
The Indian Government has banned wheat exports with effect from May 13, citing a risk to food security, partly due to the war in Ukraine.
Wheat prices in India have risen to record highs, well above the government’s minimum support price. India’s wheat harvest has also suffered from record heat-wave. Rising food and energy prices pushed India’s retail inflation to an eight-year high in April.

Notes:
The researchers at the University of Florida (UF) in the US demonstrated that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil.
Plants were grown in Moon’s soil, also known as lunar regolith, brought back to Earth by astronauts in the Apollo missions. Arabidopsis plant is used in the research as its genetic code is fully mapped. This is a step towards producing food and oxygen on the Moon during future space missions.

Notes:
Devasahayam Pillai, who was born in Tamil Nadu became the first Indian layman to be declared a saint by the Vatican.
Besides Devasahayam, the Pope proclaimed five other men and four women as saints. Devasahayam was born as a Hindu and converted to Christianity in the 18th century and assumed the name ‘Lazarus’. While preaching, he insisted on the equality of all people, despite caste differences.

Notes:
On May 15, the United Nations celebrates International Families Day worldwide. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day in 1993.
For the International Day of Families 2022, the UN Secretary-General has chosen the theme of “Families and Urbanization.” The focus for this year is to increase awareness of the importance of family-friendly and sustainable urban policies.

Notes:
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has released a report on ‘Circular Economy in Municipal Solid and Liquid Waste.’
At present, India generates 1.4 lakh tonnes of solid waste daily out of which 35 per cent is dry waste. This report has estimated that proper municipal wet, solid, and construction waste treatment can generate around Rs 30,000 crore revenue annually.