Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2022

Notes:
A Beijing-based gene firm successfully cloned a wild Arctic wolf for the first time in the world. The wild Arctic wolf is also called as the white wolf or polar wolf.
The animal is native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands. The cloning is regarded as a milestone achievement in conserving rare and endangered species. Maya’s donor cell came from skin sample of wild female Arctic wolf, while its oocyte came from a female dog. Maya’s surrogate mother is a beagle dog.

Notes:
Global Fintech Fest is being organized by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Payments Council of India (PCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC).
It was attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The Finance Minister called upon fintech industry to take advantage of opportunities in green finance for building a sustainable financial environment.

Notes:
Indian Naval Ship Ajay (P34) was decommissioned recently after 32 years of distinguished services to the nation. The decommissioning ceremony was held at Mumbai’s Naval Dockyard.
INS Ajay was an Abhay class anti-submarine warfare corvette of Western Naval Command. The ship was commissioned on January 24, 1990. It was posted on various deployments including Operation Talwar during the Kargil War in 1999 and Operation Parakram in 2001.

Notes:
‘India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI)’ is a hypertension intervention under the National Health Mission of India. It is a collaborative initiative of Union Health Ministry, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), state governments and World Health Organization-India.
IHCI won the ‘2022 UN Interagency Task Force and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award’ was announced at the UN General Assembly side event.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently released a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook (ADO).
As per the report, the 2022-23 growth projection for India’s economy was slashed to 7% from 7.5% estimated in April. The report says that India’s inflation has turned out to be more persistent than expected, and led to a sharp tightening in monetary policy, eroding consumers’ purchasing power.

Notes:
Bangladesh clinched their first-ever South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship title held in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh became champions in for the first time in the sixth edition of SAFF, ending India’s reign of five successive titles. The hosts Nepal ended the tournament as runners-up for the fifth time. Bangladesh team captain Sabina Khatun became the top scorer of the tournament with eight goals in the tournament.

Notes:
Defence Accounts Department (DAD) signed a memorandum of understanding with Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank, to onboard them as Service Centres under the System for Pension Administration (SPARSH) initiative.
The MoU will onboard around 8000 branches of Bank of Baroda and 6000 branches of HDFC Bank as Service Centres to provide last mile connectivity to pensioners.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das recently launched three key digital payment initiatives at the Global Fintech Fest 2022.
The initiatives include RuPay Credit Card on UPI, UPI LITE, Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments. Through UPI Lite on BHIM App, users will be able to make small-value transactions in near-offline mode. The upper limit of a UPI Lite payment transaction will be ₹200. The total limit of the UPI Lite digital payment mode on the wallet on a device would be ₹2,000 at any point in time.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tourism had identified 15 tourist circuits under its Swadesh Darshan scheme including Ramayana Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Coastal Circuit and Desert Circuit among others.
Union Tourism and Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy announced a special tourist train to cover the ‘Ambedkar Circuit’. The train will visit key sites associated with Dr BR Ambedkar including Mhow (his birthplace called Dr. Ambedkar Nagar in Indore), London (where he resided and studied), Nagpur (also studied here), Delhi (where he passed away) and finally Mumbai (where he was cremated.)

Notes:
As per the latest World Bank assessment, Sri Lanka ranks 5th in the highest food price inflation in the world. The list is led by Lebanon followed by Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Turkey.
Sri Lanka’s inflation surged to 70.2 per cent in August from 66.7 per cent a month ago as the country is grappling with the worst economic crisis. According to official data, food prices have risen by 84.6 per cent. In mid-April, Sri Lanka declared its international debt default due to the forex crisis.