Test: April 2022 Weekly Current Affair - 2 - UPSC MCQ

Manila-based Asian Development Bank recently released its flagship Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022.
It projected South Asia’s largest economy India to grow by 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal year (2022-23) and by eight per cent the next year (2023-24). It also estimated a seven per cent collective growth for South Asian economies in 2022. South Asia comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology formed a 17 member advisory committee to guide the Rs 76,000 crore-Semiconductor Mission.
The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw will be the Chairperson of the committee. NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat, Principal Scientific Advisor, and Secretaries from the Ministry of External affairs, Departments of expenditure, economic affairs, and promotion of industry and internal trade, will be members of the committee.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained an accommodative stance and cut the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for the 2022-23 to 7.2 per cent, against the earlier projection of 7.8 per cent.
The inflation forecast has also been hiked from 4.5 per cent to 5.7 per cent for the FY 2022-23. The reasons are excessive volatility in global crude oil prices and extreme uncertainty over the evolving geopolitical tensions.

As per RBI, Card-less cash withdrawal, which was offered only by a few banks, will now be made available across all banks and ATMs via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
UPI will be used for customer authorisation and this step is expected to enhance ease of transactions and eliminate frauds.

Gujarat has topped NITI Aayog State Energy and Climate Index-(SECI) Round 1 among larger states. It is followed by Kerala and Punjab. Among the smaller states, Goa topped the index.
The index ranks the states and union territories on six parameters — discoms performance, access affordability and reliability of energy, clean energy initiatives, energy efficie­ncy, environmental sustainability and new initiatives.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) revised down its forecast for global trade growth in 2022-23 to 3% from 4.7%.
The slash is because of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. WTO also warned of a potential food crisis caused by surging prices. It also forecasted that the global trade growth in 2023 would rise up to 3.4%.

April 7 is observed as World Health Day, to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 in the First Health Assembly.
WHO leads the celebration to discuss health-related issues and to draw attention to specific health issues. The theme for this year’s World Health Day is “Our Planet, Our Health”.

The Delhi government included electric cycles under its Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy and announced that it will offer a subsidy of 5,500 each to the first 10,000 buyers.
This will include both passenger and cargo e-cycles with a speed of less than 25 km/hour. The first 10,000 buyers will get 25 per cent of the purchase incentive on buying the e-cycle.

The National Health Authority (NHA) was set-up to implement the set-up to implement the PM-JAY at the national level.
The National Health Authority has recently launched a new version of the Health Benefit Package, 2022, under the PM JAY. It added 365 new procedures to take the total to 1,949.  It also introduces differential pricing under the scheme based on the type of city and level of care.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Washington DC as part of his five-day US visit which includes the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.
2+2 dialogue involves meetings between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and their respective American counterparts. Ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between India and the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden.

PM-DAKSH (Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi) Yojana, implemented by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, is a National Plan for the skilling of marginalized persons.
The main objective of the scheme is to increase the skill levels of the target youth by providing for long-term and short-term skills, followed by an employment/self-employment. Around 2.71 Lakh persons will be trained over 5 years. Rs.79.48 crore was allocated for 2021-22.

The Centre’s asset monetisation drive mopped up 12% more than the target set for FY22, due to the strong performance of the coal and mineral blocks, highway stretches and power transmission lines.
In aggregate, revenues and investments mobilised from asset monetisation in 2021-22 stood at 96,000 crore, which will go up by at least 4,000 crore. The monetisation target was 88,200 crore for FY22, the first year of the 6-trillion four-year National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP)

The World Bank released the April 2022 update ‘Braving the Storms: East Asia and Pacific Economic Update’.
As per the report, there are three risks for the region:  financial tightening in the U.S., structural slowdown in China, and the war in Ukraine. The April 2022 issue of the report suggests bold reforms to avert the risks and grasp the opportunities.

Astronomers have recently found a near-identical twin of Jupiter which is located at a similar distance from its star as Jupiter is from our Sun.
Named K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, the exo-planet located 17,000 light-years from Earth, has been detected by a team of astrophysicists using data obtained by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Scientists used Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and a method known as gravitational micro-lensing to spot this object.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has recently launched Airport as Venue for skilled artisans Of The Region (AVSAR) scheme.
It aims to allocate space to Self Help Groups (SHGs) at its airports for selling or showcasing the self-made products of their region. Under this scheme, an area of 100-200 square feet has been earmarked at each AAI-operated airport.

President Ramnath Kovind inaugurated the annual Madhavpur Mela, the five-day cultural fair, in the coastal village of Madhavpur in Gujarat.
The fair celebrates the marriage of Hindu deity Lord Krishna with Rukmini. Similar events are being organised across Gujarat and in eight Northeast states. From 2018, in association with the Union Ministry of Culture, the Gujarat government started organising events during the fair.

As part of the Seema Darshan project, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated an Indo-Pakistan border viewing point in Nadabet in Gujarat.
Located in the Rann of Kutch region, this place is also known as the ‘Wagah of Gujarat’. Civilians get access to view the fenced international border with Pakistan at ‘Zero Point’, which is guarded round the clock by the Border Security Force (BSF).

India and the US have decided to establish a new ‘India-US Education and Skills Development Working Group’.
It aims to further strengthen cooperation in the field of education and skill development through joint collaborations. The Group also promote student and scholar mobility to build people-to-people linkages. It is issued a part of the joint statement issued after the fourth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.

India’s agricultural products export touched a new milestone by crossing USD 50 billion in the year 2021-22.
This is also the highest level ever achieved for agriculture exports from India. The agricultural exports have grown by 19.92% during 2021-22 to touch USD 50.21 billion. As per the data, the highest ever exports have been achieved for staples like rice (USD 9.65 billion), wheat (USD 2.19 billion), sugar (USD 4.6 billion).

According to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the frequency and intensity of forest fires have increased in the past two decades.
The study, ‘Managing Forest Fires in a Changing Climate’, found that there has been a ten-fold increase in forest fires in the past two decades. More than 62 per cent of Indian states are prone to high-intensity forest fires. Mizoram had the highest number of forest fires in the last two decades, with more than 95 per cent of its districts being forest fire hotspots.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted Animation, visual effects, gaming and comic (AVGC) Promotion task force, which will recommend a national curriculum framework for higher studies in these segments.
The AVGC Promotion task force will be headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. It will have Secretaries of–Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Department of Higher Education; Ministry of Education; Ministry of Electronics and IT, and DPIIT.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) Leader Shehbaz Sharif was sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, after a no-confidence motion was introduced against his predecessor Imran Khan.
Sharif was elected unopposed after rival candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced that his party will boycott the voting and staged a walkout. Shehbaz, the younger brother of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected as the country’s 23rd Prime Minister.

The United Nations General Assembly established April 12 to be the International Day of Human Space Flight. On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.
The International Day of Human Space Flight is commemorates this occasion, which paved the way for space exploration for the benefit of humanity.

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the “Svanidhi se Samriddhi” programme in 126 additional cities across 14 states and Union territories.
“Svanidhi se Samriddhi”, an additional programme of PM Svanidhi, was launched last year in 125 cities under the first phase, covering around 35 lakh street vendors and their families. PM Svanidhi aims at providing an affordable working capital loan to street vendors.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Ax-1, a mission from Houston-based Company Axiom Space. It is the first fully private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
The four-member crew officially began a ten-day journey that will include eight days aboard the International Space Station. Their capsule is known as Endeavour.