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

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) launched six food products of One District One Product (ODOP) brands under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme at Panchsheel Bhawan, New Delhi.
(i) The six food brands are Amrit Phal, Cori Gold, Kashmiri Mantra, Madhu Mantra, Somdana, and Whole Wheat Cookies of Dilli Bakes.

IRDAI set up motor insurance & Property Insurances in ‘Institute of Insurance & Risk Management (IIRM) & National Insurance Academy (NIA) to promote loss prevention in the insurance Industry.
i. IRDAI (Surety Insurance Contracts) Guidelines, 2022 was set up by IRDAI under the section 14 (2) (i) of IRDA Act, 1999.
ii. IRDAI also decided to form an advisory committee under the chairmanship of the NIA director to develop standard survey/inspection.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) annually celebrates the BIS Foundation Day on 6th January. 6th January 2022 marks the observance of the 75th BIS Foundation Day.
i. The BIS foundation day commemorates the day on which BIS came into existence as the Indian Standards Institution (ISI) (6th January 1947).
ii. The Indian Standards Institution (ISI) was established on 6th January 1947 and in June 1947 Dr Lal C. Verman took over as its first Director of ISI.
iii. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act 2016 notified on 22nd March 2016, which came into force on 12th October 2017, established BIS as the National Standards Body of India.

The Union Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh flagged-in the first multi-dimensional adventure sports expedition of India, which was conducted by the National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (NIMAS) in France.
i. The expedition was led by the Director of NIMAS Colonel Sarfaraz Singh along with 12 others which include 8 Army personnel and 4 youths of Arunachal Pradesh.
ii. The expedition team carried out over 250 Km of winter trekking in the Alps Mountain Ranges in France.

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of statistics and planning implementation (MOSPI) released the FAE of National Income at both Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices for FY22.
i. The growth in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or GDP at Constant Prices stood at 9.2% in FY22.
ii. Per capita net national income in real terms is estimated to be Rs 1,06,975 crore in FY22, lower than Rs 1,07,589 crore in FY20.

The Forest Department of Telangana launched 1st of its Kind mobile app namely ‘Urban Forest Parks’ that gives all information about theme based Urban Forest Parks and facilitates the visitors to plan their visits and journey.
i. It was launched by the state’s Forest Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy.
ii. It is developed by PamTen Software Solutions Private Limited.

NCeG 2020-21 was organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), MeitY in association with the Telangana Government.
i. During the conference 26 awards were presented while Chhattisgarh’s state labour department won golden award for e-Shramik Seva under the ‘Universalizing Access including e-Services’
ii. Hyderabad Declaration on e-Governance was adopted, which includes the Integration of all State/District portals with CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) for seamless Redressal of Public Grievances..

Edelweiss Financial Services and ECL Finance signed a co-lending agreement with Indian Bank to expand services under priority sector lending (PSL).
i. Indian Bank will provide capital support under PSL and Edelweiss Financial Services and ECL Finance will provide expertise on customer acquisition, credit assessment, servicing and robust technology which will help in expanding credit needs of customers.

Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD), also known as the “Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Day” is annually celebrated on 9th January to mark the contribution of the Overseas Indian community to the development of India & Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa on 9th January 1915.
i. Overseas Indians, also known as NRIs or Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) are people of Indian birth or ancestry who live outside the Republic of India.
ii. The first ever Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas was celebrated on 9 January 2003.

Total employment in the nine non-farm sectors is approximately 10 crore which is higher than the 3.08 crore from the first round of QES.
i. Overall percentage of female workers stood at 32.1%, higher than 29.3% during the first round of QES.
ii. The Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoL&E) released the Q2FY22 of QES survey, a part of All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES).

Axis Bank issued the industry’s 1st letter of credit (LC) on the Secured Logistics Document Exchange (SLDE), a government-backed blockchain-enabled platform (launched in July 2021).
i. The deal, which was executed digitally on the SLDE platform, involved Arcelor Mittal Nippon and Lalit Pipes & Pipes Limited (LPPL) (Axis bank’s client). The bank released an LC on behalf of LPPL.

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev nominated Alikhan Smailov as the PM of Kazakhstan and the lower house of parliament also voted in favour of him during a session that broadcasted live on state television.
i. Alikhan Smailov was appointed as the acting Prime Minister on 5 January 2022 following the resignation of the Askar Mamin Cabinet during the ongoing violent 2022 Kazakh protests.
ii. Alikhan Smailov has served as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2019.

South African (Proteas) all-rounder Chris Morris announced retirement from all forms of cricket at the age of 34, he is set to take up a coaching role for domestic cricket team – Titans in the CSA T20 Challenge.
i. Morris is the most expensive buy in the history of IPL 2021 auction, bagging Rs 16.25 crores by Rajasthan Royal.

The Ministry of Railways approved the renaming of the Kevadiya railway station under the Vadodara division of Narmada district (Gujarat) as the Ekta Nagar railway station.
i. The new station code of Ekta Nagar railway station will use the station code EKNR and the numerical code of the station will be 08224620.
ii. The railway station is the key to reach the World’s tallest ‘Statue of Unity’ (height 182 m) that is located in Kevadiya, Gujarat.

HDFC Bank was named as the ‘Best Private Bank’ in India at the ‘Global Private Banking Awards 2021’ which was organized by Professional Wealth Management (PWM) in a virtual ceremony.
i. The award was given for contributing to accelerate key trends, including digitalisation, communication and investment in environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies.

Puducherry hosted the 25th National Youth Festival for the year 2022. The festival was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.
i. The virtual edition of the National Youth Festival, organized by the Department of Youth Affairs, will be held from 12th and 13th January 2022.
ii. Tag-line: ‘Shaksham Yuva Shashakth Yuva’ meaning Capable Youth- Forceful Youth, Able Youth- Strong Youth.

Ministry of Commerce & Industry addressed the 16th IDS 2022 with the theme of Supercharging Startups.
i. The Summit was organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
ii. During the summit, Creating 10 million Digitally Enabled Microentrepreneurs reports was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
iii. He also unveiled ‘LEAP’ (“Leverage, Encourage, Access & Promote”) as the way forward for Startups.

Adani Group has signed a non-binding MoU with POSCO, a South Korean steel-making company, to explore business cooperation opportunities in sectors like Steel, Renewable energy and others.
The investment under the MoU is estimated to be up to USD 5 billion(~Rs 37000 crore).
About POSCO:
POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd) was launched on 1st April 1968.
CEO- Jeong-Woo Choi
Headquarters- Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk, Republic of Korea(South Korea)

Tasnim Mir became the first Indian to grab World no 1 in Under-19 Girls Singles category with 10,810 points in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) Junior rankings. She is followed by Mariia Golubeva from Russia and Lucia Rodriguez from Spain.
i. In 2021, she won 3 Junior International Tournaments held in Bulgaria, France and Belgium, which helped her climb up to No.1 position.
ii. She is currently ranked 602 in Women’s Singles in BWF.
Note – The World No.1 position in Boy’s Singles is shared by Lakshya Sen, Siril Verma and Aditya Joshi.

The Former West Indies Captain Clive Lloyd received Knighthood from Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge at Windsor Castle, for his services towards the game of cricket.
i. Clive Lloyd led the West Indies to victory over Australia at Lords in the final of the inaugural Cricket World Cup tournament in 1975.
ii. On the same day, England’s world cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan was awarded with CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Prince William for his services towards the game of cricket.

YES Asset Management has been renamed as the White Oak Capital Asset Management with effect from 12th January 2022. In line with this, Yes Mutual Fund has been renamed as White Oak Capital Mutual Fund.
i. In November 2021, the White Oak Capital group announced the completion of the transaction to acquire the mutual fund business of Yes Bank.
ii. White Oak Group, founded by Prashant Khemka, former CIO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s India Equity and Global Emerging Markets Equity businesses, provides investment management and advisory services for equity assets of over Rs 42000 crore.

University of California-Berkeley economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas has been appointed as the Economic Counsellor and Head of Research Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
i. He will succeed Gita Gopinath, who is set to join the IMF’s management team as First Deputy Managing Director.
ii. He is also Program Director of International Finance and Macroeconomics at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

On the occasion of the 79th Inauguration Day of the UCO Bank, it enter a partnership with NPCI to launch the ‘UCO Bank RuPay Select Contactless Debit Card’ with a host of benefits for its premium/HNI (High Networth Individuals) customers.
i. The card offers an ATM withdrawal limit of Rs 50000 along with a purchase of up to Rs 2 lakh at POS (Point of Sale) or E-Commerce.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) appointed Kuwait’s oil executive Haitham Al Ghais as the new Secretary General (SG). He will succeed Nigeria’s Mohammad Barkindo.
i. He is appointed for a three year tenure (2022-2025) and will take the charge as the SG from 1st August 2022.

The RBI sets up a separate internal department for fintech (Financial technology) by subsuming the fintech division of DPSS (department of payment and settlement systems), Central Office (CO) to facilitate innovation, and help identify, address challenges and opportunities in the fintech sector.
i. Ajay Kumar Choudhary, who was recently promoted as the Executive Director of RBI was appointed as head of the department.