Test: February 2022 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) awarded ‘Most Dependable Public Sector in India award 2022’ to Coal India Limited (CIL), an organization under Ministry of Coal during Energy Meet & Excellence Awards 2022 ceremony in Kolkata, West Bengal.
About The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India
(ASSOCHAM): Establishment – 1920
Headquarters – New Delhi, Delhi
President – Vineet Agarwal

The Government of India(GoI) has nominated Sanjay Malhotra, the Secretary of the Department of Financial Services(DFS), under the Ministry of Finance, as the Director of the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with effect from 16th February 2022 and until further orders.

• He has also been nominated as the Director on the central board of directors of State Bank of India (SBI), with immediate effect and until further order.
• He has served as the Chairman & Managing Director of REC Limited(formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited).

Madhya Pradesh (MP) Governor Mangubhai Patel Inaugurated the Week long 48th Khajuraho Dance Festival in Khajuraho, located in Chhatarpur district, MP. The 48th edition of Khajuraho Dance Festival will be held from 20th to 26th February, 2022.

• The Khajuraho Dance Festival is organised annually by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, Culture’ Department through Ustad Alauddin Khan Sangeet and Kala Academy, Madhya Pradesh Sanskriti Parishad, Bhopal
• The festival will be presenting artists with the ‘National Kalidas Award’ for dance for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 and the ‘MP State Rupankar Kala Award’ at this ceremony.
• On the first day, disciples of the late ‘Pandit Birju Maharaj’ will perform which will be the centre of attraction.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has reconstituted its Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee (AIPAC), which has now 20 members and will be chaired by Infosys co-founder Nagavara Ramarao (NR) Narayana Murthy.

• The committee advises SEBI on a range of issues that impact further development of the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) industry, and startup ecosystem in India. It also advises SEBI on issues which need to be taken up with other regulators for development of the AIF.

Note- Constituted by SEBI in 2015 with 22 members, the panel has submitted three reports on the AIF.

CM of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma launched India’s first Night Navigation mobile application (app) for ferry services on the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati, Assam.

• It was developed by the State Transport Department in association with K Raju, the principal scientist of IIT Madras.
• The first night journey of the IWT (Inland Water Transport) ferry between Guwahati and North Guwahati was started on 19 February 2022.
• An MoU was also signed between the Common Service Centres (CSCs) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and State Transport Department to provide online services at the panchayat level.

Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Rural Development, launched the Rural Connectivity GIS (Geographic Information System) Data in Public Domain in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Delhi.

• As a part of the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), GIS data for more than 8 lakh rural facilities as points, 10 lakh habitations and 25 lakh Km of rural roads have been collected and digitized using the GIS platform developed for the PMGSY.
• The National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), the nodal implementing agency of PMGSY has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with 3 GIS Firms.
• NRIDA is also collaborating with Gati Shakti for releasing Rural Connectivity GIS Data in Public Domain.

ICICI Bank signed an agreement with Verve Financial Services (VFSPL). The bank has acquired a 9.49% stake for a cash investment of INR 19.99 crore in the equity shares of VFSPL.

• The investment agreement is expected to be completed by the end of March 2022. Later, ICICI Bank will hold a 9.49% stake (on a fully diluted basis) in VFSPL through the acquisition of 2,29,600 equity shares.

About ICICI Bank:
CEO & MD– Sandeep Bakhshi
Headquarters- Vadodara, Gujarat
Founded-1994

The Central Government approved the continuation of the Central Sector Umbrella Scheme of ‘Border
Infrastructure and Management (BIM)’ over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs 13,020 crore.

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is responsible for the improvement of BIM.
• This continuation will strengthen the border infrastructure for improving border management, policing and guarding the borders.

JPMorgan Chase & co, the largest financial institution in the United States (US) has become the 1st bank to arrive in the metaverse, a virtual world based on blockchain technology with the opening of a lounge named ‘Onyx’ in blockchain technology-based virtual world Decentraland.
Onyx refers to JPMorgan’s suite of Ethereum-based services and released a report exploring how businesses can find opportunities in the metaverse.
About Metaverse:

• Metaverse is a virtual reality world where users can do multiple activities like games, shopping, and interaction with others just like they do in the real world.
• The metaverse uses Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) for interaction and has become an efficiently used technology to enhance user experience.
   

Indian Grandmaster (GM) R Praggnanandhaa defeated World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen (Norway) in the 8th round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament.

• With this victory, R Praggnanandhaa became the third Indian, after Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna, to accomplish the rare feat of defeating Magnus Carlsen.
• He became India’s youngest and world’s second youngest Grandmaster in 2018.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has acquired 0.085% additional stakes of Capri Global Capital Ltd (CGCL) through market purchase and increased its stake in CGCL from 4.959% to 5.044%.

• CGCL is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
• LIC has acquired 150000 shares (0.085%) carrying voting rights.

Priyam Gandhi-Mody authored “A Nation To Protect”, a book about the leadership of Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi tackling the Covid-19 crisis. The book was launched by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in presence of health ministry officials on 18 February, 2022.
About ‘A Nation To Protect’:

• The book speaks about Mansukh Mandaviya’s role of Fertilizers Minister during the second wave of Covid-19 by ensuring proper supplies of essential medicines and Remedisvir.
• It also speaks about Modi’s view of India to follow ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or self-reliance without depending on foreign vaccine manufacturers.

The first batch of three MH-60R Multi-Role Helicopters is expected to arrive in India in July 2022 in Kochi, Kerala. These three helicopters were already handed over by the United States (US) in 2021 but Indian pilots were using these helicopters for training purposes in Pensacola, San Diego and Florida of US.

• The MH-60R Multi-Role helicopters will replace Sea King 42/42A helicopters, which were decommissioned in the 1990s.
• These helicopters are expected to be deployed on indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
• In 2020, India signed a USD 2.2 billion deal for MH-60R helicopters built by Lockheed Martin during the visit of former U.S. President Donald Trump. All deliveries will be completed by 2025.

The indigenously developed manned underwater submersible vehicle, Matsya 6000 that is capable of taking 3 humans to a depth of 6,000 metres (m), will be ready for its launch in 2024 for the Samudrayaan Mission.

• MATSYA 6000 is an undersea submersible vehicle designed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and developed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) under the aegis of Deep Ocean Mission (DOM). The navigation and electronics aspects of the vehicle were designed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), MoES.
• Matsya 6000 is 2.1 m in diameter with a Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere of 80 mm thickness that uses battery-powered propulsion that can reach a maximum depth of 6,000 metres.
• It has an operational capacity of 12 hours and during emergencies, it can operate up to 96 hours for deep ocean exploration of non-living resources
• It will study cobalt crust, hydrothermal sulphides, hydrates and polymetallic manganese nodules in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

The government of Assam is set to launch a 4-year mentorship programme – “Project Arohan” – to mentor the students of Assam and to hone their skills.

• Himanta Biswa Sarma, CM of Assam, met with Anita Rajan, Chief Executive officer CEO) of Tata STRIVE, the skill development initiative of Tata Trusts, to seek cooperation for Project Arohan.

About Assam:
Governor- Prof. Jagadish Mukhi
National Park- Kaziranga National Park,
Dibru – Saikhowa National Park

The Ministry of Education (MoE) launched a campaign named ‘Bhasha Certificate Selfie’ to promote multilingualism and the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. It is launched to commemorate International Mother Language Day i.e Feb 21, 2022.

• This campaign is to promote the Bhasha Sangam mobile app which was developed by MoE and MyGov India.

Bhasha Sangam Initiative:

• It was launched to commemorate Rashtriya Ekta Diwas which is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel i.e 31st October.
• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education (MoE) under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. iii. It is developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). iv. Objective- To ensure that people acquire basic conversational skills in Indian languages other than their mother tongue.

New Development Bank (NBD) will become the 1st multilateral agency to open an office in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), Gujarat which will start its operation by the mid of May 2022.

• NDB also expects to partner with the newly launched National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NBFID) to support crucial infrastructure projects in India.

According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MoNRE), Tamil Nadu (TN) has achieved the first position in overall installed renewable energy capacity in India surpassing Karnataka.

• As of 31st January 2022, TN’s total installed renewable capacity stood at 15,914 MegaWatt (MW) as compared to Karnataka’s total clean energy capacity of 15,795 MW.
• Rajasthan’s overall renewable energy capacity was 14,983 MW and also the 1st state in India to cross 10,000 MW of total solar capacity and stood at 10,507 MW, followed by Karnataka (7,535 MW) and Gujarat (6,310 MW) and Tamil Nadu (4,894 MW).
• Rajasthan and Gujarat added the highest renewable capacity (4.8 GW and 2.4 GW respectively) in the current fiscal year till 31st January 2022.

Nepal and India have agreed to form a Joint Hydro Development Committee during the 9th meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG, Joint Secretary level) and the Joint Steering Committee (JSC, Secretary level) on bilateral power sector cooperation in Kathmandu, Nepal on 23rd and 24th February 2022.

• The JSC meeting was co-chaired by Alok Kumar, Power Secretary, Government of India and Devendra Karki, Energy Secretary, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Government of Nepal.
• The Committee will explore the development of viable hydropower projects in Nepal with a focus on storage. The task force will have a maximum of three members from both countries.

Former Odisha Chief Minister (CM) Hemananda Biswal passed away in Bhubaneswar, Odisha at the age of 83 years.

• He was appointed as the CM of Odisha twice (1989-1990, 1999- 2000) and also was the first tribal CM of Odisha.

Bharti Airtel Limited, also known as Airtel, has signed an agreement with Vodafone to purchase 4.7% equity interest in Indus Towers. The agreement has been signed on the condition that the amount paid shall be inducted by Vodafone as fresh equity in Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) and simultaneously remitted to Indus Towers to clear VIL’s outstanding dues.

• The deal is expected to be in the range of Rs 3,000 crore.

About Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel):
MD & CEO (India & South Asia)– Gopal Vittal
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi.

Sakibul Gani, an Indian cricketer hailing from Motihari in Bihar, created a world record by becoming the first cricketer to score a triple century on his debut in a first-class match, 2021–22 Ranji Trophy.

• He scored 341 runs with 405 balls, (56 fours& 2 sixes) representing Bihar in the plate group 2021–22 Ranji Trophy fixture against Mizoram at the Jadavpur University Campus Ground, Kolkata, West Bengal.
• Previously, the record of highest score on first-class debut was held by Ajay Rothera of Madhya Pradesh (267 runs in December 2018) and Amol Muzumdar of Mumbai (260 runs in 1993-1994).

Israel successfully test-fired its “C-Dome or Protective Dome” naval defence system based on Iron Dome which was tested against rockets, cruise missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The C-Dome was successfully tested for the first time from Saar-6 Corvette INS Magen, Israel’s Naval Warship.
About The “C-Dome or Protective Dome” Missiles:

• The C-Dome is a multilayer missile defence system, alongside the Arrow and David’s Sling systems which is capable of intercepting everything from long-range missiles to short-range rockets.
• Rafael developed the Iron Dome, a mobile all-weather air defence system.
• The C-Dome has a speed of Mach 2.2 (2716.56 kmph).

International Chess Player woman FIDE (International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation) Masters, Tanishka Kotia and her sister Riddhika Kotia are appointed as Brand Ambassadors for the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme for the Gurugram District of Haryana State.
About Tanishka Kotia & Riddhika Kotia:

• Tanishka Kotia won the Limca Book of Records for being the youngest chess player in 2008. They belong to the Haryana state.
• Tanishka Kotia ranks 2nd in the country in the under-16 category, World Chess Federation rankings released in 2019.
• She won a Gold medal at the ASEAN Chess Championship in 2013 and silver at the Commonwealth Chess Championship In 2014 in Scotland.
• Riddhika Kotia represented India at several prestigious international events, including the World Junior Chess Championship 2020.

The 6th edition of the 5-day bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) namely ‘Eastern Bridge-VI’ commenced at Jodhpur Air Force Station in Rajasthan.
Objective: This exercise is an opportunity to enhance operational capability and interoperability between the two Air Forces.
Participants:

• The Indian Air Force(IAF) has deployed a fleet of Sukhoi-30MKIs, Jaguar and Mirage-2000 fighter jets for the sixth edition of the exercise ‘Eastern Bridge’.
• The Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) has deployed its F-16 jets.