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

Defence secretary Ajay Kumar launched INS Vagsheer, the sixth Scorpene-class submarine under Project-75. It is named after the sand fish, a predator of the Indian Ocean.
The Mazagon Dock has already delivered four Scorpene-class submarines under the project to the Indian Navy – INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj and INS Vela. The fifth submarine ‘Vagir’ is under trial at sea, and is set to be commissioned before the end of this year.

The Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22, to sensitise people to protect the environment, restore damaged ecosystems and live a more sustainable life.
Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970. It was first observed in the United States, when over 20 million people protested against the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 as ‘International Mother Earth Day’. This year, the theme is ‘Invest In Our Planet’.

Dr. Suman K Bery has been appointed new Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog. He will succeed Dr. Rajiv Kumar, as per the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
Dr. Suman K Bery had served as Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) a leading non-profit policy research institution. He also served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, National Statistical Commission and Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy.

Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship foreign policy and geo-economics conference. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the seventh edition with the chief guest Ursula von der Leyen, the President of European Union Commission.
Over 200 speakers from 90 countries are participating in the seventh edition. The conference is a joint venture of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF). This year’s theme is “Terranova: Impassioned, Impatient, and Imperilled”.

Union Ministry of External Affairs of India has recently launched a platform called the Trilateral Development Corporation (TDC).
The fund would involve private sectors with state support for investments in the Indo-Pacific region and other regions. It aims to provide an alternative to China’s Belt-Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure development strategy. UK offers 5G, nuclear and high-speed rail technologies for BRI.

NITI Aayog, as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, organized a National Level Workshop on “Innovative Agriculture” in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said ‘Natural farming is the need of the hour and it is important to identify scientific ways to assure farmers higher incomes from natural farming.’ Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parushottam Rupala, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar and Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog -Dr. Rajiv Kumar also participated in the Workshop.

Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shri Narayan Rane inaugurated the Ministry’s Mega Event- “Enterprise India” under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
It is a series of commemorative entrepreneurship development events and activities being organised to promote entrepreneurship culture and create awareness about the schemes and initiatives of Ministry of MSME across the country.

The United States Trade Representative releases the “Special 301 Report” on effectiveness of US trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The recent report has placed India, China, Russia and four other countries namely Argentina, Chile, Indonesia and Venezuela on its annual Priority Watch List. All seven countries on this year’s list were also on the last year’s list. Twenty trading partners are on the Watch List.

‘Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit 2022’ was organised by the AYUSH Ministry to seek investments into the sector and to develop India as the hub for traditional medicine practices. It is organised in the city of Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (Ayush) Ministry has received Letter of Intent (LOI) from 28 companies amounting to Rs. 6000 crores. This will help create over 5.5 lakh jobs across the country.

Government think-tank Niti Aayog has prepared a draft battery swapping policy, to support the adoption of battery-swapping, mainly in electric scooters and three-wheeler electric rickshaw.
Under the policy, NITI Aayog has proposed offering incentives to electric vehicles (EVs) with swappable batteries, subsidies to companies manufacturing swappable batteries, a new battery-as-a-service business model, and standards for interoperable batteries etc.

The Indian Coast Guard Ship (Auxiliary Barge) named Urja Pravaha has been inducted into the Indian Coast Guard at Gujarat’s Bharuch.
It will be under the operational command of Coast Guard District Headquarters-4 (Kerala and Mahe), in addition to auxiliary barge Urja Shrota, which was based here since 2017. The ship is 36 meters long and is designed to carry Cargo Ship Fuel, Aviation Fuel and Fresh Water.

Emmanuel Macron has won the Presidential Election of France amidst historic challenge from far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Macron became the first French leader to be re-elected to the Office in 20 years. The historic elections were keenly noted as it could have shattered Western alliance against Russia, and jeopardizing the survival of the European Union.

Ever since the Soviet Union conquered the Kuril Islands in 1945, the ownership has been challenged by Japan.
In the latest version of the 2022 Diplomatic Bluebook, which was published by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Northern Territories are “islands over which Japan has sovereignty, but now are illegally occupied by Russia.”

India and Maldives are planning to set up a transmission interconnection for transfer of renewable power between the two countries, to facilitate energy transition programme of Maldives.
During the meeting between Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh and his Maldives counterpart, the leaders proposed two Memoranda of Understanding — on energy cooperation and on transmission interconnection under One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG).

The Ministry of Electronics and IT launched the ‘Digital India RISC-V Microprocessor (DIR-V)’ program. It aims to enable creation of Microprocessors and achieve industry-grade Silicon and Design wins by December 2023.
It also set milestones for commercial silicon of SHAKTI & VEGA and their design wins by December 2023.  DIR-V will see partnerships with Startups, Academia and Multinationals to make India, a RISC-V Talent Hub for the World as well as supplier of RISC-V SoC (System on Chips) for Servers, Mobile devices, Automotive, IoT & Microcontrollers.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana chaired the 39th conference of Chief Justices of various High Courts of the country, at the premises of the Supreme Court, New Delhi.
The first Chief Justices’ conference was held in November 1953 and 38 such conferences have been organised so far. The last Conference was held in the year 2016. It aims to address the issues concerning the judiciary and to discuss the steps to be taken to improve the justice delivery system.

The Oil India Limited (OIL) commissioned India’s first 99.999 percent pure green hydrogen plant in the state of Assam.
OIL, the second largest national production and exploration firm commissioned the green hydrogen plant at its Jorhat Pump Station. The plant has an installed capacity of producing 10 kg of hydrogen each day. It is also India’s first plant to use AEM (anion exchange membrane).

On the occasion of Civil Services Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration.
They were instituted to recognize the extraordinary work done by Districts/implementing units and Central/State organisations for the welfare of common citizens. A total of 16 awards for 5 identified Priority Programmes and for innovations in the sphere of public administration/delivery of services etc. were given this year.

Expert panel of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has recommended granting emergency use authorisation for Corbevax for children in 5 to 12 years age group.
Developed by Hyderabad-based firm Biological-E, Corbevax is India’s first indigenously developed RBD protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19. At present, Corbevax is being given to children between 12 and 14 years. Covaxin is being given to children in the age group of 15-18 years.

The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey is conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years.
The survey, which helps to arrive at estimates of poverty levels, is set to resume this year after a prolonged break. Since 2011-12, India does not have any official estimates on per capita household spending, used to arrive at estimates of poverty levels and to review economic indicators like GDP. The government scrapped the findings of the last Survey (2017–18) for data quality issues.

The board of top micro-blogging company Twitter has agreed to a USD 44bn takeover offer from the billionaire Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of USD 273.6bn. He runs the electric vehicle maker Tesla and the aerospace firm SpaceX.

Himachal Pradesh government has signed MoU for the development of seven ropeway projects in Kangra, Kullu, Chamba, Sirmour and Bilaspur districts of the state.
The MoU was signed between Ropeways and Rapid Transport System Development Corporation (RTDC) HP Limited and National Highways Logistic Management Limited (NHLML) for the development of ropeways as innovative transport solution in Himachal Pradesh.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the continuation of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme till December 2024.
Through the scheme, affordable collateral-free loans are given to street vendors. The scheme aimed to facilitate loans for an amount of Rs 5,000 crore while the recent approval has increased the loan amount to Rs 8,100 crore.

The Union Cabinet approved an additional funding of Rs 820 crore for India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) for expansion of its services to all post offices in the country.
Out of the 1.56 lakh post offices, IPPB currently operates from 1.3 lakh post offices. Since the launch, it has opened over 5.25 crore accounts with 82 crore aggregate number of transactions. The Cabinet has approved a future fund infusion worth Rs 500 crore for meeting regulatory requirements and technological upgradation.

The ‘Khelo India University Games 2021’ is being hosted in Bengaluru from 24 April 2022 to 3 May 2022.
Over 4,500 participants from 190 universities across the country are competing with each other at the Khelo India University Games. The athletes will participate across 20 different sports including indigenous sports like Mallakhamba and yogasana during the event.