Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced over one lakh internship opportunities through AICTE internship portal to enhance employability. The programme was launched by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Technical students as well as higher education students can apply for the internships provided by Salesforce, CISCO, and Mahatma Gandhi National Council for Rural Education (MGNCRE) among others.

Notes:
India and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Indian public sector Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to set up a state of the art Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo.
The agreement is a part of India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for all in the Region) initiative in the Indian Ocean. The MoU enhances co-operation on maritime security between the two countries in a part of the Indian Ocean region.

Notes:
The Finance Ministry announced that the Union government is looking to raise Rs 8.45 lakh crore through borrowings in the first half of 2022-23.
The borrowing is set to be made to fund the revenue gap for reviving the economy. Out of the market borrowing of Rs 14.31 lakh crore estimated for the next financial year, Rs 8.45 lakh crore is planned to be borrowed in the first half or April-September period.

Notes:
As per the data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed the 500-crore mark in terms of volume.
In March this year, UPI was close to touching the ₹10-lakh crore milestone in value terms in March this year. There were around 315 banks live on the UPI platform by March this year.

Notes:
A report by the World Wildlife Fund showed that the illegal online trade of wildlife is growing in Myanmar, which is seen as a threat both to public health and to endangered species.
The report found that enforcement of bans on such transactions has weakened amid political crisis following a 2021 military takeover. Out of the 173 species traded, 54 are threatened with global extinction. The animals included elephants, bears and gibbons, Tibetan antelope, critically endangered pangolins and an Asian giant tortoise.

Notes:
HDFC Bank and HDFC Limited recently announced the merger of the two entities. HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by assets, has a market cap of Rs 8.35 trillion.
HDFC Limited, India’s largest housing finance company with Assets Under Management (AUM) worth Rs 5.26 trillion and a market cap of Rs 4.44 trillion will merge with HDFC Bank. The subsidiary or associates of HDFC Limited will also be transferred to HDFC Bank, after regulatory approvals.

Notes:
Ministry of Finance oversees the ‘Stand Up India Scheme’, which aims to promote entrepreneurship among women, Scheduled Castes (SC) & Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories, to help them in starting a Greenfield enterprise.
The scheme has completed six years and loans worth more than ₹30,160 crore have been sanctioned in the last six years. Over 1.33 lakh new entrepreneurs have been facilitated and more than 1 lakh women promoters have benefitted from this Scheme during the last six years.

Notes:
Om Birla, Speaker, Lok Sabha recently inaugurated the exhibition on India’s freedom struggle, organised by Indian Council of Historical Research under the aegis of Ministry of Education in Parliament Library.
Ministry of Culture in association with State Governments will showcase this exhibition at 100 locations across the country and through digital platforms.

Notes:
The United States, Britain and Australia announced that they would begin collaborating on hypersonic missile strike and defence capacity.
This is in response to their rivals Russia and China advancing rapidly in the hypersonic technology. The countries would work on hypersonics in an expansion of their AUKUS defence alliance. This will equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines to counter China’s growing military activities.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the state-wide ‘School Chalo Abhiyan’ from district Shravast.
The campaign of the state government aims to achieve 100 percent enrolment in primary and upper primary schools. The state government has also asked MLAs to adopt a school for the development of schools.