Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
Pakistan’s Cabinet endorsed the country’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP), which emphasised that economic progress should be at the center of national security.
The Cabinet has adopted the document which was approved by the high-powered National Security Committee (NSC). The Policy is a five-year policy document covering the period 2022-26.

Notes:
Portuguese football legend Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue has been unveiled in Panaji, Goa to motivate the younger generation towards sports.
This is the first time that the statue of Cristiano Ronaldo has been installed in India. The statue, which weighs around 410 kgs cost around Rs 12 Lakhs.

Notes:
The Indian Army has set up a ‘Quantum computing laboratory and a Centre for artificial intelligence (AI)’ at Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.
The centres will carry out research in developing transformative technologies to be used by the armed forces. It has been established by the Indian Army, with support from the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).

Notes:
Senkaku Island is an uninhabited island chain in the East China Sea that has been administered by Japan for several decades. China and Japan are claiming the island.
Senior Defence officials from Japan and China held their first high-level dialogue and agreed to establish a hotline in order to avoid physical conflict. China calls the Senkaku island group as Diaoyu and says it has a historical claim.

Notes:
Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM).
ISM is an independent business division within the Digital India Corporation. It aims to build a robust semiconductor and display ecosystem in India. A financial support of up to 50 per cent of the project cost is approved for setting up variants of semiconductor fab in India. A financial support for six years is given from the date of approval.

Notes:
The GST Council decided to defer the increase in the rate for textiles to 12% from 5%. It has referred the matter to a panel of Ministers, to review Rate Rationalisation.
The GST on all readymade textile items, except those made with cotton, was earlier hiked to 12 per cent. The GST on footwear, except those below Rs 1,000, was also hiked to 12 per cent from 5 per cent. State representatives from Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu opposed the hike.

Notes:
India’s first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine for COVID-19 is CORBEVAXTM.
The vaccine, which has been developed by Biological E Limited, has recently received the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approval for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and its PSU Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), have supported Biological E’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Notes:
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has received a total of 31,000 complaints of crimes committed against women in the year 2021, which is the highest in number since 2014. There is an increase in complaints by 30% in the year 2021 in comparison to 2020.
Among the total complaints, more than half of them have been received from Uttar Pradesh state which has the highest number of complaints, followed by Delhi.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of Union Cabinet has approved the appointment of  Vinay Kumar Tripathi as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Railway Board.
Presently, he is serving as the General Manager, North Eastern Railway. He is an 1983 batch Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE).

Notes:
The girl child savings scheme Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana will earn 7.6% as interest as of January 2022.
The Government of India has recently announced that the interest rates on small savings schemes will remain unchanged for Q4 2020-21, including NSC and PPF which would earn 7.1 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.