Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
In the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievement 2021 award list released, IIT Madras was named the most innovative educational institute of India in the technical category.
IIT-M has retained the top rank for three years in a row. Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, College of Engineering, Pune and PSG College of Technology topped in their respective categories. Under ‘non-technical institutions’, the top central universities were IGNOU and IIM, Kozhikode.

Notes:
Mohammed Shami recently achieved the milestone of 200 Test wickets, during the first Test against South Africa.
The 31-year-old bowler is third-fastest among Indian pacers to reach the landmark, as he achieved this feat in his 55th Test match. He is only behind Kapil Dev (434), Ishant Sharma (311), Zaheer Khan (311), and Javagal Srinath (236), at present.

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:
Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah is the Prime Minister of Kuwait. Kuwait has recently formed a new cabinet with a new finance minister and three opposition legislators.
This is the Gulf country’s third cabinet this year after the previous governments resigned in the standoff. The cabinet has only one female minister. It includes three opposition MPs and one pro-government lawmaker.

Notes:
Ace Tennis Player Novak Djokovic from Serbia was named the Best Balkan Athlete of the year for a record seventh time.
The 34-year-old player is ranked No. 1 in the world and won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments this year. Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo was second in the poll, followed by another Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglu.

Notes:
Iran has launched a satellite carrier rocket ‘Simorgh’ bearing three research devices into space, as per the country’s media.
‘Simorgh’ translates to ‘Phoenix’ in Iran language. The country has launched the devices at an altitude of 470 kilometres (290 miles). United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions against Iran.

Notes:
The Pakistan Government has confirmed the purchase of at least 25 Chinese J-10C fighter jets for the Pakistan Air Force.
Pakistan claims these jets as an alternative to France’s Rafale fighter jets owned by India. Pakistan also has a fleet of US-made F-16s jets.

Notes:
Three Indian-origin Canadians have been bestowed with the Order of Canada, which is considered as one of the country’s highest civilian honours.
The three personalities were among the 135 individuals, honoured for their achievements and for promoting bilateral ties between Canada and India.

Notes:
Food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato will have to collect and deposit tax at 5% rate from January 1, 2022.
At present, only those restaurants registered under GST are collecting and depositing the tax. Cab aggregators like Uber and Ola will have to collect 5% Goods and Services Tax for booking 2 and 3 wheeler vehicles.

Notes:
A Professor and Research Scholar Department of Physics at Kerala University, have developed fifth-generation (5G) microwave absorbers, which can be used as an effective shield against electromagnetic radiation
The electromagnetic interference (EMI) is known to be dangerous to the health of living organisms. It also affects the high-end electronic devices. They used new shielding material, ‘mayenite electride’ for microwave absorption in high frequency region.