Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre decided to reduce the disturbed areas under the AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur after decades.
Centre had constituted a high-level committee to examine the possibility of lifting AFSPA in Nagaland – after the killing of 14 civilians in an army operation in December 2021. It has extended the ambit of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

Notes:
The Ministry of Environment, forest and climate change issued an order, exempting SDN1 and SDN2 genome edited plants from Rules 7-11 of the Environment Protect Act (EPA) for manufacture, use or import or export and storage of hazardous microorganisms or genetically engineered organisms or cells rules-1989.
The exemptions from the rules applicable on genetically modified or GM crops is expected to give a big boost to further research and development of genome-edited crops.

Notes:
Arunachal Pradesh signed a pact with WWF India to develop the State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (SBSAP).
The SBSAP will be aligned with the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and Pakke Declaration. The state cabinet adopted the ‘Pakke Tiger Reserve 2047 Declaration on Climate Change Resilient and Responsive Arunachal Pradesh’, last year.

Notes:
The Police Department in Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh has set up ‘She Auto’ stands, the first of its kind in the state.
It aims to provide safe transportation to women and girl students. Tirupati is the first city in the state to set up special auto stands for women.

Notes:
As per the provisions of National Education Policy-2020, the University Grants Commission(UGC) has developed a draft curricular framework and credit system for Four Years’ Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP).
The framework aims to equip students in one or more subject areas.  The draft framework has been placed in public domain for seeking suggestions from stakeholders.

Notes:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has entered into a partnership with Canada’s largest payment organisation, Payments Canada.
The partnership aims to transform its payment system operations and help in the implementation of the Real-Time Rail (RTR). RTR is a new real-time payments system that will allow Canadian users to initiate payments and receive funds in seconds at any point of the day.

Notes:
The Delhi Government has project to set up ‘Hobby Hubs’ in government schools. It includes after-school dance, music, arts and crafts activities.
For the 2022-2023 academic session, this project will be implemented in single shift government schools. The project aims to make optimum use of school infrastructure and to use it after school hours to promote extra-curricular activities.

Notes:
‘Wagner Group’, is a private military company of Russia. As per British military intelligence, 1,000 mercenaries from the ‘Wagner Group’ are being deployed to eastern Ukraine.
The group has been active over the past eight years in Ukraine, Syria and African countries. It has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. The Wagner Group first went into operation during Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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:
The World Bank released the April 2022 update ‘Braving the Storms: East Asia and Pacific Economic Update’.
As per the report, there are three risks for the region:  financial tightening in the U.S., structural slowdown in China, and the war in Ukraine. The April 2022 issue of the report suggests bold reforms to avert the risks and grasp the opportunities.