Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2022

Notes:
A common ‘Rashtriya Puruskar’ Portal has been developed by the Government of India, to bring all the Awards of the various Ministries/Departments/Agencies of the Government of India under one digital platform.
This Portal aims to facilitate citizens to nominate individuals or organizations for various Awards instituted by the Government of India. Recently the Government invited nominations for ‘Vayoshreshtha Samman’ and ‘Padma’ awards.

Notes:
INS Sumedha is an indigenously built Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel and is is part of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam.
As part of the Indian Navy’s Long Range Deployment in the South Eastern Indian Ocean, INS Sumedha, is on a visit to Port Tanjung Benoa, Bali, en route to Perth, Australia, to coincide with India’s Independence Day. The ship undertook a Maritime Partnership Exercise the vessel of the Indonesian Navy.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a list of states, Union Territories and districts dominated by different minority communities for extending priority sector lending schemes implemented by scheduled commercial banks.
At present, the Union Minority Affairs has classified Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and Jains as ‘minority communities’. The RBI has listed 121 districts where the minority population component is at least 25 per cent as well as the states of Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep.

Notes:
For the first time, a U.S. Navy Ship arrived in India for carrying out repairs and services at Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T) Shipyard at Kattupalli, Chennai.
The ship will undergo maintenance activities at the Shipyard for 11 days. This is seen as a new dimension to the Indo-U.S. strategic partnership.

Notes:
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was honoured with the ‘dPal rNgam Duston’ award, the highest civilian honour of Ladakh.
The sixth award was conferred by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh to Dalai Lama, for his immense contribution to humanity, especially towards the union territory.

Notes:
‘Peninsular Rock Agama’ (Psammophilus dorsalis) is a type of garden lizard which has a strong presence in southern India.
A study carried out by researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru shows that habitat loss and other features of urbanisation have affected the presence of the animal in urban centres. The presence of these ectotherms indicates warmer patches in the city as well as presence of insects.

Notes:
American tennis legend Serena Williams has announced that she will retire from professional tennis at the age of 40.
Serena Williams won her first major title at the 1999 US Open, when she was 17. Since then, she won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any woman in the Open Era. She won her last Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open when she was eight weeks’ pregnant. Serena has 73 WTA titles overall and 14 major doubles titles with sister Venus Williams.

Notes:
The Chhattisgarh government implemented the extension of panchayat rights in scheduled areas (PESA Rule-2022) on World Tribal Day.
With the implementation of the PESA Act, 50% of the members of the Gram Sabha will be from the tribal community. Out of this 50 percent, 25 percent will be women members. The state government enacted rules under a central Act to protect interest of tribals and enhance power of gram sabhas.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released guidelines to strengthen the regulatory framework for digital lending activities.
RBI also specified that the lending business can only be carried out by entities regulated by the central bank or those permitted under the law. This has been released in an effort to mitigate the concerns from credit delivery through digital lending methods.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently unveiled ‘SPARK’, a virtual space tech park, as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
It was launched by ISRO Chairman S Somanath and the virtual space museum hosts several documents, images and videos related to launch vehicles, satellites, scientific missions as well as pioneers of India’s space sector.