Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
The Union Ministry of new and renewable energy extended the rooftop solar programme till March 31, 2026.
With this, subsidy under the programme will be available until the target for the scheme is achieved. All residential consumers are advised not to pay any additional charges to any vendor on account of fee for application on the National Portal or any additional charges for net-metering or testing.

Notes:
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan declared a seed farm, located in Aluva  in Kerala, as the first carbon neutral farm in the country.
Reduction in carbon emission has helped the seed farm under the Agricultural Department achieve the carbon neutral status. The total amount of carbon emission from the farm in the last one year was 43 tons but its overall procurement was 213 tons.

Notes:
Bengaluru is the host of the first G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies (FCBD) meeting from December 13 to 15.
The G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies (FCBD) meeting is jointly hosted by the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The meeting will mark the start of discussions on the Finance Track agenda under the Indian G20 presidency. The Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting will be held in Bengaluru during February 23-25 2023.

Notes:
Paleontologists have recently identified a new genus and species of titanosaurian dinosaur from the fossilized remains in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Titanosaurs had small heads, long tails and necks, and included the largest terrestrial animals known. The newly-identified species, Caieiria allocaudata, lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, between 70 and 66 million years ago.

Notes:
The Supreme Court Collegium recommended five High Court judges for appointment as judges of the top court. This is the first set of recommendations by the Collegium.
It includes the recommendation of appointment of Justice Dipankar Datta as a judge of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Collegium also recommended the elevation of three high court judges as chief justices of the high Courts of Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Gauhati.

Notes:
Dr NK Arora, chairman of the Covid working group, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) announced that India will organise a nationwide HPV immunisation drive for girls of 9-14 years by mid-2023.
India has joined a select group of countries where the HPV vaccine is to be manufactured in the next four or five months. The indigenously developed HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine CERVAVAC is an outcome of partnership of DBT and BIRAC with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, supported by Serum Institute of India Private Limited.

Notes:
Maharashtra state government has set up ‘Inter-caste/ Inter-faith marriage-family coordination committee (state level).
The committee is to be headed by the state’s Women and Child Development Minister and BJP leader Mangal Prabhat Lodha. It aims to gather detailed information about couples in such marriages, and maternal families of the women involved if they are estranged.

Notes:
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been topped the Grievance Redressal Index published by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
By topping the index in November, UIDAI topped the report for four months in a row among all Group-A Ministries, Departments and Autonomous Bodies for resolution of public grievances. UIDAI recently launched Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) based Chatbot, ‘Aadhaar Mitra’.

Notes:
In a suspected hooch (intoxicant) tragedy in dry Bihar, as many as 21 deaths were reported from Saran district.
Sale and consumption of alcohol was completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government in April, 2016. As it is suspected that all the deceased consumed some intoxicant, after the post-mortem the viscera will be sent to a forensic laboratory at Muzaffarpur for examination.

Notes:
Ace Tennis player Rafael Nadal was crowned the ITF world champion for the fifth time in his career, according to the International Tennis Federation (ITF). World number 2 Nadal captured his 22nd major in June with a record-extending 14th French Open title.
21-year-old Iga Swiatek who went on a 37-match winning run won the women’s awards. She was also named WTA Player of the Year.