Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2022

Notes:
New Zealand passed a law banning cigarettes for future generations in the country. It is considering an attempt to bring in a tobacco ban from next year.
According to the law passed by Parliament, anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in the country. The legislation will also reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in smoked tobacco products and cut the number of retailers to sell tobacco by 90 percent.

Notes:
India has received all 36 Rafale aircraft from France, with the last aircraft landing in the country recently.
India and France signed the inter-government agreement in 2016, under which France agreed to provide 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around 60,000 crore rupees to India.

Notes:
The United States imposed a new round of financial penalties on people and entities involved in Russia’s financial sector.
The targets including one of that country’s richest men, Vladimir Potanin, his family and a commercial bank he acquired recently. Sanctions were imposed on more than 40 people linked to the Russian financial sector and 17 subsidiaries of VTB Bank, Russia’s second largest bank.

Notes:
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, Vice President of CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research announced the launching of “One Week, One Lab” countrywide campaign from 6th January, 2023.
In this campaign, each of the 37 premier laboratories/Institutes of CSIR spread across the country will showcase their exclusive innovations and technological breakthroughs to the people of India, in every successive week.

Notes:
Casper Ruud has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. The winner of the award is selected by fellow players on the ATP Tour.
The 23-year-old Norwegian reached the summit clashes of French Open, US Open and ATP Finals this year. He also won titles in Buenos Aires, Geneva and Gstaad while finishing runner-up at Miami. Casper Ruud reached a career-high ranking of World No. 2 and finished the year as World No. 3.

Notes:
Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been established with effect from 24th July, 2020.
It was formed on the basis of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. CCPA has sent notices to e-commerce players Flipkart and meesho.com for gross violations of norms related to sale of acid on their platforms.

Notes:
International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report titled ‘Coal 2022: Analysis and Forecast to 2025’. As per the report, the global coal demand is set to increase to an all-time high in 2022, mainly driven by coal power growth in India, the European Union (EU) and to a smaller extent by China.
The largest increases in coal burn are forecast for China, India and Southeast Asia. The global coal use is set to rise by 1.2% in 2022, surpassing 8 billion tonnes in a single year for the first time.

Notes:
India has recently launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, during its current presidency of the UN Security Council.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that New Delhi will soon have a database that will record all crimes against the peacekeepers. India, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal are co-chairs of the group. India, among the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping, has lost 177 of its peacekeepers in the line of duty.

Notes:
The UAE launched a biometric service at the Abu Dhabi airport under which no passport or ticket will be required and a passenger’s face will be his boarding pass.
The face recognition services will be implemented at self-service baggage touchpoints, immigration e-gates, and boarding gates. This advanced AI technology is designed by Abu Dhabi-based tech company, NEXT50.

Notes:
An empowered committee headed by the Chief executive officer (CEO), NITI Aayog, has approved a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme of over Rs 400 crore for Foxconn India and Padget Electronics for mobile phone manufacturing.
Foxconn India would receive an incentive of Rs 357.17 crore for the period between August 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. It is based on its incremental investments and sales figures.