Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
China is the world’s top producer of rare earth material. Recently, the country has 3 state-owned rare earth mining companies to form a new entity named ‘China Rare Earths Group’.
China has been strengthening its supply chain of rare earth materials. Rare earth is a combination of 17 minerals used as vital ingredients in the production of consumer electronics as well as military equipment.

Notes:
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, will likely ratify its membership of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
China-backed RCEP, the world’s biggest trade association, entered into force on January 1, 2022. Seven nations in Southeast Asia, as well as Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea ratified the pact earlier this year.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of Union Cabinet has approved the appointment of  Vinay Kumar Tripathi as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Railway Board.
Presently, he is serving as the General Manager, North Eastern Railway. He is an 1983 batch Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE).

Notes:
The world’s population is projected to be 7.8 billion people, as on New Year’s Day 2022, according to the US Census Bureau.
This represents an increase of 74 million people, or a 0.9% growth rate from New Year’s Day 2021. 4.3 births and two deaths are expected every second worldwide. China remains the world’s most-populous country with 1.4 billion people and India would overtake it by 2025.

Notes:
Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid political deadlock and widespread pro-democracy protests.
As part of an agreement with the military after the October Coup, former UN official Hamdok was appointed as the Prime Minister.  Now the military coup has again hindered the country’s transition to democratic rule.

Notes:
The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) awards the “Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” since 2006.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh has recently launched the Web Portal for PM’s Excellence Award, whose registrations began. The prize money was doubled this year from 10 lakh rupees to 20 lakh rupees. The Scheme was restructured in 2020, to recognize the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of the District.

Notes:
Khurnak Fort, which was historically a part of India has been under Chinese control since 1958. Near to the Fort, China is building a new bridge.
The bridge is being constructed on Pangong Tso, near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. After the military standoff in May 2020, India and China have built several new roads, bridges and landing strips.

Notes:
Microsoft is the parent organisation of GitHub, an open-source software repository service. It was used to create and develop an application which targeted Muslim women in India
The application used pictures of hundreds of Muslim women from social media without permission and was listed for ‘auction’ on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app. The Indian Government’s CERT-IN is investigating with Github and Twitter over the case.

Notes:
NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd. (NBBL), the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India has introduced ‘Unified Presentment Management System’ (UPMS).
Through UPMS, NBBL will enable the customers to set up standing instructions on their recurring bill payments. The bills will be automatically fetched from the billers and presented to customers for auto-debit.

Notes:
XIV Corps or Fire and Fury Corps is a corps of the Indian Army. It is a part of the Army’s Northern Command based at Udhampur.
Lt Gen PGK Menon handed over the command of the XIV ‘Fire and Fury’ Corps to Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta. He was part of the last round of Corps Commander-level talks with China in October.