Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
South Korea’s first domestically produced space launch vehicle KSLV-II Nuri rocket failed due to a loose helium tank.
All the three stages of the rocket worked, taking it to a height of 700 kilometres, and the 1.5-tonne payload separated successfully. The mission failed as the third-stage engine stopped burning 46 seconds earlier than schedule.

Notes:
The UK government has launched a new initiative named ‘Better Health Smoke-Free’ campaign, which highlights the impact of adult smokers on younger people.
The campaign has urged the smokers to quit smoking. As per the data released by the campaign, 4.9 per cent of teenagers whose parents smoke have also adopted the habit. New Zealand has also set goals to go smoke-free by 2030.

Notes:
‘Financial Stability Report (FSR)’ is a half-yearly report released by the ‘Reserve Bank of India’. The recent edition of the report was released by RBI.
As per the report, the retail-led credit growth model in India is beginning to face issues due to two factors, increase in defaults in the consumer finance portfolio and slowdown in the new credit segment.

Notes:
Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah is the Prime Minister of Kuwait. Kuwait has recently formed a new cabinet with a new finance minister and three opposition legislators.
This is the Gulf country’s third cabinet this year after the previous governments resigned in the standoff. The cabinet has only one female minister. It includes three opposition MPs and one pro-government lawmaker.

Notes:
The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) announced that it will add Egypt as its new member. NDB was established by BRICS nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, in the year 2015.
Egypt is the fourth new member admitted into NDB, after Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay. Marcos Troyjo is the President of the NDB.

Notes:
The Sahitya Akademi announced a list of 22 winners of the Yuva Puraskar and the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2021.
The Sahitya Akademi award was separately announced for literary works in 20 languages in various categories like poetry, novels, short stories, plays, biography and autobiography, book on criticism.  Tamil feminist writer Ambai, Kannada’s DS Nagabhushan, Telugu’s Goreti Venkanna, and English author Namita Gokhale are among the winners.

Notes:
Insurance regulator IRDAI has announced that the state-owned LIC, General Insurance Corporation and New India Assurance have been identified as Domestic Systemically Important Insurers (D-SIIs) for 2021-22.
D-SIIs are perceived as insurers that are too big or too important to fail’ (TBTF). Due to their size, market importance and domestic and global inter connectedness, their failure would cause a massive impact in domestic financial system.

Notes:
The Conference on Disarmament is a multilateral disarmament forum, to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements. It is based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
India’s senior diplomat Anupam Ray has been appointed as India’s next permanent representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, as per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The Indian Foreign Service officer is currently serving as a joint secretary in the MEA.

Notes:
According to the data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate reached a four-month high of 7.91% in December.
This is compared to the rates of 7% and 7.75 per cent in November and October 2021. The unemployment rate was at its highest since 8.3% in August. The urban and rural unemployment rate rose to 9.30% and 7.28% respectively. The rise in unemployment was due to muted economic activity and consumer sentiment, due to Omicron variant.

Notes:
A Professor and Research Scholar Department of Physics at Kerala University, have developed fifth-generation (5G) microwave absorbers, which can be used as an effective shield against electromagnetic radiation
The electromagnetic interference (EMI) is known to be dangerous to the health of living organisms. It also affects the high-end electronic devices. They used new shielding material, ‘mayenite electride’ for microwave absorption in high frequency region.