Current Affairs Quiz - January 2022

Notes:
Ministry of Panchayati Raj released the revised ‘Rural Area Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (RADPFI) Guidelines’.
The newly introduced Rural guidelines aim to transform rural India and to promote rural prosperity. It would supplement the efforts of the Centre such as the SVAMITVA scheme of Ministry of Panchayati Raj and RURBAN Mission of Ministry of Rural Development.

Notes:
The Indian Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft P8I participated in the multinational anti-submarine warfare exercise ‘Sea Dragon-22’.
The exercise recently concluded at Guam, USA. Aircraft from six navies namely the US, India, Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea participated in Sea Dragon-22 exercise. The exercise was aimed to enhance interoperability among them in response to security challenges in maritime domain.

Notes:
Former Comptroller and auditor general of India Vinod Rai has been appointed as the independent chairman of Unity Small Finance Bank (SFB) and Reserve Bank of India has granted its approval in this regard.
The Bank has also onboarded Sandip Ghose (RBI veteran) and Basant Seth (former CMD of Syndicate Bank) into its business group.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Coal launched the “Koyla Darpan” portal, to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to the Coal Sector.
At present, the portal has 9 KPIs including Coal/Lignite Production, Status of Coal Stock in Thermal Power Plants, Infrastructure Projects, Allocation of Blocks, Monitoring of Major Coal Mines and Coal Price.

Notes:
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare launched a Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) in 2014-15, to increase the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers and to the regions where farm power availability is low.
As per recent guidelines of SMAM, a grant of up to 100 percent of the cost of agriculture drone or Rs 10 lakh is provided for purchase of drones by the Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, ICAR institutes, KVKs and State Agriculture Universities for demonstrations of this technology the farmers’ fields. FPOs can get up to 75 percent of the cost of agriculture drone.

Notes:
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched ‘Apna Kangra’ app, to help the tourists and boost sale of local handicrafts by a e-Marketing platform.
The aim of ‘Apna Kangra’ is to empower rural women and provide job opportunities to youth through tourism. It also aims to enhance hospitality services such as hotels, homestays and transport.

Notes:
‘VRR Auction’ stands for Variable rate repo auction. Repo is the rate at which RBI lends short term loans to Banks. A part of it is done at a fixed rate and some of it is a variable rate.
The Reserve Bank of India said it will conduct an overnight variable rate repo auction under liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) for an amount of Rs 75,000 crore. On January 20, the RBI conducted an overnight variable rate repo (VRR) auction of Rs 50,000 crore.

Notes:
Republic Day celebration includes recognition and honouring the brave personnel in the Armed Forces and police. There are eight categories of awards given to honour the recipients for their work in their respective fields.
It includes Padma Awards, Gallantry Awards (Param Vir Chakra, Mahavir Chakra, Vir Chakra, Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra), The President’s Police Medals, Correctional Services Medal, The President’s Fire Medals, Civil Defence & Home Guards Medals and Jeevan Raksha Padak.

Notes:
A Decacorn is a company whose valuation crosses the milestone of USD 10 billion. Food-Delivery Giant Swiggy has raised USD 700 million in Invesco-led new funding, which has made it a decacorn, doubling its valuation to USD 10.7 billion.
Another Food Delivery Leader Zomato was valued at $5.4 billion before its recent IPO. Budget hospitality company Oyo’s valuation is at USD 9 billion in 2021. The Top 3 positions are held by Flipkart, Byju’s and Paytm.

Notes:
Veteran archaeologist, art historian and Padma Bhushan awardee R Nagaswamy has passed away at the age of 91.
He was the first director of Tamil Nadu government’s Department of Archaeology. He played a key role in bringing back the Chola-era bronze Nataraja to Tamil Nadu Nagaswamy founded the Institute of Epigraphy and Archaeology in 1973. He had also excavated many sites in Tamil Nadu, including Korkai, the ancient Pandyan port.