Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2025

Notes:
The government is focusing on a citizen-centric approach for a developed Bharat with active public participation. CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) plays a crucial role in addressing citizens’ concerns. From 2022 to 2024, CPGRAMS resolved over 70 lakh grievances. CPGRAMS is an online platform available 24×7 for citizens to lodge grievances related to service delivery. It functions under the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

Notes:
Researchers using South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope detected a loud gravitational wave background through the MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array. The gravitational wave background’s “hot spot” in the Southern Hemisphere was mapped in unprecedented detail. MeerKAT is a radio telescope array in Northern Cape, South Africa, originally called the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT). Initially planned with 20 receptors, it was expanded to 64 receptors and renamed “MeerKAT,” meaning “more of KAT.” It is part of South Africa’s contribution to the global Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, the world’s largest radio telescope initiative.

Notes:
Google launched the quantum processor ‘Willow,’ advancing quantum computing to solve practical problems. Willow has 105 physical qubits and operates at near absolute zero temperatures (-273.15°C). It features better error correction and faster performance than other quantum computers. The coherence time of Willow’s qubits is around 100 microseconds, improved by error correction. Willow’s architecture enables lower error rates with more qubits. It outperformed classical computers in testing, completing a Random Circuit Sampling task in minutes.

Notes:
K S Manilal, a renowned taxonomist and Padma Shri awardee, passed away on 1st January 2025 in Thrissur, Kerala. He is celebrated for translating and annotating Hortus Malabaricus, a 17th-century Latin botanical treatise on the flora of Kerala, Karnataka, and Goa. Manilal spent 35 years making the 12-volume work accessible to academics during his tenure as a botany professor at the University of Calicut (1976–1999). His contributions include 198 research papers, 15 books, and extensive work on medicinal plants and taxonomy. He played a key role in conserving Kerala’s Silent Valley rainforest in the 1980s.

Notes:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted Blue Origin a commercial space launch license for the New Glenn rocket. The New Glenn rocket was developed by Blue Origin, an American space technology company. New Glenn is a heavy-lift, two-stage rocket named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. It stands 320 feet tall and has a 7-meter-wide payload fairing. The first stage is reusable, powered by seven BE-4 engines, producing over 3.8 million pounds of thrust. The second stage uses two BE-3U engines, powered by liquid hydrogen and oxygen, generating over 320,000 pounds of vacuum thrust.

Notes:
Scientists are using two telescopes as part of the Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) to detect high-energy neutrinos beneath the Mediterranean Sea. The Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) is located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Neutrinos are tiny, electrically neutral particles, discovered in 1959, and the second most abundant particles after photons. They rarely interact with matter, earning the nickname “ghost particles.” Detecting neutrinos is challenging due to their minimal interactions. KM3NeT, an underwater telescope, detects neutrino interactions via Cherenkov radiation in the sea, which provides ideal conditions for detection.

Notes:
Global Family Day, also called World Peace Day, is observed annually on January 1 to promote peace and unity worldwide. It emphasizes the idea that all people are interconnected regardless of nationality, borders, or ethnicity. The concept originated in 1997 when the UN General Assembly declared the International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for Children of the World. The UN officially recognized Global Family Day in 2001 after its initial success in 1999.

Notes:
Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) launched the Indore Climate Mission to make Indore the world’s first energy-literate city. IMC signed an MoU with the Energy Swaraj Foundation, leading to the mission’s launch on 30 November. The mission aims to make 5 lakh residents energy literate, a first in any Indian city. It focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting energy conservation, and encouraging eco-friendly lifestyles.

Notes:
Quad nations (India, US, Australia, Japan) reaffirmed their commitment to a free, open, peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. The pledge commemorates 20 years of Quad cooperation, initially formed after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Quad aims to counter challenges like China’s growing influence in the region. The coalition emphasizes the centrality of ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific framework. The grouping focuses on upholding international order based on the rule of law.

Notes:
India is promoting compressed biogas (CBG) as a future fuel to reduce fossil fuel usage and transition to renewable energy. CBG is produced from agricultural waste, animal waste, municipal solid waste, press mud, and sewage sludge. However, adoption of CBG plants has been slow, with only 115 plants operational as of December 2024, far from the 5,000 plant target by 2030. The GOBARdhan scheme, launched in 2018 under Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen-Phase II, focuses on converting cattle dung, agricultural waste, and organic materials into Biogas, CBG, and bio-fertilizers. It promotes a circular economy by turning waste into wealth. The scheme is managed by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.