Current Affairs Quiz 27th January 2022 : Daily GK Update Quiz

Exp. Karnataka govt launched a technology-driven programme ‘Grama One’

Karnataka government has launched ‘Grama One’, a technology-driven programme. It would offer services of various government departments in rural areas of 12 districts.

The services will be extended to all districts across Karnataka by the end of March. It enables access to a host of services offered by the departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Revenue, Women and Children Development.

Exp. Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary set to be notified as 4th tiger reserve of Rajasthan

Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary, which is among the proposed five sites in the country, is expected to be formally notified as tiger reserve soon before the Global Tiger Summit, which is to be held at Vladivostok, Russia.

The Centre also announced the development during the 4th Asia ministerial conference on tiger conservation. The Centre has already given its approval of granting tiger reserve status to Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary, along with MM Hills in Karnataka, Guru Ghasidas National Park in Chhattisgarh.

Exp. India’s first Graphene Innovation Centre will be established at Thrissur, Kerala

The Digital University Kerala (DUK) has announced partnership with the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) in Thrissur, Kerala to establish India’s first Graphene Innovation Centre in Kerala.

The project will also receive a funding of Rs 86.41 crore from the Ministry of Elections and Information Technology, to set up India’s first ever Graphene Research and Development (R&D) incubator.

Tata Steel Limited is roped in as the Industrial partner for this project. Dr. AP James of DUK and Dr. A Seema of C-MET are the Chief investigators for this project.

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice nanostructure.

Exp. India emerged as world’s largest exporters of cucumber and gherkins

India has emerged as the World’s largest exporter of cucumber and gherkins after exporting cucumber and gherkins to the tune of 1,23,846 Metric Tonnes with a value of USD 114 million during April-October, 2021.

India has crossed $ 200 million mark of export of agricultural processed product, pickling cucumber, which is globally referred as gherkins or cornichons

India had shipped 2,23,515 Metric Tonnes of cucumber and gherkins with a value of USD 223 million in 2020-21. Currently, India grows around 15% of world’s total gherkins production.

Gherkin is also known as pickled cucumber. It is a cucumber that has been pickled in vinegar, brine, or other solution and left to ferment for some time. Farmers can take two crops of gherkins annually, since it is a 90-day crop.

Exp. India and France signed an MoU with scope for cooperation in health research

India and France have signed an MoU with scope for cooperation in health research, Science and Technology Ministry.

The MoU was signed between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Institut Pasteur, France.

CSIR and Institut Pasteur will jointly research and focus on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and inherited disorders and enable delivery of effective and affordable healthcare solutions.

Exp. Lendingkart partnered with Bank of Maharashtra to offer MSME loans

Bank of Maharashtra partnered with Lendingkart Technologies Private Limited, to co-lend business loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) at low rates.

The technology platform Lendingkart ‘2gthr’ enables banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to distribute unsecured business loans up to Rs. 10 lakhs to MSME borrowers. The platform also enables co-lenders to verify loan applications using cash-flow-based assessment model ‘cred8’.

Aim: To make economical credit available to MSME borrowers which is powered by the ‘zero touch’ technology platform Lendingkart ‘2gthr’.

Exp. RBI offered overnight VRR auction of worth Rs. 75,000 crores

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offered overnight liquidity to the banking system of India with Rs 75,000 crore against banks bid of around Rs 1.37 lakh crore through variable rate repo (VRR) auction under liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) and 25th January 2022 will be the date of reversal.

The auction will be conducted on Core Banking Solutions (CBS) (e-Kuber) platform with Rs.1 crore as minimum bid amount for the auction and the allotment would be in multiples of Rs. 1 crore.

RBI said it would conduct a 28-day VRRR of Rs 50,000 crore and a Rs 2 trillion VRRR for 3 days. The cut off rate for 3 days was fixed at 3.99 percent and the weighted average rate at 3.99 percent. The cut off rate for 28 days was fixed at 3.99 percent and the weighted average rate at 3.97 percent.

VRRR reverses nearly Rs.2.49 trillion after the 28 day and 7-day maturity and another Rs 4.35 trillion will be reversed after the 14-day VRRR maturity.

Exp. Pushp Kumar Joshi to be new chairman and managing director of HPCL

Pushp Kumar Joshi has been appointed the new chairman and managing director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), the nation’s third largest oil refining and fuel marketing company.

Joshi, who is currently Director – Human Resources at HPCL has been on the board of HPCL for almost a decade now. He will replace Mukesh Kumar Surana, who superannuates on April 30 this year.

Exp. Badrinath Srinivasan appointed as MD of Wipro for Southeast Asia

Wipro Limited has appointed Badrinath Srinivasan as the Managing Director for Southeast Asia.

He will focus on Wipro’s vision for business growth, revenue expansion, client and influencer relationships, talent development and brand building.

He will also strengthen the key markets of Southeast Asia, focusing on large deals and strategic transformational engagements.

Exp. Western Naval Command conducted Joint maritime exercise Paschim Lehar (XPL-22)

Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy has conducted a joint maritime exercise Paschim Lehar (XPL-2022) off the West Coast.

The exercise continued for 20 days and was conducted with an aim to enhance Inter-Service synergy among the Indian Navy, IAF, Indian Army and Coast Guard.

The Western Naval Command (HQ- Mumbai) is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy. The other two are Eastern Naval Command (HQ- Visakhapatnam) and Southern Naval Command (HQ- Kochi).

Exp. Meta built world’s Fastest AI Supercomputer ‘RSC’

According to Facebook parent company Meta, its new “artificial intelligence supercomputer” will be the fastest across the world, by the middle of year 2022.

Meta introduced the AI Research Super Cluster (RSC) on January 24, 2022. It is believed to be among fastest AI supercomputers running today. Currently, AI can perform tasks such as translating text between languages and help in identifying potentially harmful content.

The RSC includes algorithms on content moderation for detecting hate speech and explicit content on Facebook and Instagram. It will be used to design things or run programs for the Metaverse.

The Supercomputer consists of 760 Nvidia GGX A 100 systems containing 6,080 GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) whereas Meta’s RSC is already providing up to 20 times improved performance. It will have a total of 16,000 GPUs by the end of the second phase of its creation.

Traditional supercomputer’s performance is measured in 64-bit floating point operations per second (FLOPs), whereas AI Supercomputer are often measured in 32-bit or 16-bit FLOPs.

Exp. A Book titled “Last among Equals: Power, Caste, and Politics in Bihar’s Villages” authored by MR Sharan

MR Sharan authored the book titled “Last among Equals: Power, Caste, and Politics in Bihar’s Villages”.

The book is an account of the author’s field study in a group of villages in Bihar.  The hero of this book is the little-known Sanjay Sahni, an immigrant from Bihar eking out a comfortable living as an electrician in Delhi.

Exp. 26 January: International Customs Day

26 January marks the celebration of International Customs Day (ICD) all across the world with the United Nations as the host.

It is an annual event that is meant to acknowledge and appreciate the role that customs officials and agencies play in ensuring the smooth flow of goods across the world borders.

The inception of the ICD dates back to 1953. The Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) formally announced the observance of ICD on January 26 that year in an inaugural session held in Brussels, Belgium. CCC was renamed World Customs Organization (WCO) in 1994.

Theme 2022: ‘Scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem’

Exp. 27 January: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust (International Holocaust Remembrance Day) is observed on 27 January.

The objective of the day is to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War.

A genocide occurred during World War II in which Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, between 1941 and 1945.

Theme 2022: “Memory, Dignity and Justice”

Exp. Kathakali patron Padma Shri Milena Salvini passed away. Salvini was a French national who had a great contribution in popularising the glory of Kerela’s traditional dance form Kathakali in Western countries.
She was conferred with Padma Shri in 2019 by the Government of India for her contribution to the field of performing arts.