Monthly Current Affairs January 2022 With Video Lecture [Download PDF]

MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS JANUARY 2022

‘Padhe Bharat’ Campaign Launched

• Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched a 100-day reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’. 
• Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8. The reading campaign will be organized for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1^st January 2022 to 10^th April 2022. The reading campaign aims to have the participation of all stakeholders at the national and state levels including children, teachers, parents, etc.
• This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of the foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission.

Nationwide COVID-19 Vaccination for Teenagers

• COVID-19 vaccination of children in the age group of 15 to 18 years will begin from Monday.
• The vaccine option for children will be only Covaxin. Union Health Ministry has said that all those whose birth year is 2007 or before, will be eligible for vaccination. The registration for vaccination of Covid jabs in this age group on the Co-WIN portal has already started from the 1^st of January.  The appointment for vaccination can be booked online or walk-in.

Srilanka to go Bankrupt By 2022

• Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis with fears it could go bankrupt in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket, and its coffers run dry.
• The foreign exchange reserves are at their lowest levels in a decade.
• Inflation has meanwhile been spurred by the government printing money to pay off domestic loans and foreign bonds.

P5 Nations Pledge to Stop Nuclear Proliferation

• The P5 UNSC members (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the US) pledged to prevent atomic weapons from spreading and to avoid nuclear conflict.
• The pledge was made in a rare joint statement ahead of a review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 1970.

NEAT 3.0

• National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) 3.0 is a single platform to provide the best-developed ed-tech solutions and courses to students of the country.
• The Minister also launched AICTE prescribed technical books in regional languages. Mr. Pradhan said that NEAT will be a game-changer in bridging the digital divide, especially among the poor students, and in fulfilling the knowledge-based requirement of India and the world.
• The Minister informed that 58 global and Indian start-up ed-tech companies are onboard NEAT and are offering 100 courses and e-resources for bettering learning outcomes, developing employable skills, and overcoming learning loss.

“Smart Cities and Academia Towards Action & Research (SAAR)” Program Launched

• The Smart Cities Mission has launched the program. It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the National Institute of Urban Affairs, and the leading Indian academic institutions of the country.
• Under the program, 15 premier architecture & planning institutes of the country will be working with Smart Cities to document landmark projects undertaken by the Smart Cities Mission.
• The documents will capture learnings from best practices. It will provide opportunities to students for engagement on urban development projects and enable real-time information flow between urban practitioners and academia.
• The first activity envisaged under SAAR is to prepare a compendium of 75 landmark urban projects in India under the Smart Cities Mission.

Theme Of National Science Day 2022 Launched

• Union Science and Technology Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh today launched the theme of National Science Day 2022.
• The theme of this year is ‘Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future’. The National Science Day is observed every year on 28th February to mark the discovery of the Raman effect. 
• Launching the theme in New Delhi, Dr. Singh expressed hope that through this all the institutions across the country will be able to chart out programs to observe the day.

25th National Youth Festival

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 25th National Youth Festival in the Union Territory of Puducherry on January 12  at the Pondicherry Central University campus to be held from January 12 to 16.
• National Youth Day, also known as Vivekananda Jayanti, is celebrated on 12 January, being the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. In 1984 the Government of India declared this day as National Youth Day and since 1985 the event is celebrated in India every year.

Railways Ministry to Implement ‘Plan Bee’

• ‘Plan Bee’ adopted by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is a unique method to keep elephants away from railway tracks and as it is a success story, plans are afoot to implement it all over the country to save the precious lives of elephants.
• Plan Bee is an amplifying system imitating the buzz of a swarm of honeybees to keep elephants from getting killed on the railway tracks. Through this device, the buzzing sound of bees is audible from over 400 meters.

India’s First Open Rock Museum Inaugurated

• Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurates India’s first Open Rock Museum displaying around 35 different types of rocks from different parts of India with ages ranging from 3.3 Billion years to around 55 Million years of the Earth’s history @ of CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad.
• “Big Earth Data” occupy the strategic high ground in the era of knowledge economies and India is fully exploiting this new frontier. He also released Earthquake Risk Maps of Lucknow and Dehradun Cities for risk assessment and earthquake-resistant design systems.

Increased Election Expenditure Limit

• The expenditure limit for candidates for Lok Sabha constituencies was increased from Rs 54 lakh-Rs 70 lakh (depending on states) to Rs 70 lakh-Rs 95 lakh, by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
• Further, the spending limit for Assembly constituencies was hiked from Rs 20 lakh-Rs 28 lakh to Rs 28 lakh- Rs 40 lakh (depending on states).
• In 2020, the ECI had formed a committee 2020 to study the election spending limit.

3rd National Water Awards 2020 Announced

• Uttar Pradesh has been awarded first prize in the state category of the 3rd National Water Awards 2020. This follows Rajasthan & Tamil Nadu.
• The 57 awards were announced in 11 categories including Best States, District, Panchayat, and Best Industries.
• India has more than 18 percent of the world’s population but has only four percent of the world’s renewable water resources.
• National Water Awards were instituted to recognize and encourage exemplary work and efforts made by States, Districts, individuals, and organizations across the country in attaining the government’s vision of a Jal Samridh Bharat.

Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas

• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Non-Resident Indian Day) is a celebratory day observed (starting in 2003) on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India.
• The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.

Startup India Innovation Week

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is organizing the first-ever Startup India Innovation Week from 10th -16th of January 2022.  This virtual week-long innovation celebration aims to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and is designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship across India.
• Interestingly, in the startup world, 2021 has been recognized as the ‘year of unicorns,’ with 40+ unicorns added in the year.

Veer Baal Diwas – 26^TH December

• The Government of India has decided to commemorate 26th December as “Veer Baal Diwas” in honor of the supreme sacrifice made by Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh, the younger sons of the 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh Ji, for their supreme and unparalleled sacrifice on 26th December 1705 at the tender age of 9 and 6 years respectively to defend the dignity and honor of Sikhism.

World Hindi Day Celebrated

• World Hindi Day on 10^th January is commemorated every year to promote the use of the Hindi language abroad. On this day in 2006, the First World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur to promote the language worldwide and since then, every year 10th January is being observed as the World Hindi Day.
• National Hindi Day is celebrated in India to commemorate the date 14 September 1949 on which a compromise was reached during the drafting of the Constitution of India on the languages that were to have official status in the Republic of India.

India State of Forest Report 2021

• The MoEFCC released the India State of Forest Report-2021.
• It is published every two years by the Forest Survey of India. The first survey was published in 1987, and ISFR 2021 is the 17th.
• The forest and tree cover in the country continues to increase with an additional cover of 1,540 square kilometers over the past two years.
• India’s forest cover is now 7,13,789 square kilometers, 21.71% of the country’s geographical area, an increase from 21.67% in 2019.
• The states that have shown the highest increase in forest cover are Telangana (3.07%), Andhra Pradesh (2.22%), and Odisha (1.04%).
• Five states in the Northeast – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland have all shown a loss in forest cover.
• Area-wise: Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
• 35.46% of the forest cover is prone to forest fires. Out of this, 2.81% is extremely prone, 7.85% is very highly prone and 11.51% is highly prone.

10th Century Stone Idol Returning To India

• A 10th century stone idol of Goat Head Yogini that had been illegally removed from a temple in Lokhari, Banda, Uttar Pradesh is being returned to India.
• Earlier, the High Commission of India in London announced the recovery and repatriation of the 10th century stone idol that had been illegally removed.
• The sculpture is of a goat-headed Yogini that originally belonged to a group of stone deities in sandstone and was installed in Lokhari temple. The sculpture had briefly surfaced in the art market in London in 1988.

Commemorative Postal Stamp to Mark 1 Year Of Vaccination Programme

• India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive was launched by Prime Minister Modi on 16 January last year.
• This is the world’s largest vaccination program covering the entire length and breadth of the country. Vaccination was made free for everyone above 18 years of age on 21st June 2021. The current vaccine production capacity of Covishield in India is approximately 25 crore doses per month, and that of Covaxin is around six crore doses per month.

Open Data Week Being Conducted

• The Open Data Week is being conducted from Jan 17^th till the 21^st of this month. It is a part of a series of pre-event initiatives leading up to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference to be held next month.
• The Open Data Week aims to show the benefits of open data such as increased efficiency, transparency, a spur in innovation, and economic growth. It is divided into two segments. The first segment involves uploading datasets, visualizations, APIs, and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal from today till the 20th of this month. The second segment involves the celebration of Data Day by all smart cities on the 21st of this month.

Chips to Startup Programme

• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has sought applications from 100 academia, Research and Development organizations, start-ups, and MSMEs under its Chips to Startup Programme.
• The Chips to Startup, C2S Programme aims to train 85 thousand high-quality and qualified engineers in the area of Very-large-scale integration and Embedded System Design. This will be a step towards leapfrogging in the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing space.
• The program would be implemented at about 100 academic institutions across the country, including IITs, NITs, and IIITs.

Kathak Dancer Birju Maharaj Dies At 83

• Brij Mohan Nath Mishra, (4 February 1938), was an exponent of the Lucknow “Kalka- Bindadin” Gharana of Kathak dance in India. He was a descendant of the Maharaj family of Kathak dancers. He also practiced Hindustani classical music and was a vocalist.
• After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, till his retirement in 1998 when he opened his dance school, Kalashram, also in Delhi. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1986 &  Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1964.

Saa₹thi Mobile App

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has launched Saa₹thi – a mobile app on investor education. (‘R’ represents ‘₹’) which aims to create awareness among investors about the basic concepts of the securities market.
• The app will also explain about KYC process, trading, and settlement, Mutual Funds (MF), recent market developments, investor grievances redressal mechanism, etc.
• A recent surge is seen in individual investors entering the market, and more importantly a large proportion of trading being mobile phone-based. (share of Individual investors increased to 45% in 2021 from 39% in 2020)

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav se Swarnim Bharat ke Ore

• PM Modi addresses the national launch ceremony of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav se Swarnim Bharat Ke Ore on 20th January via video conferencing.
• The program unveiled the year-long initiatives dedicated to Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav of Culture Ministry in partnership with  Brahma Kumaris, under  Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav se Swarnim Bharat ke Ore and includes more than 30 campaigns and over 15000 programs and events that will be organized across the globe.

Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar 2022

• To recognize and honor the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organizations in India in the field of disaster management. The award is announced every year on 23rd January and carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.
• For the year 2022, (i) Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (in the Institutional category) and (ii) Professor Vinod Sharma (in the Individual category) have been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for their excellent work in Disaster Management.
• Established in 2012, the GIDM has been working to enhance Gujarat’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity. Through a series of strategically designed capacity-building programs, GIDM has trained more than 12,000 professionals on diverse issues concerning multi-hazard risk management and reduction during the pandemic.
• Sharma, a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and VC of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, was the founder coordinator of the National Centre of Disaster Management, now known as the National Institute of Disaster Management.

12^th National Voters’ Day

• Since 2011, National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on 25th January every year, across the country to mark the foundation day of the Election Commission of India.
• The 12th National Voters’ Day will be celebrated today. The theme for this year is ‘Making Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative’.
• ECI was established on 25 January 1950.

Awards & Honours @ Republic Day

• The President of India has approved the conferment of Jeevan Raksha Padak Series of Awards – 2021 on 51 persons which includes Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak to 06, Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak to 16, and Jeevan Raksha Padak to 29 persons. Five awardees are  posthumous.
• The Jeevan Raksha Padak series of awards are given to a person for the meritorious act of human nature in saving the life of a person. Persons of all walks of life are eligible for these awards.  The award can also be conferred posthumously.

Padma Awards 2022

• This year the President has approved the conferment of 128 Padma Awards. The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan, and 107 Padma Shri Awards. 
• Ms. Prabha Atre, Shri Radheyshyam Khemka (Posthumous), General Bipin Rawat (Posthumous), Shri Kalyan Singh (Posthumous) are awarded “Padma Vibhushan”.
• Ghulam Nabi Azad, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Shri Krishna Ella, and Smt. Suchitra Ella* (Duo), Devendra Jhajharia, Satya Narayana Nadella, Sundararajan Pichai, Cyrus Poonawalla, etc were awarded “Padma Bhushan”. Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, Olympians Pramod Bhagat, Vandana Kataria, singer Sonu Nigam, etc were awarded “Padma Sri”.

Corruption Perception Index 2021

• Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021 Was Released By Transparency International.
• Overall, The CPI Shows That Control Of Corruption Has Stagnated Or Worsened In 86% Of Countries Over The Last Decade.
• Denmark, Finland, And New Zealand topped With a Score Of 88. South Sudan (11), Syria (13), And Somalia (13) Remain At The Bottom.
• India Ranked 85 Among 180 Countries In The Current Index (86 In 2020 And 80 In 2019). Transparency International Gave India A CPI Score Of 40.

V Anantha Nageswaran Appointed CEA

• Dr. Nageswaran was the Dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a distinguished Visiting Professor of Economics at Krea University.
• He has also been a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 2019 to 2021.
• Functions of CEA:
• Examine domestic and international economic trends.
• Ex-officio cadre controlling authority of the Indian Economic Service.
• Help prepare the government’s annual Economic Survey preceding the Union Budget, which provides a glimpse into its economic hits and misses.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• HQ of SEBI
• New Delhi
• Kolkata
• Mumbai
• Pune

ANSWER: C

• ______ is a dance of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
• Kuchipudi
• Bharatanatyam
• Kathak
• Mohiniyattam

ANSWER: B

• _____ is ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’
• August 15
• August 14
• December 26
• September 15

ANSWER: B

• HQ of World Economic Forum
• Geneva
• Davos
• Cologny
• Zurich

ANSWER: C

• “Open Data Week” is being conducted by
• Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
• Ministry of Electronics & IT
• Ministry of Rural Development.
• Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

ANSWER: A

• Kathak Dancer Birju Maharaj was awarded by ____ in 1986
• Padma Shri
• Padma Bhushan
• Padma Vibhushan
• Bharath Ratna

ANSWER: C

• India State of Forest Report-2021 is released by
• Ministry of Finance
• Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
• Ministry of Social Justice & Welfare
• Ministry of Science & Tech

ANSWER: B

• Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas is celebrated on
• Jan 8^th
• Jan 9^th
• Jan 10^th
• Jan 11^th

ANSWER: B

• Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas was first celebrated in
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005

ANSWER: B

• Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh were sons of which Sikh Guru
• Guru Gobind Singh
• Guru Arjun Singh
• Guru Angad
• Guru Nanak

ANSWER: A

• Vivekananda Jayanthi is celebrated every year on
• Jan 12^th
• Jan 13^th
• Jan 14^th
• Jan 15^th

ANSWER: A

• The Chief of Election Commission is recommended by the ________
• Central Government
• State Government
• Chief Justice of India
• President of India

ANSWER: A

• National Hindi Day is celebrated on
• Jan 9^th
• Jan 10^th
• Sept 14^th
• Sept 15^th

ANSWER: C

• Bureau of Indian Standards was established in
• 1986
• 1996
• 2006
• 2016

ANSWER: A

• Which of the following is not a feature of the Election system in India?
• Universal Adult Franchise
• Secret Voting
• Reservation of seats for SC/ST
• Communal Electorate

ANSWER: D

• Elections in India for Parliament and State Legislatures are conducted by
• President
• State Election Commission
• Governor
• Election Commission of India

ANSWER: D

• In which city Raja-Rani temple is located?
• Varanasi
• Mathura
• Bhubaneswar
• Gorakhpur

ANSWER: C

• Founder of Air India
• Ratan Tata
• Dorabji Tata
• JRD Tata
• Jamshedji Tata

ANSWER: C

• India Ranked ___ Among 180 Countries in the Corruption Perception Index 2021
• 83
• 84
• 85
• 86

ANSWER: C

• Who was the first Chief Guest on the very first Republic Day parade of India in 1950?
• King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah   
• King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck
• President Sukarno
• King Norodom Sihanouk

ANSWER: C

• ‘Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar’ is awarded by which Union Ministry?
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Defence
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Ministry of Corporate affairs

ANSWER: A

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in
• 1986
• 1988
• 1991
• 1992

ANSWER: B

• Which is the smartest city in the world?
• Singapore
• Zurich
• Oslo
• Geneva

ANSWER: A

• Which of the following is the Target Segment of Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
• People of BPL
• Under-Privileged
• Unorganized Sector
• All the above

ANSWER: D

• Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy was established by
• Pandit Nehru
• Indira Gandhi
• Rajiv Gandhi
• P V Narsimha Rao

ANSWER: C

• It is not a P5 Country
• China
• USA
• UK
• Japan

ANSWER: D

• Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in
• 1965
• 1968
• 1969
• 1970

ANSWER: B

• Jammu and Kashmir has a separate J&K Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act which was passed in
• 1985
• 1990
• 1995
• 1999

ANSWER: B

• _______ is the largest tribe Group in Nagaland.
• Angkhul
• Sema
• Angami
• Konyak

ANSWER: D

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the PM-KISAN scheme on
• 24^th Feb 2019
• 25^th Jan 2014
• 26^th Mar 2016
• 27^th April 2017

ANSWER: A

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