Daily Current Affairs and GK | 28 January 2022

Topic: Environment and Ecology

1. A new Lizard species has been found in Arunachal Pradesh.

• Researchers from India and Russia have discovered an unknown group of lizards of the family of skinks in Arunachal Pradesh.
• A new genus and species of lizard, Protoblepharus Apatani, has been found in the Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
• This expedition team was led by Zeeshan A. Mirza (NCBS), Harshal Bhosale (BNHS), and Gaurang Gowande (AGC).
• These lizards are small and active and have a dark brown body with two faint stripes.
• Skinks are mostly small-sized lizards with distinctly shorter legs.
• The new species has been named after the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

Topic: Economy/Banking/Finance

2. $150-million India-UAE venture capital fund launched.

• $150-million India-UAE venture capital fund has been launched to boost growth of start-ups in India and UAE.
• Investors across UAE, India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will provide funds to the venture capital (VC) Fund.
• The VC Fund has been launched from India Pavilion at EXPO2020 Dubai.
• The VC Fund aims to invest in a minimum of 50 demonstrated and validated start-ups based in India and UAE over a period of 5 years.

Topic: Books and Authors

3. Ruskin Bond writes a book titled "A Little Book of India: Celebrating 75 Years of Independence".

• Ruskin Bond has written a book titled "A Little Book of India: Celebrating 75 Years of Independence".
• The book has been published by Penguin Random House India.
• In the book, Bond has dwelt on highlights of the last 75 years of India's progress to maturity as a nation.
• Ruskin Bond’s first novel is "The Room on the Roof".

Topic: Indian Economy

4. Electronic goods export register 49% growth between April-December 2021.

• Electronic goods export has registered 49% growth between April-December 2021.
• During April-December 2020, 7.4 billion US dollars worth of electronic goods were exported.
• During the same period in 2021, electronic items worth 11 billion were exported.
• Electronic goods exports touched 1.67 billion US dollars in December 2021.
• Electronic goods exports in December 2021 registered a growth of 33.99% over 1.25 billion US dollars registered in December 2020. Mobile phones were a major part of exports.

Topic: Personality in news

5. Charanjit Singh, a legendary Indian hockey player, passed away.

• Charanjit Singh, the captain of India's gold-medal-winning hockey team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, died in Himachal Pradesh.
• He was also a member of the Indian Olympic team that has won silver in Rome in 1960.
• In addition, he was a member of the 1962 Asian Games silver medallist team.

Topic: National News

6. Swachhata Start-Up Challenge launched to nurture the Evolving Ecosystem of Indian Waste Management Sector.

• The Swachhata Start-Up Challenge has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in collaboration with the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
• It has been launched to provide impetus to innovative start-ups to come forward and drive catalytic change in the sanitation and waste management sector.
• HUA Secretary Manoj Joshi, H.E Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India, and H.E. Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan, jointly launched the Challenge.
• The Challenge aims to provide an enabling environment for enterprise development under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SBM-U 2.0).
• The Challenge provides a platform to participating enterprises to demonstrate their innovative products and services, as well as a monetary and mentoring incentive.
• The top 10 awardees will receive Rs 25 lakh as well as one year of dedicated incubation support from French Tech.
• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban:
  • The second phase of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) was launched by PM Modi on 01 October in New Delhi.
  • It aims to achieve the vision of 'Garbage Free Cities' through the treatment of old dumpsites, construction and demolition waste, and plastic waste management in the next five years.
  • Swachh Bharat Mission was formally launched on 2nd October 2014.

(Source: News on Air)

Topic: Environment and Ecology

7. Ramgarh Vishdhari wildlife sanctuary expected to be notified as Tiger Reserve.

• Ramgarh Vishdhari wildlife sanctuary is expected to be notified as Tiger Reserve before Global Tiger Summit.
• Global Tiger Summit is to be held at Vladivostok, Russia. Centre has already given its approval to granting tiger reserve status to Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary.
• The sanctuary has also received approval from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)’s technical committee.
• Once notified, it will become Rajasthan’s fourth Tiger Reserve after Ranthambore, Sariska, and Mukundra tiger reserves.
• In 2013, the Rajasthan government had upgraded Mukundra hills sanctuary as the third tiger reserve.
• The proposed tiger reserve has core area of 309.21 sqkm and buffer of approximately 708 sqkm.

Topic: Books and Authors

8. Pictorial comic book ‘India’s Women Unsung Heroes’ released by Minister of State for Culture Meenakashi Lekhi.

• Pictorial comic book ‘India’s Women Unsung Heroes’ has been released by Minister of State for Culture Meenakashi Lekhi.
• Culture Ministry has prepared the comic book in partnership with Amar Chitra Katha.
• The book portrays the heroic stories of our country's unsung female freedom fighters.
• Amar Chitra Katha (ACK Comics) is a publisher of Indian comics.

Topic: National News

9. Parliament launched a digital app to make it easier for citizens to access live proceedings.

• The Digital Sansad App has been launched by Parliament to make live proceedings available to everyone. It will also help people in getting updates related to Parliament.
• It carries nearly all major content of the interlinked portal of the Indian Parliament.
• It will also help MP in checking the status of their notices, reading House bulletins, etc.
• In the future, MP can use this app for registering their attendance and to give question for Question Hour.
• The Digital Sansad app is available in android and IOS platform. It is the brainchild of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
• Digital Sansad App is an important step toward the expansion of Parliament’s digital footprint.

Topic: Biotechnology and Diseases

10. DCGI granted conditional market approval to vaccines of Covishield and Covaxin.

• The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted market approval to Covid-19 vaccines of Covishield and Covaxin for adults.
• The permission for Covaxin and Covishield has been upgraded from restricted use in emergency situations to normal new drug permission.
• Drugs Controller General of India has set certain conditions including supply for programmatic settings, registration on the CoWin platform, and submission of safety data on a six-monthly basis.
• Conditional Market authorization is a new category that has emerged during global pandemic of Covid-19.
• The conditional approval has been granted for meeting the needs of drugs or vaccines.
• Now, vaccine makers of Covishield and Covaxin don’t require to submit rolling data of their clinical trial, and adverse events during real-world vaccination on every 15 days.
• The Conditional Market Authorisation for Covishield will reduce the gap between the 2nd and the 3rd dose.

Topic: Defense News

11. Western Naval Command conducted a joint maritime exercise ‘Paschim Lehar’.

• A joint maritime exercise ‘Paschim Lehar (XPL-2022)’ conducted under the aegis of Western Naval concluded on 25 January 2022.
• This exercise was conducted for 20 days in the Arabian sea.
• Indian Navy, IAF, Indian Army, and Coast Guard participated in this maritime exercise.
• More than 40 ships and submarines of the Indian Navy have participated in this Naval exercise.
• Indian Aircraft SU 30 MKI, Jaguar maritime strike aircraft, airborne warning and control system (AWAC) and IL-38SD also took part in this maritime exercise.
• It provided an opportunity to operate together under realistic conditions.
• Its main objective is to enhance synergy among the Indian Navy, IAF, Indian Army and Coast Guard.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: State News/ Andhra Pradesh

12. Andhra Pradesh Cabinet clears the formation of 13 new districts.

• The Andhra Pradesh government has issued notification to create 13 new districts.
• The new districts include Manyam, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Anakapalli, Kakinada, Kona Seema, Eluru, etc.
• The process of creating new districts will be completed by 1 April.
• 24 Lok Sabha constituencies have been converted to districts and the Araku Lok Sabha was divided into two districts.
• Andhra Pradesh formed the last new district ‘Vizianagaram’ in 1979.
• Andhra Pradesh:
  • It is an Indian state located in the south-eastern coastal region.
  • It shares its border with states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana.
  • It was the first state to be formed on the linguistic basis on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission.
  • Governor is Bishwabhushan Harichandan and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
  • It has now total 26 districts.

Topic: Biotechnology and Diseases

13. CSIR-CDRI scientists develop RT-PCR kit for Omicron.

• The scientists of CSIR – Central Drug Research Institute have developed an RT-PCR kit called ‘Om’ for testing the omicron variant.
• It is the first kit by any government institution for conducting RT-PCR diagnostics.
• RT-PCR kit ‘INDICoV-OmTM’ is one of the few kits in the world for detecting omicron variants.
• It will give the test results in around two hours with a cost of Rs150.
• It can also detect other variants of Covid infection and other respiratory infections.
• At present, the RT-PCR test detecting omicron variant depends upon tests like the S-gene dropout.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Awards and Prizes

14. Friendship Hospital wins prestigious RIBA prize for its unique design.

• Friendship Hospital has been awarded with the RIBA International Prize.
• Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has declared Friendship Hospital of Bangladesh as the most transformative building of the world for 2021.
• This 80-bed community hospital has been designed by Bangladeshi architect Kasef Chowdhury.
• It has been designed according to the climate change effects of rising seawater in the adjoining area.
• In this building, Canal landscaping has been used to separate its multiple blocks.
• The RIBA International Prize is given to a project that exemplifies design quality while also having a positive social impact. It is given on every two years.

(Source: News on AIR)