Answer – D

• Government of India announced Padma Awards for the year 2022 which have been announced on the occasion of Republic Day, 2022.

About Padma Awards

• The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).
• The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.
• The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.
• The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna & Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.
• These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955.
• Padma Awards were announced every year except for brief interruption(s) during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997.
• They are given for distinguished and exceptional achievements/service in the following fields –
• Art
• Social work
• Literature and Education
• Public Affairs
• Science & Engineering
• Trade & Industry
• Medicine
• Civil Service
• Sports
• .Others
• Link of list of Padma Awardees 2022 – https://www.padmaawards.gov.in/padmaawardees2022.pdf

Answer: C  

About the Transparency International’s corruption index

• Transparency Internationalhas released the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2021.
• The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption .
• In 2020 India was ranked
• The results are given on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
• The ranking has been topped jointly by three countries- Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

About Transparency International

• Transparency International is an international non-governmental organisation founded in 1993 based in Berlin, Germany.
• Its non-profit purpose is to take action to combat global Corruption with civil societal anticorruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption.

Answer: C

About the Exercise

• The exercise was conducted over a duration of 20 days with an objective to validate operational plans of the Western Naval Command and 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).

Answer: D

• The World Bank has approved a loan of USD 125 million (around Rs 1,000 crore) to the government of West Bengal (WB) for Inclusive Social Protection’ operations.
• It will strengthen the capability of this state to expand coverage and access to social assistance and targeted service for poor and vulnerable groups of the state.

About the Loan Agreement

• Under the agreement, The WB government runs more than 400 programmes which provide social assistance, protection, care services and jobs through an umbrella platform, ‘Joy Bangla’, the state’s unified delivery system.
• Another initiative named ‘Duare Sarkar’, the programme which offers several government schemes benefits at the doorstep.
• The funding will also help in improving the monitoring of doorstep benefit delivery.

About West Bengal:

• Chief Minister – Mamta Banerjee
• Governor – Jagdeep Dhankhar
• National Parks – Gorumara National Park, Sundarban National Park, Jaldapara National Park Wildlife

Answer: B

• On 23rd January 2022, on the occasion of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Netaji Research Bureau, has honoured Shinzo Abe with the Netaji Award 2022.

About the Award

• The Consul General of Japan received the award on behalf of Shinzo Abe at the event held in Elgin Road residence of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
• In 2021, Shinzo Abe was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Vibhushan for Public Affairs.

About Japan

• Prime Minister – Fumio Kishida
• Capital – Tokyo
• Currency – Yen

Answer: C

• Indian movie titled Koozhangal (Tamil) directed by P S Vinothraj has won the best film award in the Asian Film Competition category at the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) 2022 in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 15th to 23rd January 2022.

Other Awards

• The best actor award was given to Jayasurya for Movie Sunny –directed by Ranjith Sankar.
• Indian Film, Semkhor (Dimasa language), directed by Assamese actor Aimee Baruah, has won the Special Audience Award.
• The best feature film award was given to Maryam Bahrololumi-directed film Shahrbanoo (Lady from the City) from Iran n the Women film maker’s section.

About DIFF

• The 20th DIFF 2022 was organised by the Rainbow Film Society established in 1977.
• The 9-day long festival featured 225 films drawn from 70 countries.

About Bangladesh

• Capital – Dhaka
• Prime minister – Sheikh Hasina
• Currency – Takka

Answer: D

• The Union Finance Ministry appointed Vinodanand Jha, a 1983-batch retired IRS officer as the chairperson of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) Adjudicating Authority, New Delhi.

About Adjudicating Authority

• The Adjudicating Authority, under the PMLA, 2002 will safeguard the interests of the accused against violence. It functions within the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.
• It is a three-member Authority (one each from the fields of ‘Law’, ‘Administration’ and ‘Finance or accountancy’) that is mandated to adjudicate the cases of attachment of assets orders issued under the PMLA, 2002.
• It can also order for further continuity, seizure or release of assets depending on the investigation.

Answer: D

• The centre has been launched by Dronacharya awardee and Head national coach of Indian para-badminton team, Gaurav Khanna, along with Ageas Federal Life Insurance.
• The state-of-the-art, high-performance centre with advanced equipment and facilities in Lucknow aims to improve India’s medal chances at the 2024 Paralympics.