current affairs 11 february 2022

08 february - Safer Internet Day

10 february - World Pulses Day

India’s 1st biomass-based hydrogen plant to come up at Madhya Pradesh.

• India’s 1st commercial-scale biomass-based hydrogen plant will come up at Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.
• Every day this plant will produce one tonne of hydrogen, from 30 tonnes of biomass feedstock.
• The plant is being put up by a joint venture of Watomo Energies Ltd and Biezel Green Energy.
• Thermally accelerated anaerobic digestion (TAD) reactor is a technology that can produce hydrogen, methane and biochar from biomass.

RBI emerged as the 2nd largest buyer of gold among the world's central banks in 2021.

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has emerged as the 2nd-largest buyer of Gold among the world’s Central Banks in 2021.
• RBI bought 77.5 metric tonnes in 2021 taking its total gold reserve to 754.1 tonnes at the end of December 2021.
• Central Bank of Thailand (Bank of Thailand) was the highest buyer of Gold in 2021 and bought 90 metric tonnes of gold.
• As per Goldhub, India’s official gold reserves is 9th-largest in the world.
• Goldhub is the official website of World Gold Council that maintains all the data regarding precious metal.

Razorpay buys majority stake in Malaysian startup "Curlec" at over $19 mn valuation.

• Bengaluru-based, Razorpay has acquired a majority stake in a Malaysian payments start-up named Curlec for a valuation of more than $19 million.
• Further Razorpay will acquire the full stake in the coming years.
• Overall this is the fourth acquisition of Razorpay and the first acquisition in a foreign country.
• Prior to this, Razorpay has acquired TERA Finlabs in 2021, Opfin in 2019 and Thirdwatch in 2018.
• With this, Razorpay aims to expand in the South East Asia region.

SEBI directs AMCs to set up audit committee with minimum three directors.

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed the mutual fund (MF) industry to set up an audit committee at the asset management company (AMC) level.
• The audit committee will require a minimum of three directors and at least two-third of them shall be independent directors of the AMC.
• Currently, such a committee is set up by the trustee of a fund house.

Sanjay Malhotra appointed DFS Secretary in Finance Ministry.

• Sanjay Malhotra has been appointed as Secretary in the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance.
• He is a 1990 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre.
• Before this, Sanjay Malhotra was Chairman and Managing Director of REC Ltd.
• He has succeeded Debashish Panda, who completed his term as DFS Secretary on January 31, 2022.