Current Affairs Quiz - April 2025

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) joined the INIOCHOS-25 exercise in Greece at the Andravida air base. This biennial multinational exercise, hosted by Greece’s Hellenic Air Force, simulates modern air warfare. The IAF deploys Su-30 MKI fighters, IL-78, and C-17 aircraft. Fifteen countries, including France, Israel, Italy, the UAE, and the US, participates. The exercise focuses on refining tactics in complex air operations and enhancing military cooperation. It offers an opportunity to improve skills, exchange knowledge, and share best practices in air combat.

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Uttar Pradesh MSME Minister announced India’s first Textile Machine Park near Kanpur on 875 acres in Chaparghata village, Bhongaon. The park will follow the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to reduce imports and promote Make in India. It aims to manufacture textile machines currently imported from China, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe. More than 200 large and medium units will be set up for machine production. Machines like circular knitting, flat knitting, printing, and technical textile machines will be manufactured. Local technical experts will be trained for repair and maintenance. Uttar Pradesh’s textile sector is witnessing rapid growth.

Notes:
Researchers in China successfully transplanted a gene-modified pig liver into a human with brain death to evaluate its function. Xenotransplantation involves transplanting cells, tissues, or organs from non-human animals into humans. Early attempts at xenotransplantation began in the 1980s with heart transplants. Genetic modifications are necessary to prevent immune rejection of animal organs in humans. Post-transplant monitoring is essential to assess organ function and immune responses.

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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav launched the four-day School Chale Hum campaign in Bhopal on April 1, 2025. All CM RISE Schools in the state will be renamed Maharishi Sandipani Vidyalaya. The Education Portal 3.0 was launched to digitize school education processes. The campaign runs from April 1-4, 2025, aiming to improve enrollment, retention, and timely textbook distribution. 5.6 crore textbooks (Classes 1-12), 1.02 crore Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) workbooks, and 26 lakh Bridge Course books will be provided for free.

Notes:
A rare Binturong was captured on a camera trap by the Wildlife Trust of India’s Garo Green Spine project team in Narang Wari Village Reserve Forest, Meghalaya. The forest is in the buffer zone of Balpakram National Park. The Binturong, also known as the bearcat, is the largest civet in India. It is an omnivorous mammal found in dense forests of Southeast Asia. Its range extends from Nepal, India, and Bhutan to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. Balpakram National Park, located in Meghalaya, is known for its rich biodiversity and scenic landscapes. It is situated in the West Garo Hills district, about 134 km from Shillong. The park is called the “Land of Perpetual Winds” due to strong winds across the plateau.

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Chandrayaan-3’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) became the first instrument to measure in situ temperatures near the Moon’s south pole. It successfully penetrated lunar soil and deployed a thermal probe, achieving what two previous missions—European Space Agency’s (ESA) Philae (2014) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) InSight Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) (2018)—could not. This experiment provided crucial data on lunar surface temperatures, strengthening evidence of water ice deposits. ChaSTE’s thermal probe was integrated into the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3, which landed on August 23, 2023.

Notes:
The recent Myanmar earthquake occurred due to strike-slip faulting along the Sagaing Fault, which separates the Indian Plate from the Eurasian Plate. The Sagaing Fault is a major active tectonic boundary running north to south through Myanmar, separating the Indian and Eurasian Plates. It is one of the longest and most active strike-slip faults globally, extending 1,500 km from the Andaman Sea in the south to the Eastern Himalayas in the north. The Indian Plate is moving northward, causing stress buildup along the fault, leading to large earthquakes over time.

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An international team of astronomers has used the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to discover a new warm Jupiter-type exoplanet over 1,000 light years away. TESS is a NASA mission launched in March 2018 to detect exoplanets orbiting bright dwarf stars by observing small dips in star brightness caused by planet transits. It followed the Kepler space telescope and used the transit method to study planet size and orbit. In its two-year prime mission, which ended in July 2020, TESS imaged 75% of the sky and discovered 66 new exoplanets. TESS continues its work under an extended mission.

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A major archaeological discovery in Lefkada, Greece, revealed the first ancient Greek theater ever found in the Ionian Islands. The Ionian Islands are located off the western coast of Greece in the eastern Ionian Sea, covering 2,306.94 square kilometers. They are also known as “Heptanese,” meaning “Seven Islands,” which include Corfu (Kerkyra), Paxi, Lefkada, Ithaki, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, and Kythira. Kefalonia is the largest, with Mount Ainos as the highest point at 1,628 meters. Historically, they were ruled by Venice, later by Russian and Turkish forces, and finally ceded to Greece by Britain in 1864.

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Bangladesh has taken over as the new Chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) for the next two years. The Chairmanship was handed over by the Prime Minister of Thailand to Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the Interim Government of Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus highlighted the need for an inclusive and action-oriented BIMSTEC. He assured Bangladesh’s strong commitment to boost regional cooperation and development. BIMSTEC is a regional group of seven countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand – located around the Bay of Bengal.