Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2023

Notes:
The World Bank approved 100 million USD loan for the implementation of the Odisha State Capability and Resilient Growth Program.
This program will help the state strengthen early forecasting system for disaster management and provide social protection coverage for vulnerable households.

Notes:
SLINEX-2023 is the 10th edition of the annual Indian – Sri Lanka Bilateral Maritime exercise. It is scheduled to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Indian Navy is represented by INS Kiltan, an indigenous Kamorta class ASW corvette and INS Savitri, an Offshore Patrol Vessel, while the Sri Lanka Navy is being represented by SLNS Gajabahu and SLNS Sagara.

Notes:
International Seabed Authority has decided to start taking permit applications in July from companies that want to mine the ocean’s floor.
The undersea mining will be conducted to extract key battery materials — cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese — from potato-sized rocks called ‘polymetallic nodules’ found at depths of 4 kilometers to 6 kilometers.

Notes:
The Izu–Ogasawara Trench is an oceanic trench in the western Pacific Ocean. Recently, scientists have set a record for the deepest fish ever caught on camera and the deepest catch ever made.
A juvenile snail fish was filmed recently swimming at 8,336 m in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench.

Notes:
India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collection for the month of March 2023 is stood at 1.6 lakh crore rupees.
This is 13 percent higher than the GST revenues in the same month of last year. It is for the fourth time, in the current financial year that the gross GST collection has crossed 1.5 lakh crore rupees, since the implementation of GST.

Notes:
Squirrelpox virus is a deadly disease affecting the United Kingdom red squirrels. Invasive, non-native grey squirrels from North America are the main carriers of this pathogen.
The pox killed up to 80% of red squirrels over winter at one of just three sites 11,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Welsh government to fund vaccine research.

Notes:
NASA named the first woman and the first African-American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission.
Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, was named as a mission specialist, along with Victor Glover, a U.S. Navy aviator, who was selected as the Artemis II pilot.

Notes:
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Amazon India have signed a collaboration agreement in New Delhi to boost India’s creative economy and promote creative talent in the country.
As part of the agreement, Amazon Prime Video will sponsor scholarships, create internship programmes, and offer job opportunities for students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.

Notes:
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve is situated in Kerala in the Western Ghats. A Division Bench of the Kerala HC has ordered the wild elephant locally called ‘Arikompan’ to be captured, radio-collared and translocated to this protected area.
The Forest department approached the Assam government to procure a Satellite Radio Collar to be attached to the wild tusker in Idukki before it is translocated from Idukki to Parambikulam.

 

Notes:
Indian government approved a project to build an advanced gravitational-wave detector in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 2,600 crore.
In the US, there are already two such LIGO observatories. The third such cutting-edge gravitational-wave observatory will be LIGO-India. The facility is expected to be completed by 2030.