Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2023

Notes:
SEBI decided to set up a corporate debt market development fund in the form of an Alternative Investment Fund.
Corporate Debt Market Development Fund will be set up with an initial corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. It will function as a backstop facility for buying investment grade corporate debt securities during stressful times.

Notes:
Akash Weapon System is a short-range surface to air missile air defence system. The Indian government has signed a contract to procure this system for the Indian Army.
Defence PSU Bharat Dynamics won orders worth over Rs 8,400 crore for production and supply of Akash Weapon System to two regiments of the Indian Army.

Notes:
Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism, which was passed recently by the country’s parliament, will force coal mines and oil refineries to minimize emissions by around 4 percent each year.
It is part of the efforts taken by the government to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Notes:
The US state of Georgia recently became the first American state to pass a resolution condemning Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu bigotry.
It seeks to build upon a 2022 report by Rutgers University that found there has been a noticeable surge in anti-Hindu disinformation.

Notes:
To mark the moment of the first Indian Steamship “S.S. LOYALTY”, Mumbai, venturing into international water on her maiden voyage from Mumbai to London (UK) in 1919, April 5 was marked as “National Maritime Day.”
The government is celebrating National Maritime Week from March 30, 2023, to April 5, 2023, paying tribute to the services of seafarers.

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:
In the financial year 2022-2023, procurement of goods and services from government portal Government e Marketplace (GeM) has crossed the Rs 2 lakh crore mark.
After the GeM portal was launched in 2017, business worth about Rs 400 crore was done and the business tripled last year to Rs 1 lakh crores, while it reached the 2 lakh crore-mark in 5 years.

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:
Mahila Nidhi is the first-ever women’s cooperative fund launched by Rajasthan. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot approved a proposal for giving 8% interest subsidy on loans obtained by the members of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) from Mahila Nidhi.
Mahila Nidhi is operated entirely by women and acts as a complementary body with the formal banking system.