Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2023

Notes:
The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 Mission will be launched aboard the ISRO’s PSLV in 2024. Its two satellites will study the Sun’s faint corona and surrounding atmosphere.
The 340-kilogram spacecraft will be deployed by PSLV in a high Earth orbit with an orbital period of 19.7 hours.

Notes:
National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has been dissolved after it refused to comply with a tough new party registration law imposed by Myanmar’s military.
The military, which seized power in a coup in February 2021, set a deadline for political parties to re-register under the restrictive new law. It has promised to hold an election, though such a vote has been widely dismissed as lacking in any credibility.

Notes:
Lynx-U2 System is an indigenously developed naval gun fire control system. The Union Defence Ministry recently signed a contract with BEL for the procurement of 13 of these systems for the Indian Navy.
The purchase under the Buy Indian – IDMM (Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Manufactured) category will be placed on new-gen offshore patrol vessels to be constructed indigenously at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers and Goa Shipyard Limited.

Notes:
Russia’s Decree on Spring Conscription was signed by President Vladimir Putin recently. The spring conscription campaign is calling 147,000 Russian citizens up for statutory military service.
Last September Putin signed an order calling up 120,000 people for the autumn campaign.

Notes:
Saudi Arabia agrees to join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a dialogue partner. Saudi Arabia builds a long-term partnership with China despite U.S. security concerns.
The country has approved a memorandum on granting the kingdom the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Notes:
Former US President Donald Trump becomes first ex-President to be charged with crime. He will be charged over hush money payments made to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election.
The former President is also being investigated in several other cases. They include probes into his role in the US Capitol riot of January 2021, his efforts to overturn his loss in the state of Georgia in the 2020 election, and his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

Notes:
The government has raised the interest rates across all small savings schemes except the post office savings deposit and the Public Provident Fund (PPF) for the April-June 2023 quarter.
The Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme too will enjoy a higher rate of interest – up from the existing 7.6 percent to 8 percent. The interest rate on the National Savings Certificate (NSC) has been hiked from 7 percent to 7.7 percent for the April – June 2023 quarter.

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:
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.

Notes:
Minister of Culture, Tourism and Development of North Eastern Region G. Kishan Reddy hosted the first India-Central Asia Culture Ministers’ Meeting virtually.
The Culture Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in the meeting. The India-Central Asia Summit hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022.