Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2023

Notes:
Utsa Patnaik, a famous economist, has been chosen for the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award 2023. The award is conferred every year by the Malcolm & Elizabeth Adiseshiah Trust to honour social scientists.
Utsa Patnaik, a renowned Indian Marxian economist, taught at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Notes:
In 2018, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud read down the law that criminalized homosexuality, citing the idea of indirect discrimination where seemingly neutral laws could disproportionately disadvantage a group.
This marked the first time that indirect discrimination was recognized in the equality jurisprudence by the Supreme Court.

Notes:
Recently, a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel have reported that their team pick up distress noises – very distinct, high-pitched sounds in the ultrasonic range made by plants when they faced stress.
This phenomenon was stated a century ago by Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, who demonstrated that plants feel pain and have sensations just like animals.

Notes:
The Indian Government has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for the development of hydrogen valley innovation clusters (HVIC) in the country.
According to the DST guidelines, a hydrogen valley is a specific geographic region where hydrogen serves more than one end sector or application.

Notes:
The National Highways Logistics Management (NHLML), a fully-owned special purpose vehicle of the Indian Government, is set to develop a digital highway network by setting up integrated utility corridors along national highways.
As part of this initiative, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has designed 1,367 km of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and 512 km of the Hyderabad-Bangalore Corridor as pilot routes for digital highway development.

Notes:
Russia’s Andrey Rublev wins Monte Carlo title after winning the final against Denmark’s Holger Rune.
The player was deprived of his national flag after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 19-year-old Rune had defeated five Top 10 players to win the title in Paris last year.

Notes:
The two-day EU-India Aviation Summit was held in New Delhi. It focuses on air transport relations and the mutually shared challenges and opportunities of the EU and India.
During the summit, a declaration of intent was signed by Airport Authority of India with Eurocontrol, and a letter of intent memorandum of understanding was signed by DGCA with the European Union Aviation Safety for closer cooperation.

Notes:
The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE) issues regular reviews of the state of the planet’s ice sheets.
It is supported by the US and European space agencies. As per the scientists, mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica is now responsible for a quarter of all sea-level rise.

Notes:
The Defence Ministry conducted a two-day coastal security exercise called ‘Sagar Kavach’ off the coast of Kerala and Mahe to evaluate potential threats from the sea and assess the preparedness level of coastal security agencies by simulating real-time threats and contingencies.
The exercise involved deploying various coastal security apparatus of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and other maritime security agencies.

Notes:
As per the Hurun’s Global Unicorn Index, India has retained its 3rd spot as the country with the highest number of unicorns worldwide.
With 68 new unicorns, India lags behind the US and China, which have 666 and 316 unicorns, respectively. India added 14 new unicorns since the pandemic began, but none of the start-ups made it to the top 10.  According to the report, BYJU’s is the top-most unicorn in India, with a valuation of USD 22 billion, followed by Swiggy and Dream11.