Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2023

Notes:
Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) approved the Guidelines for Institutional Development Plan (IDP) for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
These guidelines are intended to assist HEIs in attaining academic and research excellence while enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. Additionally, the IDP will offer direction to HEIs in exercising academic, administrative, financial, and business autonomy, while maintaining accountability.

Notes:
The government has said that integration of child helpline with Emergency Response Support System, ERSS -112 has been completed in nine States in the first phase.
These States are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Ladakh, Puducherry, and Mizoram. A 24×7 dedicated WCD Control Room is set up for Child Helpline in each State and Union Territory and integrated with ERSS-112.

Notes:
The Italian parliament has given its approval to a contentious bill that makes it a criminal offense for citizens to travel abroad to pursue surrogacy arrangements.
This law, which has faced significant opposition, is specifically aimed at discouraging Italians from participating in surrogacy arrangements, and it carries the possibility of substantial fines exceeding USD 1 million and potential prison sentences of up to two years for those found guilty.

Notes:
OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic have teamed up to create the Frontier Model Forum, aiming to regulate the development of large machine learning models, particularly “frontier AI models” that surpass current advanced capabilities.
These foundation models pose potential risks to public safety, and the forum will focus on ensuring their safe and responsible development, collaborating with policymakers, academics, and companies to advance AI safety research and establish best practices for deploying such models.

Notes:
In a historic decline, Japan’s population decreased in all 47 prefectures for the first time, while the number of foreign residents reached a record high of nearly three million people.
The population of Japanese nationals decreased by around 800,000 individuals, or 0.65%, to 122.4 million in 2022 compared to the previous year, marking the 14th consecutive year of decline.

Notes:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has decided to enable listed and unlisted domestic companies to directly list their equity shares on the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Ahmedabad.
The decision will facilitate access to global capital and result in a better valuation of the Indian companies. The Finance Minister also launched Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) and AMC Repo Clearing Ltd (ARCL).

Notes:
The NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has recently captured a captivating near-infrared image of the dynamic young stars, Herbig-Haro 46/47.
These are in the Vela constellation, which are about 1,470 light-years away from Planet Earth. These stars are actively forming and orbiting each other in a mesmerizing display. These stats are an  important object to study because it is relatively young — only a few thousand years old.

Notes:
The Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Mela is a scheme pertaining to the state of Uttar Pradesh, was started in the year 2020. It has benefited over 12 crore patients in the state.
The Union Health Ministry has planned to adopt Uttar Pradesh’s successful healthcare model, including the concept of Jan Arogya Mela, which provide medical attention to attendees and refer critical patients to specialized hospitals.

Notes:
Singapore has hanged a 45-year-old woman who was caught with 31 grams of heroin. This is the first time the city-state has executed a woman in nearly 20 years.
Saridewi Binte Djamani was hanged after being convicted of trafficking “not less than 30.72 grams” of the drug in 2018.

Notes:
To counter AePS fraud involving spoofed fingerprints in Aadhaar authentication, the UIDAI has introduced an in-house AI/ML-based Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image Record (FMR-FIR) system.
This technology verifies the authenticity of a fingerprint by detecting cloned fingerprints during the authentication process.