Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2023

Notes:
The Asia Pacific Telecommunity was founded on the joint initiatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the International Telecommunication Union.
An important gathering of the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) is set to take place in Brisbane, with the primary objective of determining the future allocation of the 6 GHz spectrum band for 5G services in India.

Notes:
Taiwan staged its first-ever military drill at Taoyuan International Airport, halting commercial traffic as soldiers practised defending the facility against a simulated attack by Beijing.
The exercise is part of Taiwan’s week-long massive wargames, the annual “Han Kuang” (Han Glory) drills. This is the first such drill held at Taiwan’s biggest airport near the capital since it opened in 1979.

Notes:
The single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars is called as ‘Formula E’. Jake Dennis became the first British driver to win the all-electric Formula E world championship when he finished second for Avalanche Andretti in the London E-prix.
Formula E’s first season was in 2014-15 and Dennis is the eighth driver to take the title with France’s Jean-Eric Vergne the only double champion.

Notes:
Shia Muslims around the world take out Ashura processions to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in present day Iraq
Thousands of Shia Muslims in Srinagar held a Muharram procession for the first time in over three decades, following the government’s permission.

Notes:
Pension regulator PFRDA has barred Annuity Service Providers (ASPs) from deploying any agency of intermediaries for sourcing annuities business from NPS subscribers upon their retirement or exit from the NPS.
Annuities under National Pension System (NPS) can be issued by ASPs only under direct channels, as per the official sources.

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.

Notes:
The country’s per capita income is likely to grow by close to 70 per cent to USD 4,000 by fiscal 2030 from USD 2,450 in fiscal 2023.
This will help the country to become a middle-income economy with USD 6-trillion GDP. Per capita income/GDP has risen from USD 460 in fiscal 2001 to USD 1,413 in fiscal 2011 and to USD 2,150 in fiscal 2021. The biggest growth driver will be external trade, followed by household consumption.

Notes:
In 2018, the Indian government introduced the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) as a measure to take action against individuals accused of committing significant economic frauds and fleeing the country to escape prosecution.
Under this act, 10 people have been declared as fugitive economic offenders by various courts, from 19 people booked by the Enforcement Directorate. These economic offenders were involved in fraud of over Rs 40,000 crores.

Notes:
India’s gross revenues from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hit a three-month high to cross ₹1.65 lakh crore in July 2023. July’s collections were 2.2% higher than the previous month’s GST collection.
However, at 10.8%, it was the slowest uptick in collections since July 2021 compared to revenues from the same month last year.

Notes:
Brazil’s Operation Shield is a police operation that targeted criminal gangs in slums areas in Rio de Janeiro.
At least 45 people have lost their lives in a recent series of lethal security force operations conducted in Brazil.