Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2023

Notes:
The National Conference on ‘Moving Mental Health Beyond Institutions’ was inaugurated recently in New Delhi.
The main purpose of the conference is to address the difficulties faced during the execution of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, and to engage in thoughtful discussions about the future steps to resolve mental health concerns.

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:
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:
China successfully launched its first communications satellite, Lingxi-03, featuring an ultra-thin flexible solar wing to test technologies for a massive 13,000-satellite broadband mega constellation in low-Earth orbit.
It aims to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. The satellite was launched atop a Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in central China.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) added two semiconductor design startups, Aheesa Digital Innovations, and Calligo Technologies, to the SemiconIndia futureDESIGN DLI scheme.
This was announced during the 2nd edition of the SemiconIndia 2023 conference in Gandhinagar. These startups/MSMEs will receive support under the scheme.

Notes:
During the G20 EMPOWER summit in Gandhinagar, India introduced TechEquity, a digital inclusion platform aimed at reducing the gender digital gap.
It is one of the key outcomes of India’s G20 presidency and it will be free for women to use. It will have courses on digital and financial literacy, tech skill development and core skill enhancement. The platform – to be funded by India for the next three years – will be maintained by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci).

Notes:
The second Russia–Africa Summit was held at St. Petersburg, Russia on 27 and 28 July 2023. It was originally scheduled to be held at African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.
At the commencement of the Summit, President Putin promised to provide free grain shipments to six African countries. Under this commitment, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea will receive 25,000-50,000 tons of grain in the upcoming months.

Notes:
Formula One racing driver Max Verstappen secured his eighth win in a row, one short of the all-time record, at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Verstappen won the race with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez clinching second position and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at third place.

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:
The ‘2023 Plastic Overshoot Day’ Report was released recently by the Swiss-based research consultancy Earth Action.
According to this report, approximately 68,642,999 tonnes of extra plastic waste will be dumped into the environment this year.