Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Film Festival began with a grand opening ceremony in Mumbai.
Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Singh Thakur and Minister of State Meenakshi Lekhi inaugurated the SCO Film Festival. The SCO Film Festival organized to mark India’s Presidency at SCO and to showcase the diversity of films from the SCO region.

Notes:
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is a statutory body established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
FSSAI recently notified financial regulations and according to the FSSAI (Finance) Regulations, 2023, it will maintain a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Fund. This fund will include grants given to the food authority by the Central government among others. This will be annually audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Power has finalized the draft National Electricity Policy and has sought comments from the states and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
An expert committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Gireesh Pradhan, Ex-Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, to prepare and recommend National Electricity Policy (NEP), 2021.

Notes:
In New Zealand, deadly flood emergency continued after heavy rainfall hit the country’s north island, causing landslides and flash floods.
At least three people have died and one is missing after New Zealand’s largest city Auckland experienced its wettest day. The nation’s weather forecaster, MetService, warned of more severe weather across Auckland.

Notes:
Hibbertopterus lamsdelli is a new species of Giant Sea Scorpion. It belongs to Hibbertopteridae, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods in the Order Eurypterida. Eurypterids are better known as sea scorpions.
The species existed during the Kasimovian age, between 307 and 303 million years ago. Its diet included small crustaceans, ostracodes, conchostracans, invertebrate larvae and gastropod eggs.

Notes:
Netherlands emerged as India’s third largest exports destination after the US and UAE during April-December 2022.
The change is due to a surge in shipment of goods such as petroleum products, electronic items, chemicals, and aluminium goods. India’s trade surplus with the Netherlands has also increased from USD 1.5 billion in 2017 to USD 12.3 billion in 2022.

Notes:
Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais sent the ‘1932 Khatiyan Bill’ back to the Hemant Soren government for reconsideration.
The Governor described it to be violative of Article 16 of the Constitution and court rulings. The state government had passed the ‘Jharkhand definition of local persons and for extending the consequential, social, cultural and other benefits to such local persons Bill, 2022’.

Notes:
Sri Lanka marked its 75th independence anniversary on 4^th February 2023. Several activists, Buddhists and Christian clergy announced a boycott of the celebration in the capital.
A group of activists began a silent protest in the capital, condemning government’s independence celebration and failure to ease the economic burden. University students also attempted a protest march.

Notes:
The Union Budget 2023 announced that the ‘National Data Governance Policy’ will be brought out to aid innovation and research by start-ups and academia.
It seeks for the formation of an India Data Management Office (IDMO) under the IT ministry. The new policy reform is that the anonymized datasets will be offered as part of the India datasets programmes to the Artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Notes:
India and the USA have agreed to constitute task force to boost cooperation in semiconductor industry.
The task force will involve India’s Semiconductor Mission, India Electronics Semiconductor Association and the US Semiconductor Industry Association.  This was announced during the inaugural meeting of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).