Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced an all-13-member female panel of match officials for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in next month in South Africa. The Indian trio of GS Lakshmi, Vrinda Rathi, and Janani Narayanan are included in the group.

Notes:
Pakistan cricketer Babar Azam wins the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Sir Garfield Sobers award for cricketer of the year.
The Pakistan skipper was picked for both the ‘ODI Cricketer of the Year’ and the ‘Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of 2022’. He was the only player to breach the 2000-run mark in 2022 across all formats.

Notes:
In Madhya Pradesh, two Indian Air Force fighter aircraft (Sukhoi-30 and Mirage 2000) crashed in the Pahadgarh area.
Indian Air Force has ordered an inquiry to find the cause of accident of two fighter planes. The two aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior air base in Madhya Pradesh, as they were on a routine operational flying training mission.

Notes:
Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus beats Elena Rybakina to secure the women’s singles title in Australian Open 2023.
Aryna Sabalenka is the first athlete without a flag to win a singles Grand Slam since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sabalenka, seeded 5th, will regain her second ranking after winning her first major championship. Sabalenka has 11 victories and two titles, so far in the year.

Notes:
Scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) in Pune have found a rare low-altitude basalt plateau in the Western Ghats.
This new plateau found by ARI team in Thane, Maharashtra could hold clues to how plant species globally survive climate change.

Notes:
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that one-year work experience would be made compulsory for recruitment in state government departments.
The practice would help the government in getting skilled manpower. The Chief Minister also launched ‘Har Ghar Dhyan’ organized by the Directorate of Art and Culture in collaboration with Art of Living.

Notes:
Finland has invited Indian tech employees to migrate there for work, offering opportunities as global tech companies lay off thousands of employees. Over 10,000 Indians live in Finland for work and education.
Finland aims to double work-based migration and triple study-based migration by 2030. Business Finland, a government organisation for innovation funding and trade, travel and investments signed MoU with the Confederation of Indian Industry for talent mobility, in December 2022.

Notes:
After floating over the US for days, a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon has been shot down by the US Defence officials.
The balloon is said to have a payload the size of several buses. China’s foreign ministry denied that the balloon was used for surveillance, and it said that it was a civilian airship used for meteorological and other scientific research

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:
In the Union Budget 2023, the Government enhanced the outlay for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by 66 per cent to 79000 crore.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is an initiative by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The Finance Minister also proposed to use Permanent Account Number (PAN) card as a common identifier for all digital systems of government agencies.