Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
Parli Vaijnath-Vikarabad Railway Electrification Project was completed recently, after which the entire route of 268 kilometers is now electrified.
Parli Vaijnath is a city of Maharashtra. The project will benefit the people of Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Notes:
The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is an Earth-observation satellite jointly developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The SUV-size satellite will be shipped to India in a special cargo container flight later this month. It is expected to be launched into outer space in 2024 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. NISAR will provide critical information on Earth’s crust, ice sheets, and ecosystems.

Notes:
Ricky Kej is an Indian musician and environmental activist. The Indian music composer recently won his third Grammy Award for the album ‘Divine Tides’.
He is the youngest person to win this award and only the fourth Indian to achieve this feat. He recently made another history by becoming the only living Indian to win the Grammy Award thrice.

Notes:
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the earthquake that hit Gaziantep in southern Turkey was the country’s worst disaster since 1939 Erzincan earthquake.
The 1939 Erzincan earthquake resulted in the deaths of around 33,000 individuals. It was caused by the movement of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, which resulted in a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. This earthquake caused damage to the Erzincan Plain and the Kelkit River Valley.

Notes:
Experts at the 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress in Canada have recommended the setting up of Marine Protected Areas.
Marine protected areas are regions in the ocean where human activities are regulated by the government. These protected areas are set up to address issues such as pollution, litter, overfishing, and climate change.

Notes:
Superbugs are types of germs, like bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites that are not easily killed by antibiotics.
According to a recent report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), superbugs could be a major cause of death in the future. Overuse of antibiotics in animal farming and pollution from pharmaceutical companies can cause these germs to become resistant to antibiotics.

Notes:
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India hiked the key policy rate, the Repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50 per cent in a bid to control the retail inflation.
The RBI has increased the repo rate by a cumulative 250 basis points to 6.50 per cent since May this year. The RBI has projected GDP growth for the next fiscal (FY2024) at 6.4 per cent.

Notes:
Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh recently inaugurated Mission Antyodaya Survey (MAS) 2022-23.
The objectives of the scheme are- conducting an annual survey at the Gram Panchayat level to monitor the progress in the development process in rural areas, Panchayat wise ranking and making Gap report, which serves as an important input for the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).

Notes:
PhonePe recently became the first Indian fintech company to enable payments abroad. It allows international transactions through Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
With this, Indian travellers can make UPI transactions to foreign merchants using PhonePe platform. Cross-border transaction facility by PhonePe will support all international outlets in UAE, Singapore, Nepal, Bhutan and Mauritius having local QR Code.

Notes:
The TARKASH exercise is a joint bilateral exercise between India’s National Security Guard (NSG) and US Special Operations Forces (SOF).
The sixth edition of this exercise is being held in Chennai from January 16 to February 14. This is the first time that the ‘Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) terror response’ is included in TARKASH.