Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
The United States and the Philippines announced plans to expand America’s military presence in the Southeast Asian nation.
The countries decided to accelerate full implementation of their ‘Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)’. As part of the agreement, the U.S. has allocated $82 million toward infrastructure improvements at five current EDCA sites. This will provide access to four more bases to the US.

Notes:
The First G-20 Energy Transition Working Group meeting was recently inaugurated in Bengaluru in the presence of Union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy R K Singh and Union Minister of Coal and Mines Prahlad Joshi.
India stands committed to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 45 percent by 2030 from 2005 level. The country also aims to achieve close to 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.

Notes:
Medium-density Amorphous (MDA) Ice is a new form of ice that was recently discovered by scientists. This ice has same density and structure as water.
The ice was created by scientists in a container with stainless steel balls at a -200°C. The MDA ice does not have any ordered structure. It will provide the opportunity to improve the understanding of the properties of water.

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:
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 4 February as the International Day of Human Fraternity in 2020.
It celebrates the values of compassion, religious understanding, and mutual respect. On the occasion, the UN chief called for renewed commitment to form an ‘alliance of peace’ amid a surge in hate speech, sectarianism and strife.

Notes:
Bard is an AI chatbot that is being developed by Google as a competitor for the popular Microsoft-backed ChatGPT.
Bard will use AI to generate answers in text when queries are typed by the users. This chatbot will function based on the AI model called LaMDA, which was introduced by Google in 2021 as a generative language model for dialogue applications.

Notes:
The Trade Receivable Discounting System (TReDS) is an electronic platform that facilitates the financing or discounting, trading and settling invoices of the MSMEs.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to expand the scope of the TReDS to allow the use of insurance facilities. This will facilitate secondary market operations on the TReDS.

Notes:
The Wetland Ex-Situ Conservation Establishment (WESCE) is a zoo that is being proposed by the state government of Rajasthan.
It is set to be established within the Keoladeo National Park, a World Heritage Site also known as the Bharatpur bird sanctuary. The WESCE will display a range of wetland species like water buffaloes, dolphins, crocodiles, and others.

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:
The ‘zero-draft’ of the pandemic treaty was launched recently by the World Health Organization’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB).
The international treaty is expected to be presented at the World Health Assembly in 2024. The aim of the pandemic treaty is to strengthen national and international-level preparedness against future pandemics.