Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
North Korea stole more cryptocurrency assets in 2022 than in any other year, as per a recent report by United Nations.
As per the report, most of the money stolen was used to support its ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programmes. North Korea-linked hackers stole virtual assets worth USD 630 million while its cyber currency heist stood at USD 1 billion.

Notes:
India signed a MoU with Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle Joint Business Council (IMT-GT JBC), to promote adoption of energy efficiency.
The MoU was signed during the Working group meeting of G20 on energy transition at Bengaluru. The MoU aims to further promote the adoption of energy efficiency and sustainable practices. Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) signed MoU with IMT-GT JBC coinciding with the India Energy Week celebrations.

Notes:
The One District One Product (ODOP) initiative is aimed at promoting balanced regional development across all districts of the country.
ODOP has been merged with ‘Districts as Export Hubs Initiative’ being run by the Department of Commerce (DoC) with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as a major stakeholder. Under the ODOP- Districts as Export Hubs initiative, products with export potential have been recently identified from all 765 districts of the country.

Notes:
India’s national accreditation system ranked fifth in the world in the Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021.
The GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of the quality infrastructure (QI). India’s overall QI system ranking continues to be in the 10th position, with the standardization system (under BIS) at 9th and the metrology system (under NPL-CSIR) at 21st position in the world.

Notes:
Quasicrystal is a substance that has atoms orderly arranged like a crystal but its atomic structure is more complex and does not repeat periodically in all directions. This unique complex pattern makes it different from a normal crystal.
Recently, a new type of quasicrystal was discovered in the north central Nebraska’s Sand Hills in the USA.  It had 12-fold symmetry. It may have been created during an accidental electrical discharge because of a downed power line or a lightning strike.

Notes:
Nigeria has recently announced demonetization to address corruption and bring down inflation. Its purpose is to bring back most of the money that is in circulation outside the banking system and to minimize money laundering.
Nigerians are required to turn in their old 1,000, 500 and 200 naira banknotes as part of this initiative in return for new naira notes. With the African country being largely dependent on cash, the shortage of new naira notes is causing chaos in Nigeria.

Notes:
Dayanand Saraswati was an Indian philosopher and social reformer who founded the Arya Samaj, a movement aimed at promoting Hindu reformation and the pursuit of Vedic knowledge.
He believed in the unity of God and rejected the caste system and idol worship. Dayanand Saraswati is known for highlighting the importance of education, particularly for girls and the downtrodden sector. His birth anniversary was recently observed in India.

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.

Notes:
‘Forever chemicals’ is a term used to describe a group of synthetic chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are highly persistent in the environment and resist degradation.
They are called ‘forever’ chemicals because they do not break down naturally and can persist for decades or even centuries. A new study led by Oxford University found high levels of forever chemicals in the ice around Norway’s Svalbard.

Notes:
The Tanimbar corella, which is also referred to as Goffin’s cockatoo, is a type of cockatoo that is found exclusively in the forests of Yamdena, Larat, and Selaru islands in the Tanimbar Islands archipelago in Indonesia.
It was later introduced to the Kai Islands, Singapore, and Puerto Rico. A new study found that Goffin’s cockatoos are capable of combining multiple tools to achieve a complex task that is only been recorded in humans and chimpanzees.