Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medallist Tejaswin Shankar won the men’s high jump event at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix 2023 in Boston, USA.
At the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event, Tejaswin Shankar claimed first place with a jump of 2.26 metres. He beat the 38-year-old Donald Thomas of the Bahamas, a 2007 world champion.

Notes:
Scientists have discovered the oldest known stone tools in Kenya, dating back 2.9 million years, known as Oldowan toolkit.
This toolkit included hammer-stones, cores and flakes. It is a critical invention for early human ancestors that expanded across Africa and China. The discovery provides a glimpse of importance of stone technology in adapting to different environments.

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:
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:
Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It is the world’s largest mangrove delta, governed by the Governments of India and Bangladesh.
Wildlife enthusiasts spot 145 different species during the first Sundarban bird festival. Birds like Eurasian curlew, lesser sand plover and brown hawk owl were among the 5,065 birds that were spotted.

Notes:
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced an inflation relief package of Rs 19,000 crore in the state’s Budget for 2023-24.
The package aims to provide relief to the masses from rising prices. The package includes free food packets every month to poor families, LPG cylinders for Rs 500 under the Ujjwala Scheme and free electricity up to 100 units per month to domestic consumers. The coverage amount was raised from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana.

Notes:
The Kala Ghoda Association’s Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2023 was recently organised in Mumbai, Mahrashtra.
The festival began in 1999 and has evolved into a first-of-its-kind multi-disciplinary street art festival. The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival was held after two years at its iconic venue in Mumbai. It includes a number of verticals such as children, food, dance, literature, heritage walks among others.

Notes:
The winners of the 2023 Wolf Prize were announced recently. The eight recipients come from five different countries and three of the laureates are from the United States.
Israel’s Wolf Prize has been awarded since 1978 and is considered one of the world’s most prestigious awards for scientific and artistic achievements. The scientific categories include Medicine, Agriculture, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics. The art categories are in Painting and Sculpting, Music, and Architecture.

Notes:
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conducts Financial Literacy Week (FLW) every year since 2016 to propagate financial education messages.
The theme for this year’s Financial Literacy Week to be observed during February 13 – 17, 2023 is ‘Good Financial Behaviour, Your Saviour’, with emphasis on ‘Saving, planning, and budgeting’ and ‘Prudent use of digital financial services’.

Notes:
Periyar Tiger Reserve is a protected area in Kerala. It was declared as a national park in 1982. A 4-day bird survey, which was conducted recently by the state forest department, has identified 231 bird species in the Periyar Tiger Reserve
Among these birds, 14 were endangered and 20 were endemic to the Western Ghats. It also found the presence of 11 bird species that were not recorded during the previous surveys.