Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
Kiruna is a town in northern Sweden that houses over 18,000 individuals and a tonne wooden church.
This town is currently under threat of being consumed by the world’s largest iron ore mine that is under the control of the Swedish state-owned company LKAB. This entire town is currently being relocated and it is considered as one of the significant relocations happened in the world.

Notes:
Guru Ravidass Jayanti is celebrated to mark the birth of Guru Ravidas, a mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement during the 15th century.
The poet was a contemporary of Kabir Das and he taught monotheistic spirituality and message of equality and liberation from Indian caste system. His teachings are widely followed in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, among others.

Notes:
The eXperiential Technology Innovation Centre (XTIC) is a newly established research institute in IIT Madras.
It is India’s research and product innovation centre focusing on extended reality and haptics technology. An MoU was signed recently between ISRO and the IIT Madras to develop a training module for the Indian spaceflight programme at the XTIC. It will be developed using the augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.

Notes:
The Union Budget 2023-24 has allocated Rs. 2,516 crore for the computerization of 63,000 PACS over the next 5 years.
Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) are village-level cooperative credit societies that act as the last link to the 3-tier cooperative credit structure, which is headed by the State Cooperative Bank or SCB. Credit from the SCB is transferred to the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs), which will then transfer the credit to the PACS.

Notes:
US President Joe Biden recently delivered the State of the Union (SOTU) Address at the Joint Session of the Parliament in the US Capitol in Washington DC.
This is Biden’s second SOTU address. According to the country’s Constitution, the US President is required to deliver the state of the Union to Congress and recommend measures that he judges to be necessary and beneficial.

Notes:
The Black Galaxy or ‘Invisible galaxy’ was recently discovered by researchers in Italy. It was found and characterised using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array.
The Black Galaxy is compact and has a large amount of interstellar dust. It is forming stars at a rate 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way.

Notes:
Bangladesh recorded a 7.10 percent GDP growth rate for the Financial Year (FY) 2022 which marks an increase from 6.94 percent in FY 2021 and 3.45 percent in FY 2020.
As per the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the per capita income of Bangladesh is USD 2793. The service sector in the Bangladesh economy has the highest share of 51.48 percent.

Notes:
In Chile, at least 23 people were killed in devastating forest fires which occurred after a blistering heat wave in the central part of the country.
The state of emergency has been extended in the South American country. According to an official briefing on Saturday at least 979 people have been affected following the calamity.

Notes:
Myanmar’s military-led government has inaugurated a nuclear power information centre, along with Russia’s state atomic energy company.
This is seen as a step toward developing atomic power to fill energy shortages in the Southeast Asian nation. Myanmar hopes to build and operate a reactor under a preliminary agreement between Myanmar and Russia’s Rosatom that was signed in 2015

Notes:
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, launched a comprehensive campaign plan, ‘Digital Payments Utsav, in New Delhi.
Digital Payments Utsav, has been planned this year to promote Digital Payments across the country and to celebrate the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and G20 Presidency. Digital Payment Sandesh Yatra was also flagged off to make citizens aware of digital payment solutions. DigiDhan awards were presented to banks that perform well in digital payments.