Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
The Indian Armed Forces are looking to procure 18 armed Predator MQ 9A drones from the United States.
Of these 18 drones, six will be provided for each of the three armed forces. These unmanned aerial vehicles are capable of flying up to 50,000 feet for a maximum duration of 24 hours. It is capable of carrying air-to-ground missiles to target high-value ground targets or air-to-air missiles.

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:
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:
The Paris Club is an informal group of creditor nations that functions as a platform for official creditors that resolves payment issues faced by debtor countries. All of its 22 member states belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Paris Club has recently decided to offer financial support to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Sri Lanka’s debt.

Notes:
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced a Global Climate Resilience Fund of 50 million dollars for women to fight climate change.
She announced the fund while addressing salt pan workers near Kuda village in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district. The fund will empower women and communities to fight climate change and help provide new livelihood resources and education.

Notes:
Yaya Tso has been recently proposed as Ladakh’s first biodiversity heritage site (BHS) under the Biological Diversity Act.. It is also known as birds’ paradise for its beautiful lake located at an altitude of 4,820 metres.
Yaya Tso is a nesting habitat for bar-headed goose, black-necked crane and brahminy duck and it it also has the distinction of being one of the highest breeding sites of the black-necked crane in India.

Notes:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare signed an MoU with Digital Green under a public-private partnership framework to build a ‘National-level digital extension platform’.
The platform will host a digital library of multi-format multi-lingual content and upskill extension workers for agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, livestock and rural livelihood missions through certified online courses.

Notes:
US Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank recently introduced Wall Street bank stress-test scenarios.
The central bank will examine the ability of the 23 biggest US lenders to withstand crisis conditions without degrading their capital. For the first time, the so-called stress test will feature an ‘exploratory market shock’ to the trading books of the largest and most complex banks.

Notes:
QR code-based coin vending machine or QCVM has been announced as a part of the recently concluded RBI Monetary policy.
QCVM is intended to dispense coins similar to how ATMs dispense currency notes. Coins can be withdrawn using the UPI QR code in designated vending machines. RBI plans to launch the product in 19 locations across 12 cities.

Notes:
Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah is an Arabic academy that exclusively caters to the education of children belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community.
Prime Minister Modi recently inaugurated a new Mumbai campus of the Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah. It is the second such campus in India. The first campus was set up in 1810 in Surat.