Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2023

Notes:
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh inaugurated a conference on ‘Opportunities for Multilateral Business Partnerships in ICT, Tourism, Healthcare and Handloom’ in Imphal.
This was the first of the four sessions of B20 scheduled in Northeast India. B20 is the official G20 dialogue forum for the global business community. Manipur had launched new Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy, Industrial Single Window Clearance Act, 2021 and Integrated Logistics Policy, 2022 for ease of doing business.

Notes:
Rann Utsav was conceptualised as a three-day festival, which progressively evolved into a 100-day celebration at Dhordo, a village near Rann of Kutch.
A whole new tent city has been created, replete with temporary infrastructure built and rebuilt every year. The Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar arrived in Kutch, Gujarat  and participated in the Rann Utsav. It celebrates the nature at the White Desert and the rich cultural and artistic heritage of Kutch.

Notes:
The New START Treaty is the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced Russia’s intention to suspend the participation in this treaty.
The treaty caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the two countries can deploy. It was signed in 2010 between former US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Notes:
Whale stranding is a phenomenon that occurs when whales become stranded on land, and cannot return to the ocean.
Several factors have been proposed as reason for mass stranding, including the topography of the region, illness, human activities, and increasing noise pollution in the oceans. Certain regions such as Tasmania, New Zealand’s Golden Bay, and Massachusetts’s Cape Cod are known hotspots for whale stranding. Recently, 14 pilot whales got stranded on the shore of Sri Lanka’s Kalpitiya.

Notes:
Researchers have discovered the fifth layer of the Earth by measuring seismic waves generated by earthquakes.
They revealed the presence of a solid “metallic ball” at the centre of the inner core, referred to as the ‘innermost inner core’. This is expected to reveal new insights into the deepest parts of the planet’s inner core.

Notes:
INS Sindhukesari is a Sindhughosh-class diesel-electric submarine belonging to the Indian Navy. This 3,000 tonne submarine underwent a major ‘medium refit-cum-life extension’ in Russia’s Severodvinsk that ended in 2018.
INS Sindhukesari recently reached Jakarta in Indonesia for the ‘maiden operational turnaround’ via the Sunda Strait. This is the first long-range deployment of a submarine.

Notes:
The US administration has unveiled a new Commercial Arms Transfer (CAT) policy that places greater emphasis on human rights in its arms export policy,
This is in contrast to the Trump-era policy that gave more importance to commercial considerations. The new policy covers the review of government-to-government weapons transfers, security assistance, and licensed commercial sales of US-origin military equipment overseen by various government departments.

Notes:
The I2U2 Group consists of four countries – India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Recently, the inaugural I2U2 Business Forum was organized in Abu Dhabi. This meeting discussed the possibility of building integrated agricultural facilities across India.

Notes:
The Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI) mobile wallet has been launched in Bhutan. During its launch, Bhutan’s Crown Prince Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck became the country’s first digital citizen.
This makes Bhutan government the first in the world to create a national digital identity system in a self-sovereign framework. Its aim is to provide citizens and residents with secure and verifiable identity credentials.

Notes:
The Institute for Competitiveness released the second edition of the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Index 2022. It measures the literacy of children below the age of 10.
The index measures states based on five key parameters including educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes, and governance. It ranked West Bengal as the top performer and Uttar Pradesh as the lowest among large state category.