Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2023

Notes:
Union Commerce minister Piyush Goyal is visiting New York and Washington DC to participate in India-US Trade Policy Forum.
After roundtable meetings with business leaders and think tanks in New York, he will attend the 13th Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in Washington DC.  The 12th TPF Ministerial meeting was held on 23 November 2021 after a gap of four years in New Delhi.

Notes:
India has handed 75 passenger buses to Sri Lanka, as part of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. This is a part of its assistance towards strengthening public transport infrastructure in the cash-strapped country.
Sri Lankan government in May last year declared a debt default on over $51 billion in the foreign loan – a first in the country’s history.

Notes:
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh handed over and dedicated the Kangla Nongpok Thong, an eastern gate of the historic Kangla fort in Imphal to the people of the state.
The Nongpok Thong will be manned by India Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel while the Nongchup Thong (western gate) will remain closed. The Nongpok Thong was constructed through Imphal Smart City Limited (ISCL) as Funding Agency.

Notes:
The National Health Authority (NHA) is introducing a new system to measure and grade hospital performance under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
The new initiative will introduce the concept of ‘value- based care’, where payment will be outcome based and providers will be rewarded according to the quality of the treatment delivered. The providers will be rewarded for helping the patients improve their health.

Notes:
The Central government has extended the tenure of Dr Michael Debabrata Patra as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for one more year.
Michael Debabrata Patra took over as Deputy Governor of the RBI in January 2020. He was an Executive Director of India’s central bank before being elevated to the post of Deputy Governor.

Notes:
The child mortality or under-five mortality rate refers to the probability a newborn would die before reaching exactly 5 years of age. It is expressed per 1,000 live births.
As per the ‘Levels & trends in child mortality 2022’ released by UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), an estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021.

Notes:
India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences released the ‘Statement on climate of India during 2022’ report.
As per the report, the annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over India during 2022 was +0.510C above the long-term average (1981-2010 period). The year 2022 was the fifth warmest year on record since nationwide records commenced in 1901.

Notes:
Prithvi Shaw scored a triple century for Mumbai against Assam in the Ranji Trophy. This was Shaw’s maiden triple hundred in First-Class cricket, while his previous best score was 202.

Shaw became the eighth Mumbai batter to reach the milestone. The 23-year-old has scored over 3300 runs in his 41-match first-class career with 12 centuries and 15 half-centuries.

Notes:
The Global Risks Report 2023 was recently released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). As per the report, failure to mitigate climate change’ as well as ‘failure of climate change adaptation’ are the two most severe risks facing the world in the next decade.
They are followed by ‘natural disasters and extreme weather events’ and ‘Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse’.

Notes:
Uganda declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged almost four months ago and claimed lives of 55 people.
The disease was first detected in September in the district of Mubende. The outbreak was caused by the Sudan Ebola virus, one among six species of the Ebola virus. There is currently no confirmed vaccine for the virus.