Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2023

Notes:
22-year-old Vaidehi Chaudhari has clinched the USD 15,000 ITF women’s tournament singles in Gwalior after beating top seed Ksenia Laskutova.
It was Vaidehi’s maiden singles title in the professional circuit. She had won her maiden doubles title earlier with Laskutova as her partner. Vaidehi is also the reigning National Tennis champion.

Notes:
The Telangana government has decided to join the free rice scheme of the Centre under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The Central scheme aims to supply five kgs of rice per head per month in a family to 54.44 lakh NFSA cardholders in the State. The State government will extend the scheme to an additional 35.52 lakh cardholders at its own cost.

Notes:
At present, the government and state-owned Life Insurance Corporation hold a little over 94 per cent in IDBI Bank and are classified as its co-promoters. The central government is looking to sell nearly 61 per cent stake in IDBI Bank.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) accepted the central government’s request to reclassify its shareholding in the Bank after its disinvestment as ‘public holding’.

Notes:
Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance commenced a three-week long organ donation initiative. As part of the initiative, a relay marathon called Zindagi Express is organised to tour nearly 5,500 km across the country to raise awareness about organ donation.
For the fourth year in a row, it joined hands with Mohan Foundation, an NGO working in the organ donation landscape.

Notes:
Odisha Government recently inaugurated the ‘Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium’ in Rourkela. The state government claims that it is the world’s largest facility in terms of seating capacity and certified by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
The Rourkela facility will host the Men’s World Cup Hockey, organised by the FIH, along with Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from January 13 to 29, 2023.

Notes:
‘SPRINT Challenges’ was launched to give a boost to the usage of indigenous technology to Indian Navy
Recently, the Indian Navy has inked an agreement with Sagar Defence Engineering for acquiring armed autonomous boat swarms. This is the 50th contract that has been signed under ‘SPRINT’ challenge.

Notes:
IIT-Kharagpur has handed over ‘iWeld’ software to Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE).
The new software detects the defects in welding from the radiography images taken of an object, by using artificial intelligence. The software, tested over a large number of samples at GRSE, was found to provide results that were 93.18 per cent accurate

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:
Indian Bank has received the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulatory approval to hold special rupee vostro accounts of three banks from Sri Lanka.
A vostro account in local currency would allow Sri Lanka to import from India without dipping into its dollar supply, as the country is facing a worst forex crunch.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank has announced the indicative calendar for the issuance of Sovereign Green Bonds. Accordingly, two auctions will be conducted for an amount of eight thousand crore rupees each.
The RBI has informed that five percent of the notified amount will be reserved for retail investors, with options of five years or ten years. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity and mobilising resources for green infrastructure.