Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2023

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval for naming of Greenfield International Airport at Goa’s Mopa as Manohar International Airport.
It was named after former Defence Minister and Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar. He served as Chief Minister of Goa from 2017 until his death.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the government’s Aspirational Block Programme (ABP), to  improve performance of blocks lagging on development parameters.
The Aspirational Blocks Programme is on the lines of the Aspirational District Programme that was launched in 2018, covering 112 districts across the country. The new programme will cover 500 districts across 31 states and Union Territories initially.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to flag off the world’s longest river cruise ‘MV Ganga Vilas’ from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
The luxury cruise will cover a distance of more than 3,200 kilometers across 27 river systems in five States in India and Bangladesh. The MV Ganga Vilas vessel has three decks, 18 suites on board with a capacity of 36 tourists, with pollution-free mechanisms and noise control technologies.

Notes:
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship conducts the ‘Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Mela (PMNAM)’.
PMNAM will be conducted across 242 districts across states and union territories this year. The event will see participation of several local businesses that will provide local youth the opportunity of apprenticeship training.

Notes:
Cape Verde, a country in West Africa, was a colony of Portuguese. It became the first country to name a stadium after football Legend Pele.
Cape Verde Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva confirmed their Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde would be renamed after Pele. After Pele’s death in December, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino proposed that each nation should name one stadium after Pele.

Notes:
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the First Advance Estimates (FAE) of National Income for the financial year 2022-23.
Real GDP or in the year 2022-23 is estimated at ₹157.60 lakh crore. The growth in real GDP during 2022-23 is estimated at 7.0 per cent as compared to 8.7 per cent in 2021-22.

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:
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.

Notes:
The billionaire founder of Ant Group, Jack Ma, announced to give up control of the Chinese fintech giant after a regulatory crackdown.
Ant Group runs Alipay, the main online payment system in China. Jack Ma founded e-commerce giant Alibaba and controls more than 50% of Ant Group. After the changes in governance structure, he will possess just over 6% of the company.