Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2023

Notes:
World Hindi Day, also known as Vishwa Hindi Diwas, is observed on January 10 every year. The day aims to create awareness and to promote the Hindi language across the world.
The theme this year of the conference is ‘Hindi: Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence’. The World Hindi Day conference is to be held at Nadi, Fiji.

Notes:
Uttarakhand Governor Gurmit Singh consented to a Bill providing 30 per cent horizontal reservation to domiciled women of the state in government jobs.
Uttarakhand Public Services (Horizontal Reservation for Women) Bill, 2022 was passed by the state assembly.

Notes:
In the 80th annual ceremony of the Global Globes Award 2023, ‘The Fabelmans’ won the ‘best film-drama’ award.
Best actor in a TV series – drama was won by Kevin Costner for Yellowstone while Best screenplay was won by Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin. The ‘Best non-English language film’ was given to Argentina, 1985 (Argentina).

Notes:
Meta announced a strategic partnership with the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) to upskill more than 3000 auto dealers across India.
Under the ‘Move with Meta’ program, the company aims to enable thousands of auto dealers across the country to reach consumers digitally. FADA currently represents 15,000 auto dealers across the country.

Notes:
El Salvador became the first country in the world to recognise Bitcoin as a legal tender two years ago.
It has recently approved a law to regulate the issuance of other digital assets by both the state and private entities. The bill aims to attract national and foreign investors while creating new financing opportunities.

Notes:
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, along with Dr Manik Saha, Chief Minister, Tripura inaugurated the School of Logistics, Waterways and Communication at Agartala.
It has been set up under State Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (SIPARD), an autonomous body funded by the Government of Tripura and by Ministry of Rural Development. The school will enable research, training and workshops in the transportation and logistics sector.

Notes:
Chennai’s drone startup Garuda Aerospace has partnered with the Union Bank of India as 150 Garuda Agri Kisan drones received sanction for a loan under the Kisan Pushpak Scheme.
The drone loan will help farmers to digitise land record operations for crop production, and spraying of fertilisers, chemicals and pesticides. The Agri Infrastructure Fund Scheme finances 150 drone applications that will benefit the farmer community and create 150 skilled pilots who will engage to become entrepreneurs.

Notes:
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have validated the discovery of an exo-planet interior to the habitable zone of the dwarf star LHS 475.
Named LHS 475b, this planet is almost 99.1% the size of Earth, and has an orbital period of 2.03 days. LHS 475 hosts at least one planet, which was previously classified as a planet candidate by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) added Neelakurinji flower (Strobilanthes kunthiana) on the list of protected plants under Schedule III of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The plant was endemic to a small stretch in the Western Ghats from the Mangaladevi hills to the Nilgiris hills.

Notes:
Swedish state-owned mining company, LKAB, announced that it has discovered more than one million tonnes of rare earth oxides in the country.
This is the largest ever known deposit of rare earth oxides in Europe. Currently, no rare earths are mined in Europe and the continent mostly imports them from other regions. According to a report, 98 per cent of rare earths used by the European Union were sent by China.