Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2023

Notes:
The Lipizzans are horses that are descendants of long stallion lines crossing Spanish, Arabic and Berber horses.
Lipizzans are famous for their “airs above the ground” classical dressage jumps. The tradition of Lipizzan breeding was recently included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The name derives from Lipica where the horses are found in Slovenia.

Notes:
Capital Market Regulator SEBI- the Securities Exchange Board of India has released guidelines for Investor Protection Fund (IPF) and Investor Services Fund (ISF).
These funds are maintained by stock exchanges and depositories. The new changes aim to strengthen investor protection measures and promote financial literacy and participation in the securities market.

Notes:
Hvaldimir is the name given to a beluga whale that is suspected of being a Russian spy. It was spotted recently off the Swedish coast.
It was earlier spotted in northern Norway in April 2019 wearing a camera harness. US Navy used dolphins and sea lions as spies.

Notes:
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) recently launched “e appeal” scheme announced in the budget.
Its aim is to minimize pendency of appeals related to Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) default issues and tax collection at source (TCS). The scheme empowers the Joint Commissioner (Appeals) for disposing of appeals filed before it or allocated or transferred to it.

Notes:
India recently joined the Centralised Laboratory Network (CLN) to test vaccines during pandemic and epidemics. This network currently has 15 partner facilities in 13 countries.
CLN is a part of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Network is the largest global group which has standardised methods and materials for testing.

Notes:
National record-holder Jyothi Yarraji won the women’s 100m hurdles gold in 13.08s in the T-Meeting at Tilburg in the Netherlands.
Earlier at the 26th National Federation Cup athletics championships in Ranchi, she had clocked 12.89 seconds in the final.

Notes:
The National Mission for Mentoring (NMM) is an initiative aimed at creating a pool of outstanding professionals willing to provide mentoring for school teachers and promote their professional development.
National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) launched NMM in Pilot mode in selected 30 Central Schools across the country. As part of this initiative, the NCTE organized a capacity building workshop for 60 mentors.

Notes:
European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed that an alien signal has been beamed to Earth from Mars for the first time.
The Trace Gas Orbiter, an ESA spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitted a signal and it was received by the four telescopes/ stations. The transmission is part of “A Sign in Space” project, which is an interdisciplinary project by media artist Daniela de Paulis.

Notes:
Ambulator is the name given to a new group of ancient marsupials with distinctive leg and foot characteristics.
Researchers have recently discovered Australia’s first long-distance walkers that roamed the continent’s parched interior 3.5 million years ago.

Notes:
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched a mobile app for street vendors to ease their loan application process under the PM SVANidhi scheme which completed three years.
It is a micro credit scheme which was launched by the Central government in 2020 to provide handholding support to street vendors, to tackle pandemic-induced economic stress.