Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2023

Notes:
The Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), a central sector water conservation scheme, will continue for an additional two years beyond its original 2025 end date. It is implemented by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The major objective of the Scheme is to improve the management of groundwater resources in select water stressed areas in identified states viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
During the 76th World Assembly Health session, WHO member states discussed on a new replenishment mechanism to help the UN body have more flexible funding options.
It will help WHO become more financial independent and function smoothly as the leading global health coordinator. Replenishment contributions would cover work by country offices, regional offices, and headquarters across all strategic priorities, as well as the enabling functions.

Notes:
China recently launched the Shenzhou-16 mission. As part of this mission, three astronauts lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China.
The astronauts aboard Shenzhou-16 spacecraft will stay in the Tiangong space station for the next five months. This is the country’s fifth manned mission to a fully functional space station since 2021.

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:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to send a new spacecraft to an asteroid belt to investigate the history of the solar system and the potential origins of life.
Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) aims to visit seven different asteroids and land on one of them called (269) Justitia. It is scheduled for launch in 2028.

Notes:
A new Jupiter-size exoplanet ‘TOI 4603b’ with the highest density known till this date and mass 13 times than that of Jupiter, has been discovered by an international team of scientists
ISRO says the discovery of this exoplanet has been made using the indigenously made PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at the 1.2 m telescope of PRL at its Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu.

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:
The Union Cabinet has approved the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain 2.0 (CITIIS 2.0).
CITIIS 2.0 is a program conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), KfW, the European Union (EU), and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The program will run for a period of four years, from 2023 till 2027.

Notes:
The 2023 Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo will be organized by Indonesia from June 4 to 8 in Makassar.
This event will mark the fourth iteration of the exercise since its inception in 2014. The previous edition of this exercise took place in 2018 before it was suspended because of COVID-19.

Notes:
Research teams from Australia, Italy and Brazil made use of a digital model of Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s mummified skull and managed to recreate the face.
A team of researchers including forensic experts and anthropologists have created a novel digital reconstruction of King Tutankhamun’s face using advanced techniques.