Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2023

Notes:
Saudi Arabia and Canada to restore full diplomatic ties and appoint new ambassadors, bringing an end to a dispute from 2018.
The rift between the two countries began when Canada’s embassy in Riyadh published a tweet in Arabic, calling for the immediate release of women’s rights activists who were detained in Saudi Arabia.

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:
Iraq presented an ambitious plan to turn itself into a regional transportation hub by developing its road and rail infrastructure, linking Europe with the Middle East.
Once completed, the $17 billion project known as the ‘Route of Development’ would span the length of the country, stretching 1,200 km  from the northern border with Turkiye to the Gulf in the south.

Notes:
The armed forces are planning to set up additional joint logistics nodes across the country to boost integration in their logistical needs and streamline their supply chains.
While the last joint logistics node was operationalised in Mumbai in April 2021, the nodes in Guwahati and Tri-Services, Port Blair were operationalised in January 2021. The Joint Operations Division under the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff has been responsible for establishing the nodes.

Notes:
Operation ‘OP Clean’ was launched recently by the Punjab Police. Its aim is to make the state drug free.
650 police teams comprising over 5,000 personnel raided more than 2,000 locations across the state to keep a tab on activities of people involved in smuggling of commercial quantities of drugs.

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.

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:
The feasibility and prospects of the salt cavern-based oil storage facility in Rajasthan is being studied by the Government-owned engineering consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL).
It will increase India’s strategic oil storage capacity once this facility starts functioning. The country’s three existing strategic oil storage facilities — at Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh — are made up of excavated rock caverns.

Notes:
The Indian hockey team recorded a 2-1 win over Pakistan in the final of the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 in Salalah, Oman to successfully defend its title.
Araijeet Singh Hundal was India’s top-scorer at Men’s Junior Asia Cup hockey 2023 with eight goals. This was India’s fourth title at Men’s Junior Asia Cup, having won it previously in 2004, 2008 and 2015.

Notes:
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) have set up the Enhanced Surveillance Measure (ESM) to curb volatility in small-cap counters.
It is applicable for companies that have a market cap of less than ₹500 crore and the mechanism will be effective from June 5.