Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2023

Notes:
Gujarat, the only home of Asiatic lions in India, is set to move 40 lions from Gir National Park to the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Barda Wildlife Sanctuary is expected to house 40 adult and sub-adult Asiatic lions. It is located some 100 km from the Gir National Park.

Notes:
Sagar Parikrama Phase IV was launched recently. The main objective of ‘Sagar Parikrama’ is to facilitate interaction with fishermen, coastal communities and stakeholders to disseminate information of various fisheries related schemes and programs.
It also aims to promote responsible fisheries and protection of marine ecosystem.

Notes:
Technology Innovation Institute, Abudhabi, UAE has launched Falcon LLM, a large language model (LLM) with 40 billion parameters.
The model outperforms GPT-3 and requires only 75% of its training compute, as well as lower percentages of other large language models’ training compute. The UAE is aligned with the UAE’s National AI Strategy, which aims to make the country a leader in the knowledge economy, driving progress and prosperity.

Notes:
The second meeting of the newly formed Startup 20 Engagement Group under India’s G20 Presidency was held on 18-19 March in Gangtok, Sikkim.
The Sikkim Sabha will forward the agenda finalised during the inception meeting held in Hyderabad in January 2023, with the support of all attendee delegates.

Notes:
The International Criminal Court, headquartered in Hague, recently issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Putin for the alleged war crime of the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas in Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The ICC is responsible for the investigation of individuals charged with gravest crimes of concern in the international community.

Notes:
The SCO Tourism Ministers’ Conference was held recently in Varanasi. During this event, India mooted an action plan to mark this year -2023- as the year of tourism.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental organisation currently comprising eight Member States – China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Notes:
XBB1.16 is a new COVID-19 variant. INSACOG data has recently found a total of 76 samples of this variant in India.
The XBB 1.16 variant was first found in January when two samples tested positive for the variant while in February a total of 59 samples were found.

Notes:
On 20th March every year, the world celebrates World Happiness Day led by the United Nations.
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network releases an annual report named World Happiness Report. According to the report, ‘life evaluations have continued to be remarkably resilient’. The theme of this year’s International Day of Happiness is ‘Be Mindful. Be Grateful. Be Kind’.

Notes:
‘International Shooting Sports Federation- ISSF World Cup Shooting Championship’ in 2023 was inaugurated in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Around 200 shooters from 30 countries are participating in the World Shooting Championship. This is the first ever Shooting World Cup to be held outside New Delhi in the country. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated this championship at Kushabhau Thackeray International Convention Center in Bhopal.

Notes:
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister recently launched the Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana (Chief Minister Tree Wealth Scheme) on the occasion of World Forestry Day.
Under this scheme, the state government will provide full subsidy for tree plantation on up to 5 acres of land and 50 percent financial subsidy on more than 5 acres.