Current Affairs Quiz - March 2025

Notes:
Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya M. Scindia represented India at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. He engaged with industry leaders, addressed key sessions, and explored tech innovations. India showcased its rapid 5G expansion, lowest data tariffs, indigenous telecom infrastructure, and strong cybersecurity framework. Scindia stressed the importance of tech governance, balancing innovation with regulation, and fostering global partnerships. The event included the unveiling of India Mobile Congress 2025 and the inauguration of the Bharat Pavilion, highlighting India’s telecom capabilities.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched the IndiaAI Mission’s compute portal and AIKosha platform. The compute portal offers access to over 18,000 GPUs, cloud storage, and AI services for students, startups, researchers, and government bodies. AIKosha is a dataset platform providing resources, tools, and expert guidance for turning ideas into industry solutions. The platform aims to offer high-quality non-personal datasets to foster AI innovation and help developers create India-specific AI models.

Notes:
Kanwar Lake (Kabartal), Asia’s largest freshwater oxbow lake in Bihar, is rapidly drying up in early March, which is alarming for its ecosystem. Despite its ecological significance, the Bihar government has not sanctioned its restoration plan, showing apathy toward saving this vital wetland. The lake is also known as Kabartal Jheel and is a rainfed water body. It was formed as a residual oxbow lake due to the meandering of the Gandak River, a tributary of the Ganga. It covers a large area of the Indo-Gangetic plains in northern Bihar and plays a crucial role in maintaining regional biodiversity. The wetland serves as an important stopover for 58 migratory bird species along the Central Asian Flyway, where birds rest and refuel during migration. It is also a valuable site for fish biodiversity, with over 50 species documented, making it a crucial habitat for aquatic life.

Notes:
The Indian women’s Kabaddi team won their fifth Asian Women’s Kabaddi Championship title. They defeated Iran 32-25 in the final held in Tehran on 8th March 2025. The 6th Asian Women’s Kabaddi Championship 2025 took place in Tehran from 6th to 8th March 2025. Iran hosted the tournament for the third time, previously in 2007 and 2017.

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The Sharavathi Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Project (PSHP) is located on the Sharavathi River in Karnataka. It aims for a 2000 MW power generation capacity, making it the largest pumped storage project in India. The project will use two existing reservoirs: Talakalale Dam (upper reservoir) and Gerusoppa Dam (lower reservoir). Water will be pumped uphill during off-seasons and released downhill during peak demand. It is modeled after Telangana’s Kaleshwaram project and will also supply drinking water to Bengaluru. Environmentalists and locals warn of ecological damage to the Western Ghats.

Notes:
Jayshree Vencatesan, co-founder of Care Earth Trust, is the first Indian to receive the Ramsar award for ‘Wetland Wise Use.’ She is among 12 women changemakers in wetlands, recognized by the Ramsar secretariat in Geneva. She has dedicated decades to conserving India’s wetlands, especially Chennai’s Pallikaranai Marsh. She leads an all-women research team and mentors future conservationists. She dedicates her award to her late father and advocates for women’s technical roles in wetland management. She stresses persistence in conservation efforts despite bureaucratic challenges. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty for wetland conservation.

Notes:
The Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2025 called for urgent health financing reforms amid USAID funding cuts. It was held in Kigali, Rwanda (March 3-5, 2025). It focused on domestic resource mobilization and regional cooperation. AHAIC is a major pan-African health conference, organized by Amref Health Africa with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, WHO Africa, and Africa CDC. Key goals included health financing reforms, promoting public-private partnerships, strengthening primary healthcare, tackling health inequalities, integrating AI in healthcare, and empowering community health workers. The conference also explored alternative funding sources to sustain critical health programs in Africa.

Notes:
India won the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy 2025 by defeating New Zealand by 4 wickets in the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, ending a 12-year wait for the title. The ICC Champions Trophy is a premier One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament featuring the world’s top eight teams. The tournament was first held in 1998 as the ICC Knockout Tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and was renamed ICC Champions Trophy in 2002. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body for cricket, representing 108 member nations.

Notes:
Garimella Balakrishna Prasad, noted classical singer and former Asthana Vidwan (court musician) of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), passed away at 76 due to a heart attack in Tirupati. Served TTD from 1978 to 2006 and composed music for 1,000+ compositions of saint-poet Tallapaka Annamacharya. His famous works include Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnukatha, Pidikita Thalambrala Pellikoothuru, and Jagadapu Chanavula Jajara, also featured in the Telugu film Annamayya.

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NASA launched the SPHEREx and PUNCH space missions on March 12, 2025 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, after multiple delays. SPHEREx successfully separated from Falcon 9 in the second stage and entered a sun-synchronous orbit 650 km above Earth. It will study 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars, creating a 3D map of the sky to understand the history of the universe. PUNCH, a solar mission with four satellites, will study the solar corona, solar winds, and coronal mass ejections to improve space weather predictions.