Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has made ‘penny drop’ verification mandatory for the withdrawal of funds by subscribers of the National Pension System (NPS), Atal Pension Yojana and NPS Lite as well as modifications in bank account details.
Under the process, Central Recordkeeping Agencies (CRA) check the active status of the savings bank account and match the name in the bank account number with the name in the PRAN or according to the documents submitted.

Notes:
The Environmental Investigation Agency is an international NGO founded in 1984 in the United Kingdom.
‘Parts of tigers, leopards, pangolins & rhinos being used in 88 Chinese medicines’ A probe by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has found that body parts of leopards and pangolins, which are highly trafficked and endangered mammals, are used in at least 88 traditional Chinese medicines.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that District Central Co-operative Banks now have the authority to close their unremunerative branches without the necessity for prior permission from the central bank.
However, approval from the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in the respective state will still be required. The cooperative banks were brought under the regulatory framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2020.

Notes:
Recently, the Israeli military announced that it had intercepted a missile fired from the Red Sea region, amidst escalating tensions in the Middle East due to Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza with the help of ‘Arrow’ aerial defence system.
This announcement came after Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels fired drones towards Israel in retaliation for its war against Hamas.

Notes:
The next AI Safety Summit is expected to be hosted by South Korea in mid-2024, followed by France around late-2024.
The UK, which hosts this year’s summit announced the news at the opening of the inaugural summit at Bletchley Park in central England.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India announced the launch of ‘Inflation Expectations Survey of Households’ and ‘Consumer Confidence Survey’ which will provide key inputs for the bi-monthly monetary policy scheduled in December 2023.
The surveys are conducted across 19 cities, including Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, and Delhi.

Notes:
The PM GatiShakti-National Master Plan (NMP) has reduced the time it takes to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) from six months to about 15 days.
This development is a significant step towards expediting the implementation of urban infrastructure projects in India. India has planned around 8,890 km of roads, 27,000 km of railway tracks and 920 km of petroleum and nat-gas pipelines based on the plan, two years after it was launched.

Notes:
The India-US 2+2 meeting is scheduled to be held in New Delhi in November 2023. The meeting will be held amid global turbulence and it will address differences over Canada’s allegations against India.
US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin will be visiting India next week for the India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will host the two visiting US Cabinet ministers.

Notes:
India, along with 27 other countries and the European Union have signed world’s first agreement on artificial intelligence (AI) safety at a meeting in the United Kingdom.
The agreement pledges to work together to assess the risks associated with artificial intelligence. It was signed during two-day ‘AI Safety Summit 2023’ at United Kingdom’s World War II code-breaking centre in Bletchley Park. In a statement, the UK government said, the agreement will be known as the Bletchley Declaration.

Notes:
Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has cleared a proposal to take up a comprehensive caste-based census in the State.
The cabinet decided to implement a new land allotment policy for setting up industries. It also ratified the State Investment Promotion Board’s (SIPB) approval of fresh investments worth ₹19,037 crore in various sectors.