Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed ‘International Day of Care and Support’ to be observed on 29 October.
This international day seeks to foreground care and support as a cornerstone of sustainable development and accelerator for equality. This year is the first time, the days is observed.

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A record drought hitting the Amazon rainforest has revealed petroglyphs carved by humans up to 2,000 years ago that are now partly submerged in one of the largest rivers in the region.
The pre-Columbian engravings were found at a point in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where the Negro River’s dark waters meet the Amazon River. The images carved into the rocks depict humans, animals and geometric shapes, such as squares and circles.

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National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) is a premier Research and Development organization under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. It is located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand.
A new township in Ayodhya will have a lake filled with water from the holy Saryu River. The lake will be 430 acres and will be connected to the river. The National Institute of Hydrology in Roorkee will build the lake. The lake project has been named the blue and green corridor of the new Ayodhya township.

Notes:
National Unity Day is celebrated in India on October 31, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of independent India.
Vallabhbhai Patel was born on October 31, 1875. He is credited with merging over 560 princely states into the Union of India after independence.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin launched ‘Meendum Manjappai’ scheme to reduce the use of plastic bags, replacing them with cloth bags in 2021.
Recently, the Tamil Nadu state environment department has opened a ‘Meendum Manjappai’ kiosk worth 25 lakh at Besant Nagar beach, Chennai, to create awareness on plastic pollution and to enforce the ban on single-use plastic. It has a cloth bag vending slot and a plastic bottle-crushing machine.

Notes:
The Indian government has received numerous expressions of interest for the strategic sale of Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited (IMPCL).
IMPCL is currently under the administrative control of the Ministry of Ayush, and the government holds a 98.11% stake in the company. This move is part of the government’s efforts to divest its holdings in certain public sector enterprises.

Notes:
Bhutan proudly announces its status as the world’s first nation to successfully sterilize and vaccinate its entire stray dog population.
This achievement comes after a 14-year-long dog population control initiative known as the National Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Project, which has effectively sterilized and vaccinated more than 150,000 stray dogs since its inception.

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:
Government e Marketplace (GeM) is a 100 percent Government owned & National Public Procurement Portal. Procurement of services from the Government e-Market (GeM) portal is expected to touch Rs 1.5 lakh crore this fiscal year. This is an increase from Rs 65,957 crore in 2022-23.
The CEO of GeM, P K Singh, said that service procurement was just Rs 3,069 crore in the fiscal year 2019-20. It reached Rs 65,957 crore in 2022-23. GeM has over 63,000 government buyer organizations and over 62 lakh sellers and service providers offering a wide range of products and services.

Notes:
The Jharkhand state Cabinet has given its approval for the implementation of the Mukhya Mantri Ujjwal Jharkhand Yojana, with a budget allocation of Rs 1,485.39 crore.
This scheme aims to provide electricity to rural hamlets and households that currently lack access to electricity, as well as to cover the remaining unserved urban areas.