Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
The Indian junior men’s hockey team defeated New Zealand 6-2 to enter the semifinals of the Sultan of Johor Cup. Indian player Amandeep Lakra hit a hat-trick.
The Sultan of Johor Cup is an annual, international under-21 men’s field hockey tournament held in Malaysia.

Notes:
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have made a significant discovery by detecting the presence of avian flu in the Antarctic region for the first time. This development has raised concerns about the health of remote populations of penguins and seals in the area.
The discovery came after reports of potentially symptomatic birds and unexplained deaths, and subsequent tests confirmed the presence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

Notes:
Rashtriya Gokul Mission, India’s flagship program aimed at enhancing indigenous cattle breeds, was launched in 2014.
Instead of enhancing the quality of all indigenous breeds as originally intended, the scheme has predominantly promoted one specific indigenous variety, the Gir cow, nationwide. This trend, if left unaddressed, could pose a risk to the genetic purity of indigenous cattle breeds throughout the country.

Notes:
State Bank of India (SBI) has onboarded Mahendra Singh Dhoni, former Indian cricket team captain, as its brand ambassador.
The country’s largest lender aims to strengthen its connection, especially with the younger population, with the association of the cricket star.

Notes:
A vision document aimed at making India a developed country is in its final stages and a draft is expected to be ready by December, as per NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam.
NITI Aayog was tasked with the consolidation of the ten sectoral thematic visions in July this year including infrastructure, welfare, commerce and industry, technology, and governance. NITI Aayog has also forecasted that India’s economy will be worth $30 trillion in 2047, with a per capita GDP of $17,590.

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:
Lucy is a NASA space probe on a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids. Lucy Spacecraft came within 430 kilometers of the small asteroid named Dinkinesh. Dinkinesh is less than 1 kilometer wide, making it so small that it is nearly imperceptible from Earth.
The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair. The team estimates that the larger body is approximately 790 metres at its widest, while the smaller is about 220 metres in size.

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:
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.