Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
To boost exports of agricultural products to the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCCs), the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global retail major Lulu Hypermarket.
With the MoU, APEDA would promote Indian agricultural products, including Millets across the GCC as the LuLu Group International (LLC) has its presence across the GCC, Egypt, India and the Far East.

Notes:
Chinese paleontologists have made a new discovery, identifying two previously unknown species of lampreys from fossils estimated to be around 160 million years old.
Lampreys are jawless fish that bear a resemblance to eels in appearance. Generally, these are thought of as parasitic organisms, that use their disc-shaped mouths and sharp teeth to latch onto prey and suck their blood.

Notes:
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has recently pledged $553 million in funding for the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT) project.
This marks the first time the U.S. government is backing an Adani project. DFC, the U.S. government’s development finance institution, collaborates with the private sector to address critical challenges in the developing world.

Notes:
The International Energy Agency (IEA), based in Paris, has emphasized in its World Energy Outlook 2023 report that India’s Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) of 2017, specifically aimed at commercial buildings, distinguishes it from other developing economies, where energy efficiency in building infrastructure lags behind.
The ECBC was introduced by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a part of the Ministry of Power, in 2007, with a subsequent update in 2017. Presently, 23 states in India have implemented regulations to enforce compliance with the ECBC.

Notes:
As nations convene for the COP28 climate summit scheduled for late November in Dubai, their objective of expediting the transition away from fossil fuels is likely to bring about discussions centering around an ill-defined term: “unabated”
“Unabated” emissions occur when fossil fuels are burned, and the resulting emissions are released into the atmosphere, contributing to the ongoing acceleration of global warming.

Notes:
Amazon is dedicating its resources to train a large language model (LLM) known as “Olympus”. It is reported to have 2 trillion parameters, potentially making it one of the largest models in development, surpassing OpenAI’s GPT-4, which is known to have one trillion parameters.
Amazon already teased a smarter and more conversational Alexa, powered by generative AI at its fall event.

Notes:
A recent study has revealed the existence of the long-lost continent of Argoland, which had seemingly disappeared after breaking away from Australia approximately 155 million years ago.
This continent once formed the northeastern border of Australia during the Jurassic period.

Notes:
Lok Sabha Ethics Committee adopted a report recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from the Lower House over a “cash-for-query” allegation.
The ethics committee report will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Winter Session.

Notes:
The Karnataka government aims to attract Rs 40,000 crore of investment in the areas of healthcare, innovation, and knowledge sectors, besides creating 80,000 jobs in the proposed KHIR City.
The government of Karnataka met industry think tanks to conceptualise the development of a Knowledge, Healthcare, Innovation, and Research (KHIR) City on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The new investment region will be spread over 2,000 acres within 60 km from Bengaluru.

Notes:
St Petersburg Declaration in 2010 saw 13 tiger range countries commit to reversing the decline of the species population and double their numbers by 2022.
As per recent data, the global tiger population has experienced a notable rise of 60 percent, reaching a total of 5,870 tigers. Countries such as Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao-PDR, and Vietnam observed a decrease in their tiger populations, resulting in a challenging situation for the Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) in Southeast Asia.