Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a robotic AI chemist capable of automatically synthesising and optimising OER catalysts from Martian meteorites.
This advancement holds significant potential for upcoming Mars missions, particularly in terms of resource utilization and diminishing the necessity of importing oxygen from Earth.

Notes:
November 15 is celebrated as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas, also known as Tribal Pride Day, to honour the birth anniversary of the tribal freedom fighter, Birsa Munda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched the ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ from Ulihatu village in Jharkhand on the day.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh launched a seven-month ecotourism session for tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries for 2023-24.
UP Forest Corporation, responsible for governing ecotourism in the state, allowed a considerable reduction in charges for jungle safaris and accommodations at departmental facilities compared to previous years, to attract a larger crowd.

Notes:
Dr Mathavaraj S of the UR Rao Satellite Centre of ISRO has become the first recipient of Manohar Parrikar Yuva Scientist Award.
The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, which is currently the highest cash prize in science and technology, and a citation. He designed the powered descent trajectory of Chandrayaan-3 mission. The award was instituted by the Goa government.

Notes:
The Cambridge Dictionary team chose hallucinate as its Word of the Year 2023 as it recognized that the new meaning gets to the heart of why people are talking about AI.
The Cambridge Dictionary added new AI-related definitions to the dictionary, including large language model (or LLM), generative AI (or GenAI), and GPT. Many existing words, such as hallucinate, have adopted additional AI-related meanings this year.

Notes:
Senior IPS officer Alok Sharma was appointed the director of the Special Protection Group (SPG), the elite security unit responsible for the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Alok Sharma, a 1991-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre who is currently working as Additional Director General in the SPG.

Notes:
Tamil writer Perumal Murugan has won the coveted JCB Prize for Literature for his novel, Fire Bird, an English translation of his Tamil novel Aalandapatchi.
The JCB Literary Prize award carries Rs 25 lakh to the author and an additional Rs 10 lakh to the translator. The novel was translated into English by Janani Kannan.

Notes:
France’s Kylian Mbappé scored a hat trick as France defeated Gibraltar 14-0 at Euro 2024 Qualifiers, marking the biggest victory in Euro qualifier history.
France’s biggest previous win was 10-0 against Azerbaijan in a European qualifying game in 1995. Netherlands also booked their place at Euro 2024.

Notes:
Dhillo is an ecofeminist festival celebrated in the Western Ghats of Goa. The festival’s fervour is also felt in the forested villages of Joida in Karnataka.
These villages are home to the Goan Kunbi community members, whose ancestors had migrated to Joida during the Portuguese era to escape persecution.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and Partners in Change hosted a Pre-National Conference on Responsible Business Conduct webinar in New Delhi, exploring the realm of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR).
The BRSR seeks disclosures from listed entities on their performance against the nine principles of the ‘National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct’(NGBRCs). With effect from 2022-2023, SEBI mandated filing of BRSR for the top 1000 listed companies (by market capitalization).