Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2023

Notes:
The United States and Philippine troops began joint maritime and air patrols in the South China Sea.
The Philippine Air Force’s aircraft had taken part in joint patrols in the vicinity of Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines, which is only about 200 kilometers from Taiwan, a self-governed island that China claims as its own.

Notes:
Justice Fathima Beevi, the first woman judge of the Supreme Court recently passed away at the age of 96.
Justice Fathima Beevi was also the first Muslim woman to be appointed to the higher judiciary in the country and the first woman to become a Supreme Court Justice in an Asian country.

Notes:
During its 63rd council meeting, the International Sugar Organisation (ISO), based in London, declared India as the Chair of the organization for the year 2024.
The primary focus will be on uniting member nations to embrace more sustainable practices in sugarcane cultivation, sugar and ethanol production, and optimizing the utilization of by-products.

Notes:
Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the head of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam, will receive Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Pakistan.
This makes him the fourth Indian to receive the award. The Nishan-e-Pakistan is equivalent to the highest military gallantry award. Other Indians who have received the award include Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, Actor Dilip Kumar and Kashmiri separatist leader Ali Gilani.

Notes:
OneWeb India, a subsidiary of Eutelsat Group and backed by telecom company Bharti Group acquired approval from India’s space regulator, IN-SPACe, to launch commercial satellite broadband services in the country.
It is the country’s first organisation to be granted this authorisation and the only satellite broadband service provider to get all the required regulatory nods prior to commercial launch. Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) said that the approval for Eutelsat OneWeb’s constellation was valid for a period of five years.

Notes:
Tamil Nadu is set to launch a novel scheme Ungalai Thedi, Ungal Ooril (In your town, looking for you), to redress the grievances of the general public.
Under the initiative, every District Collector will visit and stay in a taluk for one day in a month to inspect government offices in that area and listen to the grievances of the general public.

Notes:
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated Odisha Research Centre. The center will engage in research across various domains including art, culture, archaeology, tradition, literature, sociology, political processes, agriculture, commerce, industry, science and technology, healthcare, and future technology in Odisha.
ORC is being established in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Indian Knowledge Systems Division of the Ministry of Education, IIM Sambalpur, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bhubaneswar.

Notes:
Last financial year, 34 asset management companies (AMCs) have conducted 10,364 programmes covering more than half a million participants.
281 investor awareness programmes (IAPs) were conducted by AMFI covering 84,818 participants. In the previous year, 33 AMCs had conducted 8,426 programmes covering about half a million investors. The mutual fund industry has added 4.7 million new investors over the last one year. SEBI has mandated AMCs to invest two basis points of their assets under management on investor awareness activities.

Notes:
Butterfly migration from the Eastern Ghats and plains towards the Western Ghats, an annual phenomenon coinciding with the onset of the Northeast monsoon, was below par this year. Before the onset of the Northeast monsoon, butterflies from the subfamily Danainae, such as Blue Tiger, Dark Blue Tiger, Double-branded Crow, and Common Crow (Tigers and Crows) fly towards the west.
Observers noticed local movement of Common Albatross (Appias albina), a butterfly species from the family Pieridae, in large numbers from hills of Anaikatti and the Nilgiris towards Sirumugai forest range and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve during the second week of November.

Notes:
IndiGo has launched an AI chatbot, 6Eskai, powered by the GPT-4 technology with an aim to address travellers’ queries in 10 different languages and to offer a platform for booking tickets across the entire network.
Developed in-house by IndiGo’s digital team, in close collaboration with Microsoft, the AI chatbot is capable of booking tickets, applying discounts, booking addons, performing web check-ins, helping in seat selection, planning trips, answering FAQs, and connecting customers with an agent. Moreover, the bot is also capable of understanding verbal instructions using speech-to-text models.