Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2023

Notes:
The four riders and their horses Sudipti Hajela (Chinski), Divyakriti Singh (Adrenalin Firfod), Hriday Cheda (Chemxpro Emerald) and Anush Agarwalla (Etro) recently clinched India’s first-ever gold medal for India in Equestrian Dressage.
Equestrian first made its appearance at the Asian Games in 1982 and the host India dominated the competition with three gold medals. After 41 days, Indian team clinched a medal recently.

Notes:
South-South Knowledge Sharing Series is a virtual conference organized by the World Bank. Its theme is ‘Digital Public Infrastructure: The India Story’.
Union Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, participated in the virtual conference. He highlighted some key elements of India’s DPI ecosystem, such as Aadhaar, which facilitates access to government welfare programs, and UPI, a fintech layer that enhances financial inclusion.

Notes:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards successfully launched a third military satellite into orbit.
The Noor 3 imaging satellite orbits at an altitude of 450 kilometres above the earth’s surface and was launched by the three-stage Qased, or messenger carrier, which launched its predecessor Noor 2 in 2022.

Notes:
NASA has recently unveiled an ambitious USD 1 billion plan to coordinate the controlled descent of the International Space Station (ISS) back to Earth.
It will be undertaken with a specialized spacecraft, known as the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV). NASA has invited companies to develop the specialised vehicle.

Notes:
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has assigned an international three-letter code, ‘DXN,’ to the soon-to-be-opened Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar.
The code is used on ticket reservations, boarding passes, luggage tag designators, and other documents. The airport is anticipated to open before the September 2024 deadline.

Notes:
The Indian Army, in partnership with the United Service Institution of India (USI), recently orgnised a hybrid panel discussion as part of Project Udbhav.
Project Udbhav, initiated by the Indian Army, is a program designed to reexamine the deep-rooted Indian traditions of statecraft and strategic thinking, drawing insights from ancient Indian texts on statecraft, warfare, diplomacy, and grand strategy.

Notes:
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) announced the listing of its ‘Social Bonds’ on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The bank had raised ₹1,040 crore through this offering. The funds would be used to refinance the Jal Jeevan Mission (the Union government’s drinking water project) in Telangana.

Notes:
Directorate of Rural Sanitation, Jammu and Kashmir, has announced the nomination of country’s highest gallantry awardee, the Param Vir Chakra recipient, Captain Bana Singh as Ambassador for ‘War Against Waste’ in Jammu & Kashmir.
Theme of the Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS 2023) campaign is ‘Garbage Free India’ with focus on visual cleanliness and welfare of SafaiMitras.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to keep key interest rates, projected economic growth, and inflation rates unchanged.
The RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) unanimously decided to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5%. This is the fourth straight time the RBI has maintained the status quo.  The RBI last raised the benchmark repo rate to 6.5% on February 8, 2023. RBI has also decided to extend the payments infrastructure development fund (PIDF) scheme by two years till December 31, 2025.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs recently convened a gathering of the multi-agency center (MAC), a collaborative counter-terrorism network.
This meeting, organized under the Intelligence Bureau, was attended by high-ranking officials from Military Intelligence, Border Security Force (BSF), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Intelligence Bureau, and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) was formed in 2001 following the Kargil intrusion.