Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2023

Notes:
Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) has recommended Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 days.
While Tamil Nadu sought 24,000 cusecs to be given, Karnataka had indicated it would be able to supply 3,000 cusecs.

Notes:
Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, has announced the introduction of its new brand identity, TATA.ev, for the EV business.
Tata has also revealed a logo for its .ev brand. The .ev brand will be used by Tata Motors’ Passenger Electric Mobility division and it will not cover Tata Motors’ electric commercial vehicles, as of now.

Notes:
The Indian Government formally declared August 30 as the National Small Industry Day, a year after the Ministry of Small-Scale Industries announced a comprehensive policy package for small businesses.
The day recognises the contribution of small industries to the country’s growth and is an opportunity for the central and state governments to encourage and support small industries.

Notes:
Tharman Shanmugaratnam is the president-elect of Singapore. He was born on February 25, 1957. He is a popular politician who has won several parliamentary elections. In 2023, he resigned from all government positions and the PAP to run for the Singaporean presidential election. He won the election with 70.4% of the votes.
Shanmugaratnam was previously the Senior Minister of Singapore from 2019 to 2023. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister for eight years. He studied at the London School of Economics, Cambridge University, and Harvard University.

Notes:
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been granted the deemed-to-be-university status by the Ministry of Higher Education, Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan.
It was announced on the 63rd Foundation Day of the apex decision-making body for school education. He suggested setting up Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence labs in all seven regional centres of NCERT.

Notes:
Mastercard, technology company in the payments industry, has launched ALT ID solution for guest checkout transactions.
ALT ID is a custom-made capability to create an alternate identifier for the real card numbers provided by cardholders during guest checkout transactions on e-commerce platforms.

Notes:
On September 4, 2023, President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, unveiled a 12-foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi and inaugurated ‘Gandhi Vatika’ at Gandhi Darshan, New Delhi. She praised Gandhi’s global influence, highlighting his non-violence principles during times of world turmoil like the world wars. The President cited leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama who followed Gandhi’s path for world welfare. She emphasized the role of institutions like Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in promoting his teachings through various media.

Notes:
Eight stump-tailed macaques were recently relocated to the Delhi Zoo from Aizawl Zoological Park in Mizoram. Also known as bear macaques, these monkeys belong to the Old-World monkey species, Macaca arctoides. They are primarily found in the tropical and subtropical evergreen forests of South Asia.
Their natural habitat spans Cambodia, southwest China, northeast India, Laos, Myanmar, northwest Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In India, they inhabit regions south of the Brahmaputra River, including Assam, Meghalaya, eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura. Stump-tailed macaques sport thick, dark brown fur, short tails (3.2-69 mm), and distinctive pink or red faces that darken as they age. Males are larger than females, with longer canine teeth used for social dominance. Their diet comprises fruits, leaves, seeds, insects, and small animals, often stored in cheek pouches. They move primarily on the ground due to limited tree agility. These macaques are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and are protected under India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 (Schedule II). Conservation efforts are crucial to safeguard their population.

Notes:
The Cabinet has granted approval for an allocation of Rs. 1164.53 crore for the Industrial Development Scheme (IDS) 2017 in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The IDS 2017 was initially introduced in 2018 with a financial outlay of Rs. 131.90 crore, which was fully utilized by the fiscal year 2021-22. To fulfil obligations until 2028-29, an additional fund was required, prompting the Cabinet’s approval. These measures aim to stimulate industrial growth and create job opportunities.

Notes:
The Directorate of Prisons in Odisha has submitted a proposal to attach GPS-enabled tracking/monitoring devices to the ankles of undertrial prisoners (UTPs).
The potential first-of-its-kind policy in India aims to ease overcrowding in prisons, a long-standing issue in the country. The proposal focuses on attaching tracking devices to undertrial prisoners accused of non-heinous crimes to allow them to lead normal lives outside of jail while being monitored.