Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2023

Notes:
Thiruvonam, the most auspicious day during the Onam festival, is celebrated throughout Kerala. Onam is a harvest festival that celebrates the return of King Mahabali/Maveli to his beloved state.
The festival is celebrated for ten days and each day holds a lot of significance. Onam also marks the beginning of the Malayalam year, called Kolla Varsham.

Notes:
The 19th African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Environment ministers of the African continent have agreed to institute national and regional strategies to minimise environmental impacts in the extraction and processing of critical mineral resources.

Notes:
Recently, Shinon Meeras, a centre showcasing the history of Dard-Shina tribes, was opened to the public at the Gurez Valley in Kashmir.
Dard is a strong community of around 38000 people living in the valley, which speaks the rapidly fading Shina language. The first such cultural centre has been curated and developed by the Indian Army and the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration.

Notes:
A team of technology experts of BITS Hyderabad, IIT Mumbai and IIT Kharagpur, has won Asian Development Bank’s grant of USD 3.99 lakh (₹3.32 crore) to develop TUTEM.
TUTEM stands for Technologies for Urban Transit to Enhance Mobility and Safe Accessibility. It aims for safe public transport travel in Hyderabad.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Mera Bill-Mera Adhikar Scheme from Gurugram on September 1.
The scheme will be launched in the states of Assam, Gujarat, and Haryana; and the UTs of Puducherry, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. Two bumper prizes of ₹1 crore each will be given away every quarter to the winners of Mera Bill Mera Adhikaar’.

Notes:
The new U.S. – India Renewable Energy Technology Action Platform (RETAP) under the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership has been launched.
RETAP was announced meeting in Washington D. C., between His Excellency Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States of America and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the two leaders announced the expansion of collaboration on new and emerging technologies to accelerate the clean energy transition.

Notes:
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das has been ranked as the top central banker globally by US-based Global Finance magazine.
Das has been rated ‘A+’ in the Global Finance Central Banker Report Cards 2023.Das has been placed at the top of the list of three central bank governors who have been rated A+.

Notes:
Japan’s average temperature in 2023 summer was the highest since records began 125 years ago, according to the country’s weather agency.
The average temperature from June to August was 1.76 degrees Celsius higher than the 30-year average. Earlier in August, Japan recorded the hottest day of the year as temperatures hit 40C in the Fukushima Prefecture.

Notes:
India’s first indigenously developed 700-megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear power reactor at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP) in Gujarat.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), is in the process of constructing two 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at Kakrapar, which also hosts two 220 MW power plants.

Notes:
India is finalizing a Letter of Request (LoR) to the US government to acquire 31 MQ-9B Predator drones from General Atomics. These drones, a variant of the MQ-9 “Reaper,” offer remote or autonomous flight capabilities and also carry strike missiles for precise target elimination. Developed by General Atomics, the MQ-9B comes in two versions, SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian. The Indian Navy already operates the MQ-9B Sea Guardian since 2020. With a payload of up to 5,670 kg, the drone can fly above 40,000 feet for 40 hours, making it valuable for surveillance, warfare, and expeditionary roles, including integration into civil airspace.