Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2023

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) school called as Santhigiri Vidyabhavan in Kerala’s capital city, Thiruvananthapuram.
The AI school is a result of a collaboration between iLearning Engines (ILE) USA and Vedhik eSchool.

Notes:
Indian men’s 4x400m relay team consisting of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh broke the Asian record.
The team qualified for the final round of the World Championships, for the first time. The earlier Asian record of 2:59.51 was in the name of Japanese team. The earlier national record was 3:00.25 set in 2021.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Fourth Partner Energy Private Limited signed a long-term loan of up to 1.2 billion Indian rupees to construct and operate a 25-megawatt solar photovoltaic-based power plant in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
It is expected to generate about 50.7 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually and increase clean and low-cost energy supply to commercial and industrial customers.

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:
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:
China is exploring ways to produce its own high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the next-generation of memory chips tailored for artificial intelligence (AI) processors, amid US sanctions.
China’s top dynamic random access memory (DRAM) maker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), is the country’s best hope for HBMs.

Notes:
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will come back through Earth’s atmosphere after a year-long journey to Bennu, a potentially hazardous asteroid with a 1 in 2700 chance of smashing cataclysmically into Earth.
The goal of the mission is to see whether life on Earth came from outer space. OSIRIS-REx is now returning from its mission with a 2-ounce sample of Bennu’s surface that could contain extraterrestrial precursors to life on our planet.

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:
I-CRR was introduced as a temporary measure to manage the excess liquidity in the banking system, which occurred due to the return of Rs 2000 currency notes. This reserve required banks to maintain 10% of the increase in their net demand and time liabilities between May and July 2023 to absorb the surplus liquidity. The RBI has decided to discontinue the I-CRR in a phased manner by releasing impounded funds in installments, as mentioned in the text, to ensure that the system liquidity is not subject to sudden shocks and that money markets function smoothly.

Notes:
At the Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai, Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) introduced its enhanced Face Authentication system, developed in-house with AI and ML capabilities, focusing on reimagining Aadhaar authentication.
UIDAI’s Volunteer Guideline 2022 encourages collaboration with industry and fintech partners to accelerate technology adoption and enhance solutions for residents.