Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2023

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced to enhance transaction limits for small value digital payments in offline mode to ₹500 from the earlier cap of ₹200.
These can be made using any channel or instruments such as cards, wallets, mobile devices in face-to-face mode only. Although the upper limit of an offline payment transaction shall be ₹500, the total limit on a payment instrument will be ₹2,000 at any point in time.

Notes:
Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell and the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) have launched the sixth edition of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2023.
Since its inception in 2017, the Smart India Hackathon has become a global model for hackathons and innovation frameworks. This event presents 239 problem statements, including 182 software challenges and 57 hardware challenges.

Notes:
As 42 per cent workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme still not eligible for Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS), the deadline for enabling Aadhaar-based payment for MGNREGA workers was extended till December 31
Earlier, the deadline was September 1 and this is the fifth extension by the Centre. This was announced by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Notes:
The French government announced its decision to ban children from wearing the abaya, the loose-fitting, full- length robes worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools.
France has enforced a ban on religious symbols in state schools since 2004, to uphold its strict brand of secularism, known as laicite.

Notes:
A total of 48 African countries have agreed to adopt the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change (KDMECC) to address the nexus of human mobility and climate change in the continent.
It was co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Uganda with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Notes:
Air pollution is reducing the life span of people living in South Asia by 5.1 years, according to a new report. The region accounts for more than half of the total life years lost globally due to high pollution.
In India, on average, poor air quality takes 5.3 years off the life of a person, while cardiovascular diseases decrease the average Indian’s life expectancy by around 4.5 years.

Notes:
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), announced the launch of Falcon blockchain-based project named ‘Falcon’.
It is an open-source project that aims to simplify the management and use of blockchains based on ‘Hyperledger Fabric’ and supported on Kubernetes clusters. Essentially, Falcon is expected to help developers innovate on blockchain-based payment solutions.

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:
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:
Bhubaneswar and Guwahati will host India’s opening two home matches in the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2, the All India Football Federation announced.
India have been drawn in Group A of the Asian qualifiers, alongside Qatar, Kuwait, and the winners of the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 fixture between Afghanistan and Mongolia.