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 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the first sporting event to offer equal prize money to men and women was recently held.
The ceremony was attended by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, former tennis player Billie Jean King, amateur player Gabby Bell, singer Sara Bareilles, and president of the United States Tennis Association Brian Hainline.

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:
Rebel soldiers in Central African nation Gabon claim to have ousted their President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
Rebel officers in the oil-rich central African state of Gabon announced they had seized power following disputed elections in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power since 2009, had been declared victorious.

Notes:
India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered a growth of 7.8 percent in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal (2023-2024), compared to a growth of 6.1 percent in the previous January-March quarter of fiscal 2022-23.
According to official data shared by the National Statistical Office, India’s nominal GDP or GDP at Current Prices in the first quarter showed a growth rate of 8 percent as compared to 27.7 percent in the previous year’s first quarter.

Notes:
17-year-old D Gukesh took over as the country’s top-ranked player from Viswanathan Anand in FIDE’s monthly rankings list.
It has been 37 years since anyone other than Anand holding the top position. The five-time World champion is currently ranked ninth, a spot below Gukesh on the world list, is semi-retired from active chess.

Notes:
The Government of India has decided to organise a literacy week from 1st September to 8th September 2023 to celebrate International Literacy Day.
UNESCO will celebrate International Literacy Day (ILD) on 8 September 2023 under the theme ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’.

Notes:
Australia will send a delegation of industry, government, academic, media and arts representatives to Beijing for a dialogue with their Chinese counterparts next week to stabilise its relationship with China, as per Australia’s Foreign Ministry.
Trade, investment, people-to-people links as well as regional and international security are among the issues up for discussion in the next talks. The high-level dialogue had been held annually from 2014 until it was stopped in 2020.

Notes:
E-commerce giant Amazon said it has signed an agreement with India Post to simplify cross-border logistics for MSME exporters.
Minister of state for science and technology Jitendra Singh unveiled a postal stamp to commemorate a decade of partnership between India Post and Amazon.

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.