Daily GK and Current Affairs Quiz - 18th February 2023
Daily GK and Current Affairs Quiz –18th February 2023
Today’s Current Affairs Quiz. Important Current Affairs Questions – February 2023. Monthly Current Affairs PDF. LatestCurrent Affairs Questions for Banking and Insurance Exams 2023. Welcome to the Let’s Study Together (LST) online Current Affairs section. If you are preparing for Banking & Insurance, SSC, Railways, and other competitive exams, you will come across a section on Current Affairs. Here we are providing you with the “Current Affairs Quiz – 18th February 2023″ in PDF format based on the current events for your daily practice.
This “Current Affairs Quiz –18th February 2023″ is also important for other banking exams such as LIC AAO, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, SBI PO/Clerk, IBPS RRB Officer, IBPS RRB Office Assistant, IBPS SO, SBI SO, SSC, Railways and other competitive exams.
Current Affairs Quiz –18th February 2023
In all Sarkari Exams/Govt Exams, Current Affairs Quiz which is asked generally framed on International News, National News, State News, Sports, Awards, Summits, Schemes, Books & Authors, Ranks & Reports, Important Days, Economy, Defence, Science & Technology, etc. To excel in the Current Affairs section of the competitive examinations you are required to cover Current Affairs Quiz in the above areas.
1. Indian Overseas Bank launched the facility of issuance of the e-BG scheme in association with the National e-Governance Services Ltd. In this context, what is the full form of e-BG?
Explanation: Indian Overseas Bank has launched the facility of issuance of the e-BG (Electronic Bank Guarantee) scheme in association with the National e-Governance Services Ltd. e-BG is an instrument issued by the bank in which the bank agrees to guarantee a particular sum in the event that the applicant fails to fulfill an action/performance. It is a paperless mode with digital stamping and digital signature. Real-time issuance of e-BG would make it available for the beneficiary instantly.
2. The CAMSPay payment platform received the payment aggregator license from the Reserve Bank of India. Where is the headquarters of this payment aggregator?
Explanation: CAMSPay has received in-principle approval from RBI to operate as a payment aggregator. It is a part of Chennai-based Computer Age Management Services (CAMS). CAMS is India’s largest registrar and transfer agent of mutual funds. CAMSPAy is a payment platform specializing in solving the banking and finance services sector’s payment challenges. Payment aggregators: These are entities that on-board digital merchants and accept payments on their behalf after getting a licence from the RBI.
3. Where is Divya Kala Mela 2023 being organized from 16 to 25 February 2023?
Explanation: Divya Kala Mela 2023 is being organised from 16 to 25 February 2023 in Mumbai’s MMRDA Grounds. Divyangjan Empowerment Department and National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation are organising it. It is a unique exhibition cum sale of products made by divyang entrepreneurs and artisans. It is showcasing products made by around 200 divyang artisans from 24 States and Union Territories. Home decor & lifestyle, clothing, stationery and eco-friendly products, edibles and organic products, toys and gifts, personal items – jewellery etc. are the main attractions of the fair.
In the Divya Kala Mela 2023, products from different parts of the country, including Jammu-Kashmir and the North-Eastern States, are being exhibited, along with handicrafts, handlooms, embroidery works and food items.
The fair will feature a series of cultural activities including performances by differently-abled artists and renowned professionals.
In December 2022, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities organized the Divya Kala Mela at the historic Kartavya Path in New Delhi.
After Mumbai, another Divya Kala Mela will be held at Bhopal in the month of March 2023.
Going forward, it will be organized in 10 different places across the country.
4. Which country approved a law granting paid medical leave to women suffering from severe menstrual pain?
Explanation: The Spanish government approved a historic law granting paid medical leave to women suffering from severe menstrual pain is the first for any European country. These leave facilities are available in a handful of countries including Japan, Indonesia, and Zambia. Equality Minister Irene Montero informed that it is a historic day of progress in feminist rights.
Equality Minister Irene Montero noted that the move would be a step towards addressing a health problem that has been largely swept under the carpet.
Equality Minister Irene Montero informed that periods will no longer be taboo. No more going to work in pain, no more taking pills before arriving at work, and having to hide the fact that they are in pain that makes us unable to work.
Montero noted that after the law was initially approved by the cabinet in May 2022. The menstrual leave law was part of a broader mandate that also bolsters access to abortion services in public hospitals.
The new legislation also allows minors aged 16 and 17 to have an abortion without parental permission, reversing a requirement introduced by a previous conservative government in 2015.
While the legislation passed smoothly under Spain’s left-wing government, it has created divisions among both politicians and unions.
The CCOO, one of Spain’s main trade unions, welcomed the move as a major “legislative advance” to recognize a problem that has been “ignored” until now.
Meanwhile, the country’s other main union warned that it could stigmatize women in the workplace and indirectly hinder their “access to the labor market”. UGT’s stance has also been echoed by the opposition right-wing Popular Party (PP).
5. Which among the following banks has become the first private sector bank in India to go live on UPI with its RuPay Credit Card?
Explanation: The HDFC Bank and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that HDFC Bank customers can now use their RuPay Credit Card on UPI with BHIM App and other UPI-enabled apps. With this linkage, HDFC bank has become the first private sector bank in the country to go live on UPI with its RuPay Credit Card. Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank, which are all state owned, use the UPI feature. HDFC Bank, India’s largest credit card issuer, is the fourth to come on board.
6. Which among the following statements is correct regarding ‘Lexi’ that has been recently in the news?
Correct Answer: D. It is ChatGPT powered AI chatbot
Explanation: Lexi, a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot, has arrived in India. Velocity, a financial technology firm, launched the chatbot to assist e-commerce owners by presenting them with business information in a simplified manner. Velocity insights, Velocity’s proprietary analytics platform, has been linked with the chatbot.
“We are thrilled to launch India’s first chatbot tool that is integrated with ChatGPT. We have integrated this latest advancement in artificial intelligence with our existing analytics tool – Velocity Insights,” the blog post by Velocity reads.
The CEO and co-founder of Velocity, Abhiroop Medhekar, said in the same blog post that the product teams had been thinking of ways to use the ChatGPT technology for the benefit of their customers.
He said, “We strive to provide leverage to eCommerce founders. Ever since ChatGPT launched, our product teams have been brainstorming on how it can be leveraged to benefit our founders. Since Velocity customers already use Insights on a daily basis, we integrated ChatGPT with the same interface that they leverage for driving business spending, revenues, and so on.
It provides founders with necessary business insights, which can be accessed via WhatsApp in the form of a daily business report. Now that ChatGPT has been integrated in the same WhatsApp interface, customers will be able to use the AI, Lexi, for answering their queries.
7. What is India’s rank in the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2022?
Explanation: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index. India ranked 47th. Last year, India was in the 46th position. Unfortunately, India remains among the bottom five countries in the ranking. Russia was in the 48th position due to its war with Ukraine. STRI speaks about the restrictions on the development of strategic services in the world. This includes freight transport, accounting, legal services, etc.
This year STRI covered around 50 countries. Japan was ranked topmost. It was followed by UK, Netherlands, Czech, and Chile in second, third, fourth, and fifth places respectively. The countries in the bottommost spots were Indonesia (at the 50th spot), Thailand (49), Russia (48), and India (47).
The report covers service trade regulations in all of its members. The members of the OECD account to more than 80% of World trade. Very minimal or no trade barriers were seen in Japan, UK and Netherlands. Sound recording and architecture were the most liberal services in 2022.
India’s position moved on by one spot. This was mainly because of the privatisation of Air India. Also, India eliminated pricing guidelines for share transfer between non-residents and residents. These steps eased the economic stakeholders and pushed India ahead in the ranking.
8. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has authorized how many existing payment aggregators (PAs) to operate as online payment aggregators?
Explanation: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has authorized 32 existing payment aggregators (PAs) to operate as online payment aggregators. These entities include Amazon (Pay) India Pvt Ltd, Computer Age Management Services Ltd, Google India Digital Services Pvt Ltd, etc. Applications of 18 existing entities are under process for obtaining licenses for online payment aggregators. The applications of entities including PhonePe, Adyen India Technology Services, Bhartipay Services Pvt Ltd, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (India), etc. are under process. RBI advised stakeholders to transact with only those existing PAs- who have been granted in-principle authorisation or whose application is currently under process. RBI has returned the applications of four existing entities including Freecharge Payment Technologies and Paytm Payments Services.
Payment aggregators: A payment aggregator is a service provider that integrates various online payment options and brings them into one place for merchants.
Online payment aggregators: Online payment aggregators can onboard digital merchants and accept payments on behalf of merchants after getting a licence from the RBI.
9. Recently, which of the following state government launched the sixth phase of Sujalam-Sufalam Jal Abhiyan to raise the groundwater level and maximize the use of rainwater?
Explanation: The sixth phase of Sujalam-Sufalam Jal Abhiyan has been started in Gujarat on 17th February 2023. The state-wide campaign was launched by the Gujarat CM, Bhupendra Patel at Khoraj in Gandhinagar. Aim to raise the groundwater level and maximize the use of rainwater. This phase will be held for 104 days and continue till 31st May 2023. Developmental works like the deepening of lakes, delisting works of check dams and reservoirs, and cleaning of canals will be carried out.
10. A tripartite MoU was signed between the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, NIPER Hyderabad, and ___________ to deal with the problem of doping in sports in India.
Explanation: The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, Hyderabad (NIPER Hyderabad) signed a tripartite MoU to create nutritional supplement testing capacity in India. This will provide information & build awareness about the risks associated with the use of nutritional supplements. It also increases the research opportunities in the clean sport & anti-doping domain and provides options for safe and dope-free nutritional supplements for sportspersons.
11. Recently, ‘JANUS-1’ is the world’s first Cloud-Built Demonstration Satellite, successfully launched by-
Explanation: Antaris announced that the world’s first satellite fully conceived, designed, and manufactured using the company’s end-to-end cloud platform, JANUS-1 has successfully reached orbit. JANUS-1 rode on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) SSLV-D2 rocket. JANUS-1 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre of India under a commercial arrangement with New Space India Limited (NSIL). The JANUS-1 satellite features five payloads from a range of global providers, which will be commissioned and begin nominal operations.
Additional tech demonstration satellites from Antaris and manufacturing partners Ananth Technologies and XDLINX Labs are planned for 2023, including 6U, 12U, and 27U satellite reference architectures.
JANUS-1 is a 6U satellite featuring payload and subsystem technologies from AICRAFT, Morpheus Space, Netra, SayariLabs Kenya, SpeQtral, Transceles, trial, and Zero-Error Systems (ZES).
It will perform internet of things (IoT) communications, advanced experimental laser communications, radio communications, and machine learning (ML) during orbit.
Antaris SatOS software manages core bus responsibilities while orchestrating multitenant payloads and onboard computing—in addition to showcasing secure TT&C protocols with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and ATLAS Space Operations, who are providing ground communications services.
The project was completed in just 10 months from concept to launch readiness with a cost savings of 75% over comparable satellite missions.
Antaris anticipates that future spacecraft missions can be ready for launch in as few as six months. While the launch marks the start of JANUS-1’s on-orbit mission, the satellite has been ‘in flight’ for months via the company’s unique TrueTwin digital twinning technology.
It creates a digital version of the satellite at the start of the project and then integrates with hardware-in-the-loop as hardware becomes available.
12. The European Parliament has approved the law to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars in the EU. The ban will come into effect in which year?
Explanation: The European Parliament has approved the law to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars in the EU. The ban will come into effect in 2035. The decision was made to increase the use of Electric Vehicles. The main objective of it is to achieve zero emissions. To execute the plan successfully, the European Commission will prepare a report on the progress every two years starting from 2025.
The Commission will present by 2025 a methodology to assess and report data on CO2 emissions throughout the full life-cycle of cars and vans sold on the EU market.
The regulations contain an ambitious revision of the targets for 2030 and a zero-emission target for 2035.
The law was first accepted by negotiators from EU countries, the European Parliament and the European Commission in October 2022.
Several automakers like Volkswagen have already said to produce only EVs in Europe by 2033.
13. Yakshagana Bhagavat Balipa Narayana Bhagavatha passes away at 85. He was famous-
Explanation: Famous Yakshagana singer and screenwriter Balipa Narayan Bhagwat passed away at the age of 85. He had mastered a unique style of singing, due to which fans have given it the name of ‘Balipa Style’. Rich in voice, Bhagwat has written more than 30 Yakshagana ‘Prasanga’ (scripts). He was well versed in over 100 Yakshagana episodes, which he composed by heart. He had served in the field of Yakshagana for about 60 years. He was the chief Bhagwat of Kateel Durgaparameshwari Prasadita Yakshagana Mandali (Kateel Mela). Born on April 13, 1938 in Padre village of Kasargod district (Kerala), Bhagavata wrote several Yakshagana episodes. Bhagwat entered the Yakshagana field at the age of 13. He composed the five-day ‘Devi Mahatme’ episode, which was an important milestone in the history of Yakshagana literature. He was honoured with several other awards including the ‘Karnataka Sri’ award in 2002 for All India Kannada literature.
14. Recently, Which of the following countries lifts the ban on frozen seafood from India?
Explanation: Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) has said that Qatar partially lifted a ban imposed last year on the import of frozen seafood from India on 18 February. The ban will continue on exports of chilled seafood, which accounts for about a third of the West Asian country’s total seafood exports in 2021-22 with the worth of Rs 143 crore. Frozen seafood is stored at minus 20 degrees, while chilled seafood is stored at 3-4 degrees Celsius. In the current financial year, India’s seafood exports to the West Asian country stood at around Rs 90 crore, with prawns taking the number one spot. China has also lifted the suspension of shipments from 99 Indian seafood processing and export units. Now seafood exports are expected to crossUSD 8 billion in the current fiscal.
This ban was imposed in November 2022. Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria that causes cholera infection, was reportedly detected in consignments exported from India to Qatar ahead of the FIFA World Cup. After this these food products were banned.
15. According to Morgan Stanley’s recent report, India’s GDP is likely to grow at _____________ in FY24.
Explanation: India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 6.2 per cent in FY24 as drivers of domestic demand remain intact amid fears of an impending slowdown, Morgan Stanley said in a research report released. The report said that as the economy fully reopened in 2022 leading to a cyclical recovery in consumption, pickup in private capex with healthy balance sheets in the private corporate and financial sector, and acceleration in government capital spending, the world’s fifth largest economy will breach the consensus GDP growth figure of 6 per cent.
Earlier, the Union Budget for FY24 had projected nominal GDP growth at 10.5 per cent, as the centre increased the capital investment outlay steeply for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 trillion. The Economic Survey for 2022-23 projected that India would witness a growth between 6-6.8 per cent in FY24, depending on the trajectory of economic and geo-political developments globally.
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