Daily Current Affairs Today MCQ : 24 February 2023 Quiz

India and Seychelles signed six agreements in key areas, including maritime security and on sharing of white shipping information that would enable the two countries to exchange data regarding identity and movement of non-military commercial vessels.

According to the MoU, the countries will work together and improve maritime safety in the Indian Ocean Region.

The safety provisions will be based on the SAGAR initiative – Security and Growth for All in the Region.

With this, they will be able to correlate better and can share information in a more compressed way.

About Indian Ocean Commission -

The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is an intergovernmental body created in 1984 to protect the interests of the Western Indian Ocean islands.

It consists of Madagascar, Comoros, La Réunion (French overseas territory), Mauritius and Seychelles.

The Commission has five observers — India, China, European Union (EU), Malta and International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF).

Note: India is only an observer at the Indian Ocean Commission; not a full member.

India’s first hybrid sounding rocket by private players was successfully launched from Pattipulam village in the Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu.

Martin Foundation, in association with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Space Zone India, launched the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Satellite Launch Vehicle Mission- 2023.

Key Points -

The organisations mentioned that 5,000 students were involved in the project.

The rocket can be used for research in weather, atmospheric conditions and radiation.

Sounding rockets -

Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research.

They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.

A hybrid-propellant rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor that uses rocket propellants in two different phases: one solid and the other either gas or liquid.

The launch of the first sounding rocket from Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 21 November 1963, marked the beginning of the Indian Space Programme.

Dr. Mahendra Kumar Mishra has received the World Mother Language Award from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

He is an Indian educator and social worker for the advancement of indigenous languages in Odisha.

Dr Mishra has worked over three decades on the language, culture and education of the marginalised languages of Odisha.

In Dhaka, four awardees received the two national prizes and the two international awards from Prime Minister Hasina.

The national prizes went to Habibur Rahman and Ranjit Singha of Bangladesh.

Mahendra Kumar Mishra and Mother Language Lovers of Global Society, Vancouver, received the honourable mentions.

The prize was established by UNESCO in 2021 and is granted to those who have made exceptional contributions to the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of mother tongues.

Agricultural and Process Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) is participating in the 28th edition of Gulfood 2023 which will be held in UAE.

India has been participating in GULFOOD.

GULFOOD is a platform that connects food and beverage sectors around the globe, providing ample opportunities to Indian exporters.

The India Pavilion was inaugurated by Pashupati Kumar Paras, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries along with Ambassador of India H E Sunjay Sudhir.

Key Points -

In Gulfood organized from 20th to 24th February 2023, there is the participation of 5000 companies from 125 countries.

In the International Year of Millets (IYOM) 2023, India is participating in GULFOOD with the theme focused on the export promotion of millets and its value-added products.

Indian Pavilion is promoting around 100 delegations of exporters.

A Millet gallery has been prepared to showcase Millets and its products by the start-ups and new entrepreneurs to provide them a platform to showcase their quality products.

APEDA has signed an MoU with the Government of UAE through its nodal agency Al Dhara Holding SP LLC for procurement of food and food products from India as well as to sell to buyers in UAE.

India’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that it has won a deal to digitally transform Telefonica Germany’s specific operations.

The latter is a leading German telecom company.

The Indian IT services exporter announced that the partnership would entail building service assurance applications and processes within the Operations Support Systems (OSS) landscape of the German telecom company.

TCS and The Operations Support Systems -

TCS will leverage best in class methodologies like Agile, DevOps, Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment to modernise the OSS service assurance application estate using cloud-native technologies to predict and pre-empt network faults.

On February 21, also known as International Mother Language Day, the Kerala High Court published two of its most recent decisions in Malayalam, making it the first high court in the nation to do so.

The facility was used in Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud’s courtroom, when he presided over a Constitution bench hearing the Maharashtra constitutional crisis.

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said in January of this year that the Supreme Court’s decisions would be translated into four languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Odia and Tamil after noting that 99.9% of Indian population could not understand the English language in its "legal incarnation".

The Chief of the Naval Staff Adm R Harikumar visited INS Nireekshak at Kochi where he interacted with the diving team of the ship involved in the salvage operations at a depth of 219 meters in the Arabian Sea.

He commended the ship on the safe and successful conduct of the operations under the most challenging circumstances.

This is the deepest salvage carried out in the country’s waters.

Key Points -

During his address to the ship’s crew, the CNS complimented the dedicated effort of the ship in conducting the deep diving operations.

He appreciated the undaunted spirit of the "Men Behind the Machine".

The CNS awarded the ship an "on the spot" Unit Citation, a first in Indian Navy.

He also awarded commendations to the crew involved in the salvage ops.

Nireekshak had also recently completed a solemn dive off the Gujarat coast to pay homage by laying a wreath at 80 m depth, the resting site of erstwhile Khukri which sank during the 1971 war.

INS Nireekshak is a Dive Support and Submarine Rescue Vessel of the Indian Navy.

Built by Mazgaon Shipbuilders in 1985, the ship has been in service with the Navy since 1989

It was commissioned in the year 1995.

INS Nireekshak has been part of various diving operations and holds the record for the deepest dive carried out in the country to a depth of 257 m.

The UK has surpassed India as the sixth-largest equity market in the world for the first time since May 2022.

Key Points -

This is $5.1 billion more than their Indian counterparts.

The UK’s FTSE 350 Index, which consists of firms in the domestically oriented FTSE 250 and FTSE 100, has increased 5.9% so far this year.

Nifty 50 has decreased 3.5% thus far in 2023.

Since US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research published a damning report against the conglomerate, India’s equity market has been dealing with a double whammy of a lower currency and the significant fallout of the stock tumble being experienced by Adani Group enterprises.

The Seattle City Council passed an ordinance adding caste to the list of protected classes in the city’s municipal code, along with groups like race, religion, and gender identity.

With this, Seattle has became the first US city to pass an explicit ban on caste-based discrimination.

Caste-oppressed people in the city are permitted to file complaints of discrimination under the law, which forbids caste discrimination in employment, housing, public facilities.

In Seattle, one of the nation’s leading tech hubs and the location of significant businesses with sizable South Asian immigrant workforces, caste is particularly important.

The Coalition of Hindus of North America, the Hindu American Foundation and the Vishva Hindu Parishad of America, among other organisations, opposed the ordinance despite its widespread support, claiming that it unfairly singled out Hindus and contributed to negative stereotypes about them.

Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi has been appointed as the new Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi is a former Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission secretary-cum-scientific director.

Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi will supersede Dr PBN Prasad who is holding the position till 28th February 2023.

The order which was released stated that Raghuvanshi will continue to be the DGCI till February 28, 2025.

Key Points -

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has recommended to the government his name as the successor to Dr V G Somani, whose extended tenure will end in mid-February.

The recommendation was later approved by the Health Ministry, followed by approval of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The DCGI heads the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) which is responsible for ensuring quality drug supply across the country.

It also has the authority to give approval to new drugs and regulate clinical trials.

Dr Raghuvanshi has 14 granted US patents along with more than 250 published patent cooperation treaties and Indian patents.

He has more than 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored six chapters in books.