Daily Current Affairs for Competitive Examinations: March 07, 2023
Instead of reading books to prepare for the Current Affairs portion, use Embibe’s daily current affairs updates and continue the normal newspaper reading habit. A thorough review of The Hindu, Economic Times, and India Today is referred to present these questions to the aspirants. We have organised the most recent subjects for today’s current affairs into categories for general preparation.
Current Affairs: International
World Bank signs USD 1 billion loan to support India’s health sector
The World Bank is lending up to $1 billion to help India with preparedness for future pandemics as well as to strengthen its health infrastructure.
The lending will be divided into two complementary loans of $500 million each.
This combined financing of USD 1 billion will support the Pradhan Mantri-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), launched in October 2021, which aims to improve the public healthcare infrastructure across the country.
Details:
One of the loans will prioritise health service delivery in seven states, including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, as per the release.
The loans will focus on improving the healthcare infrastructure in these states, which will benefit the populations of these states and generate positive spillovers for other states.
Indian healthcare system stat:
India’s performance in health has improved over time. According to World Bank estimates, India’s life expectancy has increased from 58 in 1990 to 69.8 in 2020.
This is higher than average for the country’s income level. The under-five mortality rate (36 per 1,000 live births), the infant mortality rate (30 per 1,000 live births), and the maternal mortality ratio (103 per 100,000 live births) are all close to the average for India’s income level, reflecting significant achievements in access to skilled birth attendance, immunisations, and other priority services.
About World Bank:
The World Bank provides financing, advice, and research to developing nations to boost their economies
It was founded along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Bretton Woods Agreement to serve international governments
The World Bank Group includes five cooperative organisations, often referred to as the World Banks
David R. Malpass is the President of the World Bank Group
It was established in July 1944
Its headquarters are based in Washington D.C, United States
Question: 1
Which of the following International bodies recently signed a USD 1 billion loan to support India’s health sector?
A. World Bank
B. Asian Development Bank
C. International Monetary Fund
D. World Health Organisation
Answer: A
Check out the Highlights of the Economic Survey 2022-23 by clicking on the link given below: Economic Survey 2022-23
Current Affairs: National
Madhya Pradesh govt launches Ladli Bahna scheme
The Madhya Pradesh government has launched a unique scheme today to make women financially independent.
In this scheme, named Ladli Bahna, each woman will be given ₹1,000 per month.
About the Ladli Bahna Yojna:
The Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana is being implemented in the state with the goals of increasing women’s economic independence, improving their health and nutrition, and increasing their control over family decisions.
The plan will see ₹1,000 each month deposited into the accounts of local women aged 23 to 60.
Rationale:
The government aims to reach out to one crore women in the state, for which a provision of ₹8,000 crore has been made in the Budget presented recently.
Applications for the plan will be accepted from 15th March through 30th April, after scrutiny, a list of beneficiaries will be put out on 1 May and the final list on 31 May, they added. Money being distributed beginning on 10th June.
Eligibility:
Women above the age of 23 will be eligible for the scheme.
Ladies over the age of 60 who are currently receiving a pension of ₹600 will now be eligible for a pension of ₹1,000.
The “Ladli Behna Yojana” is projected to help women whose yearly family income is less than ₹2.5 lakh.
Question: 2
Which of the following state governments has recently launched a scheme named ‘Ladli Bahna’ aimed to make women financially independent?
A. Bihar
B. Rajasthan
C. Uttar Pradesh
D. Madhya Pradesh
Answer: D
Current Affairs: International
USA to host World Culture Festival 2023
The fourth World Cultural Festival will be held in the American capital this fall, organiser Art of Living has announced.
The previous three editions of the World Culture Festival were held in Bengaluru (2006), Berlin (2011) and New Delhi (2016).
Facts:
The First World Cultural Festival was attended by 3.5 million people in the audience, and over 37000 artists were a part of the festival, which lasted over three days in New Delhi in 2016. It is one of the flagship programmes under the purview of the Art Of Living Foundation.
It was chaired by Justice RC. Lahoti and Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali from the United Nations were also asked to be a co-chair but were not able to be a part of it due to his death which took place prior to the event.
The festival was highly criticised in the news and media due to environmental reasons, and the Art of Living Foundation was involved in a legal battle with the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
It had directed the foundation to pay a fine of ₹5 crore, i.e., USD 630,000, prior to the commencing of the event.
What is the World Cultural Festival chronicle?
The four World Cultural Festivals were held in Bangalore (2006), Berlin (2011), New Delhi (2016) and Australia (2018) simultaneously and respectively, and now the US is all set to host the World Cultural Festival at Washington DC in 2023 at the National Mall from 29 September till 1 October 2023.
This will be the fourth in the Chronicle and Saga of the Art of Living Foundation World Cultural Festivals and Fifth in the overall World Cultural Festivals if we count the World Cultural Festival held in the HCM-city of Vietnam in 2017.
Motto
Its true Motto is “One World, One Family” as explained beautifully by the terminology
Question: 3
According to recent news, the fourth World Cultural Festival will be held in which of the following cities?
A. Bengaluru
B. Berlin
C. New Delhi
D. Washington DC
Answer: D
Current Affairs: Sports
Karnataka won the Santosh Trophy 2022-23 after 54 years by defeating Meghalaya
Karnataka ended their 54-year wait recently by winning the Santosh Trophy National Football Championship recently, beating Meghalaya 3-2 in a pulsating final at the King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi Arabia capital, Riyadh.
Details:
Egged on by vociferous support from the stands, Karnataka, who last played the senior national championships final 47 years back (1975-76), trumped the first-time finalists, breaching their defence at will and pumping in three goals in the first half to set the tone as well as settle the eventual outcome.
Earlier, Services won third place beating Punjab 2-0 in the play-off match held before the final.
About Santosh Trophy
The National Football Championship or Hero Santosh Trophy, due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp also known as the Hero National Football Championship, or simply Santosh Trophy, is a state-level national football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the sport’s governing body in India.
Before the starting of the first national club league, the National Football League, in 1996, the Santosh Trophy was considered the top domestic honour in India.
The tournament was started in 1941 by the Indian Football Association (IFA), which was the then de facto governing body of football in India.
It was named after the former president of the IFA, Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, the Maharaja of Santosh, who had died at the age of 61 in 1939.
Question: 4
Which of the following states recently won the National Football Championship or Hero Santosh Trophy 2022-23?
A. Meghalaya
B. Kerala
C. Karnataka
D. West Bengal
Answer: C
Current Affairs: Report an Index
Academicdom Index Report
In a 2023 update to its ‘Academicdom Index’, the V-Dem Institute has noted that India is among 22 countries and territories out of 179 in the world, where institutions and scholars enjoy ‘significantly lessdom today than 10 years ago’.
What is the Academicdom Index?
It has been published by Global Public Policy Institute as a part of a global time-series dataset (1900-2019) in close cooperation with Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Scholars at Risk and the V‑Dem Institute.
The report provides an overview of academicdom in 179 countries by assessing five indicators. It is based on assessments by more than 2,197 country experts from around the world.
Indicators:
Freedom to research and teach
Freedom of academic exchange and dissemination
Institutional autonomy of universities
Campus integrity
Thedom of academic and cultural expression
Data about India:
According to the report released recently, India scored 0.38 on a scale of 0 (low) to 1 (high), which is lower than Pakistan’s score of 0.43 and the United States’ score of 0.79.
It performed poorly in campus integrity, institutional autonomy and academic and cultural expression.
It did slightly well indom to teach and research and space for academic exchange and dissemination. China scored 0.07, putting it in the bottom 10% of the countries.
The report noted the pressure on all aspects of academicdom in the country.
Question: 5
Which of the following is not an indicator of the recently released Academicdom Index by V-Dem Institute?
A.dom to research and teach
B.dom of academic exchange and dissemination
C. Institutional autonomy of universities
D.dom of Linguistics Ideas
Answer: D
Check out the Highlights of Union Budget 2023 by clicking on the link given below: Union Budget 2023-24
Factbook: 06-March-2023
Mumbai’s famous “vada pav” ranked 13th in the list of best sandwiches in the world
Mumbai’s famous street food, “vada pav”, has been ranked number 13 on a list of the top 50 best-rated sandwiches in the world.
The list is published by TasteAtlas, a Croatian-based food travel guide website.
Turkey’s tombik sandwich tops the list. Second is Peru’s Butifarra Sandwich, and Argentina’s De Lomo Sandwich is third.
Vada pav street food is said to have originated from a street vendor named Ashok Vaidya, who operated near Dadar railway station in the 1960s and 1970s.
Traditionally vada pav is made of spiced mashed potatoes, deep fried in chickpea batter and pav, which is also known as a white bread roll.
Mauganj became the 53rd district of Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on 4 March to make Tehsil Mauganj of Rewa district the 53rd district of the state.
Mauganj district, bordering Uttar Pradesh, will have four tehsils – Mauganj, Hanumana, Naigarhi and Devtalab with a population of more than six lakhs.
The purpose of this move of the government is to end the discontent against the government regarding the lack of adequate representation for the politically important Vindhya region in the state cabinet.
The US and South Korea announce the largest field exercises in 5 years
The South Korean and U.S. militaries announced to hold off on their most extensive joint field exercises in five years as the US flew a long-range B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea.
It is going to be conducted from 13 to 23 March 2023.
The South Korean and U.S. military will conduct thedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, to strengthen their defence and response capabilities, and separate large-scale joint field training exercises called ‘Warrior Shield FTX.’
The two countries last conducted Foal Eagle in 2018.
Recently, both countries have been expanding their joint military exercises in the face of an evolving North Korean nuclear threat.
The World Bank has released India’s score for the index on the life cycle of a working woman
The World Bank has released India’s score for the index on the life cycle of a working woman obtained down to 74.4 out of a possible 100.
A score of 100 on the ‘Index’ means that women are in equal standing with men on all the eight indicators being measured.
Title of the report: The index was developed based on a report named ‘Women, Business and the Law 2023’.
India scored higher than the 63.7 average for the South Asian region, though lower than Nepal, which had the region’s highest score of 80.6.
Out of the 190 economies covered in the Index, only 14 scored a perfect 100: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
For India, the Index used data on the laws and regulations applicable in Mumbai.
Sisupalgarh.
Recently, the ancient city of Sisupalgarh was in the news due to the damage by the Land mafias.
It is located near the city of Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
It was once the capital of Kalinga, which is the ancient name of Odisha.
It dates back prior to the Mauryan period.
It is a 2,000-year-old fortified city.
It is considered one of the largest and best-preserved ancient fortifications in India.
The remains of the fortification were discovered in 1948 by the Indian archaeologist B.B. Lal.
Phytoplankton Blooms
Huge blooms of phytoplankton—microscopic algae floating on the ocean’s surface—have become larger and more frequent along the world’s coastlines.
Marine animals such as fish and whales eat phytoplankton.
It can also prove toxic in large amounts, starving the ocean of oxygen and leading to “dead zones” that wreak chaos on the food chain and fisheries.
Reasons:
Warmer sea surface temperatures.
Changes in climate can also mess with ocean circulation, affecting the mixing between ocean layers and how nutrients move around the ocean.
Human development also plays a role. Fertiliser runoff from agriculture can spike nutrient loads in the ocean, leading to blooms.
Health Ministry gets Porter Prize 2023
The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry recently received the Porter Prize 2023.
This prize is given for:
The government’s strategy for managing COVID-19,
Also, the approach and involvement of various stakeholders, especially the involvement of ASHA workers in the industry, to create PPE Kits.
Its contribution to developing and manufacturing vaccines
What is the Porter Prize?
It is named after award-winning economist Michael E. Porter.
He has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems faced by corporations, economies and societies, including market competition and company strategy, economic development, the environment and healthcare.
Mansukh Mandaviya and Ashwini Vaishnaw flag off ‘Jan Aushadhi Train’
Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, flagged off a Jan Aushadhi Train (Chhattisgarh Sampark Kranti Express) from New Delhi recently.
This train has been wrapped with the branding of the Jan Aushadhi scheme to spread awareness about Jan Aushadhi Generic medicines which are available through more than 9000 Kendra at affordable prices.
This train will travel to more than four States for two months.
The Government has set a target to increase the number of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras to 10 thousand by the end of this year.
Medicines available at Jan Aushadhi Kendra are priced 50 to 90 per cent less than the prices of branded medicines.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Belarus
Ales Bialiatski, Belarus’s top human rights advocate and one of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winners, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Minsk.
Bialiatsky was sentenced for activities disturbing public order, financing and smuggling. The Leninsky District Court of the capital Minsk also imposed a fine of US $65,000 on 60-year-old Bialiatsky.
Bialiatsky is the head of the Vesna Human Rights Center. Along with Bialiatsky, representatives of the Vesna Human Rights Center, Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich were also sentenced to 9-7 years.
Bialiatsky was honoured by the Nobel committee in October in Oslo along with the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.
Bialiatsky, 60, has been an advocate of democracy in Belarus since the 1980s and formed Vyasna, which means “spring”.
He had earlier also been jailed between 2011 and 2014 for tax evasion.
Hockey India appoints South African Craig Fulton as the new Chief Coach of the Indian men’s hockey team
Hockey India has appointed Craig Fulton of South Africa as the new head coach of the Indian men’s hockey team.
Craig Fulton will replace Graham Reid, who resigned in January 2023 following India’s poor performance in the World Cup.
Craig Fulton represented South Africa at the Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004 Olympics and earned 195 international caps in a career spanning more than a decade.
Fulton managed the Irish men’s hockey team between 2014 and 2018 and helped them qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
He also won the FIH Coach of the Year in 2015 while with the Irish team.
Fulton has nearly 25 years of coaching experience and has earned 195 caps for South Africa over a span of 10 years.
He also played in the Atlanta and Athens Olympics.
Hekani Jakhalu became the first female MLA of the Nagaland Assembly
Hakani Jakhalu of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) became the first female MLA to be elected to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.
No female MLA has been elected in a total of 13 state assembly seats in the state to date.
Jakhu won the Dimapur III seat by defeating Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Azheto Jhimomi by 1,536 votes.
Another NDPP female candidate, Salhunuonu Cruce, defeated her independent rival by just seven votes in the Western Angami constituency. Both became the first female MLAs from Nagaland.
In 2019, she won the Nari Shakti Puruskar from the Ministry of Child and Women Development.
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