Current Affairs Quiz 1st March to 3rd march 2023 Quiz

Exp. The International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) on 1 march said it has given approval to Deakin University of Australia to set up its campus in Gujarat’s GIFT City.

With this, Deakin became the first foreign university to get a nod to set up its campus in India.

The eighth edition of the annual Raisina Dialogue, the flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-strategy, begins in New Delhi. The annual Raisina Dialogue will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• The Foreign Ministry is organizing the event in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation from 2nd March to 4th March 2023.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be the chief guest and keynote speaker at its inaugural session

Exp. •  The International Yoga festival is an annual yoga event that celebrates the legacy of Yoga. It is celebrated every year in India’s Yoga capital- Rishikesh as it is the birthplace of Yoga.

• This week-long yoga event held in March brings together thousands of Yoga Gurus and Yoga learners from across the globe to the serene sanctified lands of Rishikesh.
• International Yoga festival is an event that focuses on the purification and detoxification of mind, body, and soul by making Yoga a way of life.

Exp. After the successful launch of the cross-border connectivity of real-time digital payment with Singapore last week, experts believe that India’s UPI likely to extend to UAE, Mauritius, Indonesia.

• Singapore is the first country with which a cross-border Person-to-Person (P2P) payment facility has been launched.

Exp. The ‘Windsor Framework’ will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, which had proved to be among the thorniest of Brexit fall-outs, creating problems both economic and political.

The Northern Ireland Protocol:

• The Northern Ireland Protocol is a trading agreement that was negotiated in 2020 between the U.K. and the E.U.
• Under the protocol, both the U.K. and E.U. agreed that the inspection of goods would be conducted between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland remained in the EU single market, and trade-and-customs inspections of goods coming from Great Britain took place at its ports along the Irish Sea.

Issues related to the Northern Ireland Protocol :

• The protocol has led to political division in Northern Ireland.
• The checks made trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland cumbersome, with food products, especially, losing out on shelf life while they waited for clearance. Some taxation and spending policies of the UK government could not be implemented in Northern Ireland because of EU rules.
• The sale of medicines, too, was caught between different British and EU rules.

• Nigerian electoral officials announced on 1 March 2023 that the ruling party’s candidate in the presidential election, Bola Tinubu, has been elected as the country’s new president.
• Bola Tinubu has been associated with the ‘All Progressive Congress Party’ from which he has been winning elections. He will become Nigeria’s fifth president since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999, emerging as winner for the country’s top job on his first attempt.

Note: About Nigeria

• Currency: Nigerian Naira
• Capital: Abuja

Exp. Vietnam’s National Assembly on 3March elected Vo Van Thuong as the country’s new President, in a reshuffle of the country’s top leadership amid an anti-graft campaign. In an extraordinary session, lawmakers confirmed Thuong after the ruling Communist Party nominated him on 2 March as President.

• Thuong’s election follows the sudden resignation of his predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc in January, who the Party blamed for wrongdoing.

Note: About Vietnam

• President: Vo Van Thuong
• Capital: Hanoi
• Currency: Vietnamese dong

Exp. Global rating firm Moody’s Investors Services on 28 Feb raised India’s growth projection to 5.5 per cent in 2023, up from the earlier projection of 4.8 per cent in November 2022, and to 6.5 per cent in 2024.

India’s growth rate in 2023 is the highest among G20 countries, according to Moody’s projection. It’s followed by China with 5 per cent growth and Indonesia 4.8 per cent.

GDP Forecast Of India (2023-24)

• Fitch-7%
• ADB-8%
• World Bank-6.8%
• IMF-6.8%
• RBI-6.3%

Exp. Singapore Airlines’ deal with Tata Sons (Tata) will inject a further SGD 360 million (USD 267 million) into Air India.

• It will give SIA a 25.1 per cent stake in the enlarged Air India group following its takeover by Tata.

Q.10. What is the gross GST revenue collection in the month of February 2023 (in Rupees)?

फरवरी 2023 (रुपये में) के महीने में सकल जीएसटी राजस्व संग्रह क्या है?

(a) 1,49,577  crores

(b) 1,51,500 crores

(c) 1,47,700 crores

(d) 2,30,500 crores

(e) 2,20,584 crores

Exp. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February 2023 is Rs. 1,49,577 crores. The revenues for the month of February 2023 are 12% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which was Rs. 1,33,026 crores.

• Generally, February being a 28-day month, witnesses a relatively lower collection of GST revenue.
• As per the ministry data, out of the gross GST revenue, Central GST was Rs 27,662 crore, State GST was Rs 34,915 crore, Integrated GST was Rs 75,069 crore (including Rs 35,689 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess was Rs 11,931 crore (including Rs 792 crore collected on import of goods).

GST Collection of Previous Months

• September 2022- 1,47,686 crore
• October 2022- 1,51,718 crore
• November 2022 – 1,45,867 crore
• December 2022- 1,49,507 crore
• January 2023-1,55,922 cr.

Exp. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), the public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, and HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank today announced a partnership to launch one of India’s most rewarding co-branded travel credit cards.

• Known as the IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card, the newly launched co-branded card is in a single variant and is available exclusively on NPCI’s Rupay network.
• It will provide exclusive benefits and maximum savings on bookings of train tickets booked through the IRCTC’s ticketing website and through IRCTC Rail Connect app.

Note: About HDFC

• CEO: Sashidhar Jagdishan
• Founded: August 1994, Mumbai
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Exp. Axis Bank, India’s fourth-biggest private-sector lender by market value, on 2 March said it has completed the acquisition of Citibank India’s consumer businesses in India for a total consideration of ₹11,603 crore.

• The bank will get 2.4 million Citi customers and ₹39,900 crore of deposits through this acquisition.

Note: About Axis Bank

• CEO: Amitabh Chaudhry
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Tagline: Badhti Ka Naam Zindagi

Exp. State Bank of India (SBI) has announced the completion of a $1 billion Syndicated Social Loan Facility. This syndicated transaction is significant for SBI and the Indian ESG financing market since it is the largest ESG loan by a commercial bank in the Asia Pacific and the second-largest social loan globally.

• Additionally, this is the bank’s inaugural social loan and the first syndicated loan in the past five years.
• The $1 billion facility was arranged through MLABs, MUFG Bank, and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. MUFG and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank are Joint Social Loan Coordinators while MUFG is the Lead Social Loan Coordinator for this transaction.

Note: About SBI

• Chairperson: Dinesh Kumar Khara
• Founded: 1 July 1955
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Exp. Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has been appointed as the Director General of the border-guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

• Shukla, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service officer of the Maharashtra cadre, is currently the Additional DG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Shukla’s appointment as the Director General, SSB, till June 30, 2024.

Note: Important Appointment

• BSF: Pankaj Kumar Singh
• CRPF: Sujoy Lal Thaosen
• CISF: Sheel Vardhan Singh
• ITBP: Anish Dayal Singh

Exp.

• Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of HDFC Bank, has been chosen as the Business Standard Banker of the Year 2022, as the lender continued its strong performance under his leadership while successfully navigating through technology-related challenges.
• An eminent five-member jury, chaired by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor S S Mundra, picked the CEO of the largest private sector bank of the country as the winner.

Exp. Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin Aldrin broke the national record in the men’s long jump in the second AFI National Jumps Competition.

• Jeswin Aldrin, 21-year-old, leaped 8.42 meters to take over the previous mark of 8.36 meters set by India teammate M Sreeshankar at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode in April 2022.

• India’s top triple-jumper Aishwarya Babu has been banned by the National Anti-Doping Agency’s (NADA) disciplinary panel for four years for using a prohibited anabolic steroid.
• Aishwarya Babu, 25 years old, was dropped from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, along with sprinter S Dhanalakshmi after testing positive for the steroid, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) prohibited list.

Exp. World Civil Defence Day is observed on 1st March to raise awareness about the importance of civil defence measures in protecting people and their property from natural disasters, accidents, and other emergencies.

• Theme 2023: Uniting the world’s leading specialists for the safety and security of future generations”.

Exp.

• Zero Discrimination Day embarks on the first day of March, annually the day aims to promote equality before the law and in practice throughout all of the member countries of the UN.
• Many countries have laws against discrimination but it’s still a problem in all layers of society in every country in the world. Countries still use discrimination as a way of governing.
• Theme 2023: “Save lives: Decriminalise”,.

Exp.

• Every 3rd of March, wildlife is celebrated all over the world for the UN World Wildlife This date was chosen as it is the birthday of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in 1973.
• This global event is marked annually to celebrate and promote awareness of the planet’s wild fauna and flora.
• Theme 2023– ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’