Current Affairs 16 March 2023

ANS : B 

•  Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on 15 March 2023, inaugurated “AgriUnifest” in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• It is a 5-day cultural program, organized by Bangalore Agricultural University in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
• More than 2500 students from 60 State Universities/Central Universities have participated.

ANS : C 

• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank’s Hello Ujjivan app won the 13th Aegis Graham Bell Awards in the “Innovation in Consumer Tech” category in Mar’23.
• The award is an initiative of Aegis School of Data Science, under the Min of Electronics & Information Technology to foster an innovative culture in India.
• It is the 1st mobile banking app in India that enables speech, visual, and vernacular features.
• Ittira Davis is the MD and CEO of Ujjivan Samll Finance Bank.

ANS : A 

• Celebrating 75 years of friendship, India and Luxembourg launched a Joint Commemorative Stamp on 15 March 2023.
• India and Luxembourg have longstanding cooperation in the steel sector. Luxembourg Company Paul Wurth Company has been in India for the last 20 years.
• Earlier, the 12th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Luxembourg from November 4-7, 2015.

ANS : B 

•  Reliance Industries-backed JioCinema has signed up cricketer Suryakumar Yadav as its brand ambassador on .It is owned by Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd., a subsidiary of TV18.
• JioCinema is the digital streaming partner of Indian Premiere League (IPL).
• Suryakumar Yadav currently holds the number 1 position in the rankings for T20 International batsmen with 906 points.

ANS : A 

• It is celebrated in the Garhwal and Kumaun regions of Uttarakhand every year in the flowering season (March-April) for about a month.
• Known as the harvest festival of Uttarakhand, Phool Dei is an auspicious folk festival which welcomes the spring season in the state.
• The festival is celebrated on the 1st day of the Hindu month, Chaitra.
• The term ‘Dei’ refers to a ceremonial pudding which is the key food in this festival that is made from jaggery.

ANS : B 

• Chaudhary will be the first Indian-American to serve as an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force.
• Chaudhary served as an active duty Air Force pilot between 1993 and 2015, conducting numerous combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Following his retirement from military service, Chaudhary served for five years as a senior official within the Regions and Center Operations and Office of Commercial Space at the Federal Aviation Administration.
• He was also appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
• The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and the Environment is responsible for the Air Force’s sustainability and operational readiness, including installations and basing strategy, as well as ensuring the quality of military housing.

ANS : D 

• Deepak Mohanty has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA).

• He will hold this post from the date of assumption of charge till attaining the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
• Prior to this, he was the Whole-Time Member (Economics) of PFRDA for two years overseeing regulation of pension funds.

ANS : B 

• Eric Garcetti, President Joe Biden’s close aide, will be the next US Ambassador to India after the Senate confirmed his nomination.
• The Senate voted 52-42 to confirm the former Los Angeles mayor’s nomination on 15 March 2023.
• The United States has not had an ambassador to New Delhi since January 2021.
• Biden had nominated Garcetti for the post in July 2021.

ANS : B 

• NASA has unveiled a new generation of spacesuit for humanity’s return trip to the Moon.

• The design of the spacesuit comes with specialist features to support astronauts as they conduct scientific experiments on the lunar surface.
• The prototype is said to be a better fit for female space travellers.
• Existing spacesuits worn by US space travellers have not been fully redesigned since 1981.

ANS : D 

• Gianni Infantino was re-elected FIFA president by acclaim through 2027, on 16 March 2023.
• Infantino had no election opponent and won by acclaim instead of a formal vote by the congress.
• He was first elected to the office during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016, and was re-elected in June 2019.