Current Affairs 02 March 2023

ANS : D 

• PM Modi inaugurated the eighth edition of the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on 2 March 2023.
• The three-day Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-strategy.
• It is organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with Observer Research Foundation.
• The theme of the 2023 Edition is “Provocation, Uncertainty, Turbulence: Lighthouse in the Tempest.”
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will join the inaugural session as the Chief Guest.
• The Raisina Dialogue 2023 will witness the participation of representatives from over 100 countries including Ministers, Military Commanders, Captains of the Industry, Technology Leaders, Scholars on Strategic Affairs, and Experts from leading Think Tanks and Youth.
• This year’s edition assumes special significance coming against the backdrop of India’s G20 Presidency. 

ANS : C 

• Asia’s longest cycle race began in Srinagar as 29 cyclists including one woman set off for the first of its kind 3651-kilometre event.
• The race, after covering a distance of more than three thousand kilometres, will culminate at Kanyakumari.
• The race which has been accorded the status of Asian Ultracycling Championship by the world Ultracycling Association was flagged off on March 01 in Srinagar by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Shri Vijay Kumar Bidhuri.
• Addressing the media persons, the Project Director Jeetendra Nayak said that only 1000 km races were held till date in India and maintained that this longest race from Kashmir to Kanyakumari will certainly give an opportunity to all the ultrcyclists in India to participate in this Ultracycling event of International standards.
• The route for this cycle race will be the longest highway covering the National Highway-44 of 3651 kilometres passing through twelve major states, three major metropolitan cities and over twenty major cities of the country.

 ANS : D 

• NTPC has commissioned India’s first Air cooled condenser at North Karanpura Super Critical plant in Jharkhand.
• This project has been envisaged with Air Cooled Condenser which has almost 1/3rd water footprint as compared to a conventional Water Cooled Condenser.
• The North Karanpura plant will have a total capacity of 1980 MW, 3 Units of 660 MW each. 
• North Karanpura Thermal Power Station is located in Tandwa in the Simaria subdivision of the Chatra district, Jharkhand.
  • The project was originally proposed in 1999 but got delayed because Coal India Limited objected to the location of the power plant and wanted NTPC to relocate the power plant as it was coming up on site having 6 billion tonnes of coal underneath it.
  • The Government of India finally decided in 2013 February against the relocation and in 2013 July, the coal linkage for the plant was restored and the foundation stone was finally laid in August 2014.

ANS : D 

• The Government has approved the signing of a contract with Larsen and Toubro Limited (L&T) for the acquisition of three Cadet Training Ships.
• The Union Cabinet on March 01 approved signing of a contract with Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) for acquisition of three cadet training ships, at an overall cost of ₹3,108.09 crore, under Buy (Indian-IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)) category.
• The delivery of these ships is scheduled to commence in the year 2026.
• These ships will cater to the training of officer cadets, including women, at sea after their basic training to meet the future requirements of the Indian Navy. 
• Project will generate employment of 22.5 lakh man-days.
• The ships will be indigenously designed, developed and constructed at L&T shipyard in Kattupalli, Chennai. 

ANS : C 

• The government of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, has announced plans to establish RAK Digital Assets Oasis.
• It will be the world’s first free zone dedicated to digital and virtual asset companies.
• The announcement was made at the Blockchain Life 2023 conference.
• RAK Digital Assets Oasis will open for applications in the second quarter of 2023.
• RAK Digital Assets Oasis will be a purpose-built, true innovation-enabling free zone for non-regulated activities in the virtual assets sector.

ANS : C 

• People in Nagaland have elected two women candidates after 60 years since it attained statehood.
• Salhoutuonuo Kruse and Hekani Jakhalu made history by becoming the first women candidates to be elected in the state assembly election.
• Kruse won from Western Angami AC and Jakhalu clinched Dimapur-III constituencies.
• Jakhalu has received the Nari Shakti Puraskar award for her commitment to promoting gender equality.
• She founded YouthNet, an organization dedicated to empowering young people in the area. 

ANS : C 

• The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC is organizing a two-day National Conference on Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in New Delhi from 2 March 2023. 
• Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju inaugurated the conference.
• Its objective is to derive recommendations for policymakers and law enforcement agencies among others after having due deliberations among various stakeholders.
• The discussions will revolve around five themes, including:
  • Understanding the Nature, Extent, and Emerging Issues
  • Legal Provisions Relating to CSAM
  • Role of Technology and Intermediaries in the Prevention, Detection, and Investigation of CSAM
  • International Trends in Fighting CSAM
  • Role of Enforcement Agencies & Cyber Forensics in Detection, Investigation & Monitoring of CSAM.

ANS : D 

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras has announced a collaboration with Industry and Academia in Denmark on 1^st March 2023.
• Four projects were disclosed in the presence of the Crown Prince of Denmark, Lars Aagaard.
• Three out of these four projects were announced to enable energy transition towards a low-carbon future as envisioned by IIT Madras Energy Consortium.
• These three projects intend to-
  • Accelerate technology development through industry-academia-government partnerships
  • Collaborate with global partners to develop technology solutions that once deployed at scale in India will essentially become technology solutions for the world
• The fourth project was signed in the realm of Water to promote cooperation in engineering education and scientific research between Danfoss, Denmark and IIT Madras.
  • Both institutions will undertake joint work on drinking water for coastal regions using renewable energy.

ANS : D 

• The Union Cabinet has approved procurement of 70 ‘HTT-40′ Basic Trainer Aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force.
• The procurement will cost Rs 6,828.36 crore.
• The aircraft will be supplied over a period of six years.
• The HTT-40 contains approx. 56% indigenous content which will progressively increase to over 60%.
• The HTT-40 is a turbo prop aircraft and is designed to have good low speed handling qualities and provide better training effectiveness.
• The fully aerobatic tandem seat turbo trainer has air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot re-fueling, running change over and zero-zero ejection seats

ANS : A 

• The government of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, has announced plans to establish RAK Digital Assets Oasis, the world’s first free zone dedicated to digital and virtual asset companies.
• The announcement was made at the Blockchain Life 2023 conference.
• RAK Digital Assets Oasis will be a purpose-built, true innovation-enabling free zone for non-regulated activities in the virtual assets sector.
• It is intended to be the only free zone in the world solely dedicated to digital and virtual assets service providers innovating in new and emerging sectors of the future including metaverse, blockchain, utility tokens, virtual asset wallets, NFTs, DAOs, DApp, and other Web3-related businesses.
• RAK Digital Assets Oasis will open for applications in the second quarter of 2023.