Current Affairs 22 February 2023

ANS : D

• Rudrankksh Patil won the gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle competition of the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Cairo, Egypt on 21 February 2023.

• Rudrankksh Patil defeated Germany’s Maximilian Ulbrich in the gold medal match by 16-8.
• Tilottama Sen claimed bronze in women’s category of the ISSF Shooting World Cup here on February 21.
• India now has five medals in its kitty, including three gold.
• Varun Tomar also won the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event.
• Rhythm Sangwan won the 10m Air Pistol mixed team competition at the event.

ANS : D

• Gulab Chand Kataria has taken oath as the Governor of Assam on February 22, 2023.
• Gulab Chand Kataria is a senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly.
• He is an 8-time MLA from Udaipur, Rajasthan is also a member of central working committee of the BJP.
• He was the Home minister in Government of Rajasthan from 2014 till 2018.
• He succeeds Professor Jagdish Mukhi, who demitted office on February 19 after completing his term.

ANS : A

• The World No. 2 tennis player, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Cameron Norrie in the final to win the Argentina Open title in Feb 2023.
• Carlos Alcaraz overwhelmed second-seeded British player Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5 to claim his seventh ATP Tour title.
• He became the first Spaniard to win the Argentina Open tennis title since Rafael Nadal in 2015.
• He also became the highest-ranked winner in tournament history.
• Casper Ruud, who won the competition in 2020 at the age of 21, was the youngest winner prior to Carlos Alcaraz.

ANS : B 

• Indian Railways is set to launch Guru Kirpa Yatra from 5^th April 2023 from Lucknow with its exclusive Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train.
• During the eleven-day holy tour, the pilgrims will visit the most prominent revered sites of Sikhism which includes the five Holy Takhts.
• The tour will include a visit to Sri Kesgarh Sahib Gurudwara and Virasat-e-khalsa at Anandpur Sahib, Gurudwara Sri Patalpuri Sahib at Kiratpur Sahib, Gurudwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib at Sirhind, Sri Akal Takht Sahib and Sri Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar, Sri Damdama Sahib at Bathinda, Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib at Nanded, Gurudwara Sri Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib at Bidar and Gurudwara Sri Harmandarji Sahib at Patna.
• IRCTC will operate this train with a composition of nine Sleeper Class Coaches, one AC-3 and one AC- 2Tier coach.
• IRCTC is offering the tour package across three categories namely – Standard, Superior and Comfort with a total capacity of 678 passengers.
• In sleeper class passengers have to pay around 24 thousand, for 3rd AC – 36 thousand and for 2nd AC passengers have to pay around 48 thousand rupees.

ANS : C

• India’s Tilottama Sen has won bronze medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle at ISSF World Cup at Cairo in Egypt.

• She won second bronze for India, fifth overall after ending the top eight ranking round with a score of 262.
• Great Britain’s Seonaid Mcintosh won gold and Switzerland’s Olympic Champion Nina Christen came second to win silver. 

ANS : B

• The Ministry of Education and various stakeholders are working to set up the ‘digital university’, announced in the 2022 Union Budget, by August 2023.
• The university will offer a whole gamut of qualifications certificate programmes, diplomas, and degrees. 
• As proposed by the University Grants Commission (UGC), there won’t be any limit on the number of seats.
• Anyone who has passed class 12 would be eligible for admission.
• On the other hand, some of the challenges include stable digital connectivity, availability of devices, the attention span of students and the delivery style of online content.
• Participants in the two-and-a-half-hour discussion included Union higher education secretary K. Sanjay Murthy, UGC chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe, IIT Madras director Professor V. Kamakoti, and Swati A. Piramal, vice chairperson of the NGO Piramal Group, among others.

ANS : D

• Seattle has become the first city in the United States to explicitly ban discrimination based on caste.
• The city council in the capital of Washington state voted to add caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws.
• A 2016 survey by the group found that one in four Dalits in the US had faced verbal or physical assault and two out of every three said they had faced discrimination at work.

ANS : C

• The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of an air services agreement between India and Guyana.
• The agreement will provide the legal framework for air operations between the two countries.
• Currently, India has air services agreements with around 110 countries.
• Indians have a sizeable presence in Guyana and are the largest ethnic group comprising about 40 per cent of the population.

ANS : B

• A South Korean court has for the first time recognised the rights of a same-sex couple in the country.
• The court has ruled that homosexual couples in the country are entitled to the same type of spousal coverage allowed under the national health insurance service as heterosexual couples.
• The ruling took place on February 21, 2022 by Seoul High Court.

ANS : D 

• Scientists at the ICAR’s Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) have developed a wheat variety which can beat the heat.
• The crop, when sown in October 20-25, will come to heading only in 100-110 days. 
• Wheat is typically a 140-145 days crop planted mostly in November – before the middle of the month in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (post the harvesting of paddy, cotton and soyabean) and the second half and beyond in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (after sugarcane and paddy).