ALL EXAM QUIZ 17.11.2023

Explanation:

• Centre has allowed the spouses of deceased government employees to open Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) accounts.
• Earlier, the spouses of deceased government employees were not allowed to open SCSS accounts.
• The spouse of the government employee can open an account under the scheme, if the government employee who has attained the age of 50 years has died in harness.
• All Central and State Government employees are included in government employees here. They are eligible for retirement benefit or death compensation.
• The account can be opened within three months from the date of receipt of the retirement benefits for a living employee.

Explanation:

• Wood Mackenzie has forecasted that India will overtake Southeast Asia as the second-largest module production region by 2025.
• Wood Mackenzie said this will be driven by India’s strong PLI incentives.
• It added India and the US have announced over 200 gigawatts (GW) of planned module capacity since 2022.
• Earlier, ICRA said India’s solar photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing capacity to increase to more than 60 GW by 2025 from the current level of around 37 GW.
• International Energy Agency (IEA) in a report last month said that India’s domestic production capacity can surpass 70 GW by 2027.

Explanation:

• Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi, the chairman emeritus of The Oberoi Group, died at the age of 94. He was popularly known as "Biki”.
• He is known for building an empire in the luxury hospitality segment.
• He was the son of the late Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, the founder of The Oberoi Group.
• His work helped in putting Oberoi hotels on the international luxury travellers' map.
• The Oberoi chain has hotels even in Morocco, Mauritius and the UAE.
• He received the title "Corporate Hotelier of the World" from Hotels magazine in 2010.

Explanation:

• Russia has signed a deal to supply Igla-S hand-held anti-aircraft missiles to India.
• As part of the deal, Russia will also allow production of the Igla in India under licence.
• Igla-S is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS). It can be fired by a man or crew to bring down an enemy aircraft.
• India is the world’s largest arms importer. Russia remains India’s biggest weapons supplier.
• From 2016-2021, it accounted for more than 50% of India's arms imports.

Explanation:

• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the ‘AAINA Dashboard for Cities’ portal 23.
• Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the country can voluntarily submit their data regularly, through a simple, easy-to-fill, data entry form on the portal.
• The main objective of the AAINA Dashboard is to help cities see how they are faring vis-à-vis other cities and inspire them by pointing to possibilities and areas of improvement.
• AAINA Dashboard also aims to provide cities an opportunity to learn and engage with frontrunners.
• The AAINA dashboard would be a tool for comparing similarly placed cities and promoting peer learning among cities.
• The Dashboard will present the data submitted by the ULBs on the basis of indicators across five broad pillars.
• These pillars are Political and Administrative Structure, Finance, Planning, Citizen Centric Governance and Delivery of Basic Services.
• The portal aims to create a robust database of key performance metrics of ULBs.

Explanation:

• Aravinda de Silva and Virender Sehwag and former India women's team captain Diana Edulji have been inducted into the International Cricket Council's prestigious Hall of Fame.
• Edulji has become the first Indian woman cricketer to be included in the ICC Hall of Fame.
• These players will receive the honour at the Wankhede Stadium during the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final.
• These cricketing icons are inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame as the Class of 2023.

Explanation:

• A team of scientists and researchers discovered a new species of gecko endemic to Mizoram.
• The new species has been named ‘Cyrtodactylus vairengtensis’ after the town in Mizoram.
• The common name for the new species is ‘Vairengte bent-toed gecko’.
• The number of geckos native to Mizoram has increased to 6 and 22 in northeast India.
• There are 335 gecko species in the world out of which 42 are found in India.
• This new species is a moderate-sized gecko. The size of the adult is between 57.6mm and 73.6mm.
• 9-11 precloacal pores were found in males and 5-9 precloacal pits were found in females.

Explanation:

• The wholesale price index (WPI) recorded a 0.52 per cent decline in October as compared to the previous year.
• Wholesale inflation recorded a contraction of 0.26 per cent in September.
• Prices of primary articles increased by 1.82% in October compared with an increase of 3.70% in September.
• Food prices increased by 1.07% in October as compared to 1.54% in September.
• Manufactured product prices declined 1.13% against a 1.34% fall the previous month.
• The negative rate of inflation in October 2023 is due to a fall in prices of chemicals and chemical products, electricity, textiles, basic metals, food products, paper and paper products, etc.
• The government has mandated RBI bank to maintain retail inflation at four per cent with a margin of two per cent on either side.

Explanation:

• The ICC Men's ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 is being held in India. India's star batsman Virat Kohli has made the record of scoring most runs in a single World Cup.
• Kohli is currently the highest run-scorer in the Cricket World Cup 2023. With 711 runs in 10 matches, Kohli has overtaken Sachin Tendulkar's record of most runs in a single edition.

Explanation:

• World Philosophy Day or Vishwa Darshan Diwas is celebrated every year on the third Thursday of November, this time it is being celebrated on 16 November.
• In 2005, UNESCO established World Philosophy Day to recognize the important contribution of philosophy in shaping the future society.
• This year's theme is "Philosophical Reflection in a Multicultural World".