Daily Current Affairs 10th February 2023

Current Affairs 10th February 2023 are incorporated with the important news that made the current affairs headlines for banking or other competitive exams. Daily Current Affairs is the complete bag of important news that is held all day long. One should have complete knowledge about banking terms, current affairs news, etc. So, here is the GK update for 10th February 2023 to help you prepare the Current affairs part. After reading this section, you can successfully attempt Current Affairs Quiz. 

Here is the Current Affairs 10th February 2023 covering the following news headlines: South Africa’s Electricity crisis, First Super Magnets, Quad Nations, India’s New Infrastructure Institution, World Pulses Day 2023.

Top 22 Daily Current Affairs: National & International News:

Here is providing below the top 22 important Daily General Knowledge 2022 updates with national & international news.

International News

1. South Africa declares ‘State of Disaster’ over electricity crisis

• In order to speed up the government’s reaction to an ongoing energy crisis, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa proclaimed a state of Disaster.
• He also promised to designate a minister in his office who will concentrate on increasing the supply of power.
• Since 2008, the nation has struggled with electricity shortages that have reached historic heights, resulting in rolling blackouts every day of this year.
• Since he assumed office in February 2018, Ramaphosa has promised to overhaul the monopoly state power provider Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and bring new generation capacity online, but many projects have been hampered by bureaucracy and government apathy.

2. Tokamak Energy Built First Super Magnets for testing in nuclear plant

• Oxford-based Tokamak Energy created a new generation of high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and are being manufactured and tested in situations that are pertinent to fusion power plants.
• Strong magnetic fields are needed to contain and manage the extremely hot, positively-charged hydrogen fuel, which creates a plasma several times hotter than the sun, in order to produce clean, sustainable fusion energy. The brand-new Demo4 facility from Tokamak Energy will include 44 distinct magnetic coils made up of 38 kilometres of ground-breaking HTS tape, which carries currents with no electrical resistance and uses five times less cooling power than conventional superconducting materials.
• Nearly a million times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth, Demo4’s magnetic field will have a strength of over 18 Tesla.

3. Quad Nations begins Public Campaign To Improve Cyber Security

• The commencement of a public campaign to strengthen cyber security in these four countries has been announced by The Quad, a plurilateral structure made up of India, Australia, Japan, and the US.
• Internet users are encouraged to join the challenge and make a commitment to adopt safe and responsible online behaviours, according to the National Security Council Secretariat.
• The programme is a reflection of the Quad’s ongoing efforts to increase cyber security action and awareness as well as to promote a more secure and robust cyber ecosystem for the benefit of economies and consumers worldwide.

4. Pakistani PM approves IMF deal, Geo reports, without giving details

• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has approved a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and all matters over the bailout programme are settled, citing sources.
• Cash-strapped Pakistan had been due to wrap up talks with the IMF in a bid to unlock stalled funds from a $6.5 billion bailout to ward off economic meltdown.
• An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation landed in Islamabad recently to thrash out tough conditions that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “beyond imagination”.
• The IMF is clearly asking for much more than what the government is willing to do, even with a little bit of arm twisting,  said economic analyst Abid Hasan, a former adviser to the World Bank.

Economy News

5. Digital credit to be introduced this year; NRIs in 10 countries to get UPI service

• According to Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the government has said that it will provide a digital credit facility this year in a similar manner to how it introduced the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Even modest street sellers will be able to use the programme to obtain credit from banks.
• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will play a significant role in the rollout of digital credit this year and over the course of the following 10 to 12 months.
• A prototype of a voice-based payment system for UPI was introduced at the event by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• People would be able to use the UPI technology to make phone payments in their native tongue.
• The service will be offered in 18 Indian languages, according to the ministry.

6. India’s New Infrastructure Institution Plans Debut $610 Million Bond

• India’s newly created infrastructure-financing institution is planning a maiden bond issue of 50 billion rupees in the next quarter.
• The managing director at the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, India’s new development finance institution, Rajkiran Rai informed that the institution aims to test the market in terms of pricing with the small issuance.
• NaBFID, as the infrastructure-focused lender is called, plans to leverage the government’s equity capital to the extent of three or four trillion rupees through the issuance of Tier-1 and Tier-2 bonds, among others.
• India’s depleting infrastructure requires nearly $1 trillion in financing by 2025 and is a keystone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda to accelerate economic growth.
• In the latest budget, the government proposed raising capital spending by a third to 10 trillion rupees, which will boost NaBFID’s agenda.
• The institution will tap pension funds and insurance companies to raise funds and aims to finance the capital needs of various sectors including energy and transmission, airports, ports, and urban infrastructure.

Banking News

7. India’s first-ever municipal bond issue for retail opens

• Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has launched India’s first public issue of municipal bonds intending to raise up to Rs 244 crore to fund a solar power project.
• This would be the first time a municipal body is targeting individual investors in India. The base issue size is Rs 122 crore with an option to retain an oversubscription of up to Rs 122 crore, aggregating up to a limit of Rs 244 crore.
• The issue will remain open for subscription during February 10-14. This is also a green bond as the proceeds will be used to fund a 60 MW captive solar photovoltaic power plant at the villages of Samraj and Ashukhedi in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district.

                                     Important Days 

8. World Pulses Day 2023 is Observed On 10 February

• Every year World Pulses Day is celebrated on February 10 with an aim to spread awareness about the nutritional and environmental benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production.
• In 2019, the UN General Assembly dedicated a day to Pulses to increase awareness and access to pulses globally. Pulses also known as legumes, are considered as global foods, and are produced in almost every country.
• ‘Pulses for a Sustainable Future’ as the theme for the 2023 celebration.
• This year’s celebration will highlight the contribution of pulses towards improving soil productivity, increasing the resilience of farming systems, providing a better life for farmers in water-scarce environments, and more. Since pulses have a low water footprint and can better tolerate drought and climate-related disasters, they are imperative to sustainable food production.

    Agreements News

9. Samsung Research Unit and IISc Partnered to Boost India Semiconductor R&D

• Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) has announced a new partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to promote research and development in the field of on-chip Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection.
• Samsung India announced that it will hire around 1000 engineers for its R&D institutes, including its Samsung Semiconductor India Research in Bengaluru last year.
• The research agreement was exchanged by Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP & MD at Samsung Semiconductor India Research, Bengaluru, and Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in the presence of delegates from Samsung and IISc.
• With this partnership, cutting-edge ESD device solutions to protect ultra-high-speed serial interfaces in advanced Integrated Circuits (ICs) and system-on-chip (SoC) products will be built.

Ranks and Reports

10. India Ranked among Top Five accreditation systems in the world: Report

• India’s national accreditation system under the Quality Council of India (QCI) has been ranked 5th in the world in the recent Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021.
• The GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of the quality infrastructure (QI).
• The Quality Council of India (QCI) stated that it is proud to be acknowledged as one of the world’s top five accreditation systems. It noted that it would help pave the way for collaborations that aim to improve the quality of infrastructure.
• India’s overall QI system ranking continues to be in the Top 10 at the 10th position, with the standardization system (under BIS) at 9th and the metrology system (under NPL-CSIR) at 21st position in the world.
• According to the report, the top 25 countries in the world are mainly located in Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe. Some of these include India, Australia, Turkey, and Brazil.

Summits and Conferences

11. PM Modi Inaugurates Global Investors Summit 2023 in Lucknow

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023 in Lucknow.
• The 10-12 February event is expected to be attended by several ministers of the Union and the state government and a host of leading industrialists.
• The event is important for the state which initially set a target to attract investment proposals of Rs 10 lakh crore at the UPGIS-2023, and later revised it to Rs 17.3 lakh crore.

Appointment News

12. Drugmaker Pfizer Ltd appoints Meenakshi Nevatia to lead India business

• Drugmaker Pfizer Limited has announced the appointment of Meenakshi Nevatia as an Additional Director and Managing Director for five years.
• She comes in the place of S Sridhar, who announced his early retirement in August 2022. Sridhar, the current India country President, will step down as Managing Director and board member from March 31, 2023.

13. Supreme Court back to full strength with two more High Court Justices

• India’s Supreme Court is now back to its full strength of 34, with the elevation of two High Court Chief Justices to the apex court.
• The last time the apex court was at its full strength was in September-November 2019. The Chief Justices of the Allahabad High Court and the Gujarat High Court are the latest additions to the 34-judge collegium. 
• Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Chief Justice Aravind Kumar were recommended to the Supreme Court Collegium last month.
• The appointments of Justices Bindal and Kumar follow closely on the heels of the February 4 appointments of five judges to the apex court, based on recommendations made in December 2022.
• Justices Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Karol, PV Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Manoj Misra took oath on February 6, following the announcement from the Centre.

Science and Technology News

14. Newly launched Google Bard lose $100bn in one error

• Alphabet Inc. lost $100 billion in market value shortly after its new chatbot inadvertently disclosed false information in a promotional video. While Microsoft shares jumped almost 3% before losing some of their gains, its shares fell as much as 9% during regular trade.
• Initially, Reuters called attention to a mistake in Google’s advertisement for its debuting chatbot Bard.
• The article discussed which satellite was the first to capture images of a planet outside of our solar system.
• After OpenAI, a company Microsoft is investing $10 billion in, unveiled software in November that amazed users and became a craze in Silicon Valley circles for its shockingly accurate and well-written responses to straightforward questions, Google has been reeling.

15. NASA to launch ‘Mars mission’ on Blue Origin’s New Glenn

• Jeff Bezos-led Blue Origin scored a big contract from the American space agency, Nasa, to launch a mission to Mars.
• The private space company was given its first interplanetary NASA contract to launch the mission to study the magnetic field around the Red Planet. The expected launch date for the mission is 2024.
• The mission, dubbed the dual-spacecraft ESCAPADE, will be launched next year on Blue Origin’s recently developed New Glenn heavy-lift rocket.
• The mission will lift off in late 2024 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is part of Nasa’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
• New Glenn, with a reusable first stage designed to be flown on at least 25 missions, is named for pioneering NASA astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.
• Blue Origin has flown previous NASA missions with its smaller, suborbital New Shepard rocket, which can carry research payloads on short, microgravity trips to the edge of space and back.

16. ISRO’s new rocket SSLV-D2 launched from Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the second edition of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2) from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
• ISRO’s EOS-07, US-based firm Antaris’ Janus-1, and Chennai-based space startup SpaceKidz’s AzaadiSAT-2 – into a 450 km circular orbit during its 15-minute flight, the ISRO said.
• According to ISRO, the SSLV caters to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to low earth orbits on a ‘launch-on-demand’ basis. The rocket provides low-cost access to space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure.

Sports News

17. Indian Golfer Aditi Ashok Won Kenya Ladies Open Title 2023

• Indian Olympian Aditi Ashok won the 2023 Magical Kenya Ladies Open Title with a final-round score of 74. This is the fourth Ladies’ European championship of Aditi Ashok overall.
• Her first LET title comes after winning the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi in 2017. She finished with a score of 12-under 280 at the Vipingo Ridges after shooting a final round of 67-70-69-74.
• The golf player, Aditi Ashok, played one of the most dominant matches of her career.
• She was competing in her first event in over two months, took a three-shot lead in the first round, increased it to five after two rounds, and increased it to six after the third.
• At the end of every round, Aditi kept adding the points on the table that showed a clear lead at the end of the final round.

18. Cristiano Ronaldo scores four for Al Nassr to cross 500 league goals

• Cristiano Ronaldo scored all of Al Nassr’s goals in a 4-0 rout of Al Wehda in the Saudi league as he passed the 500 league goal mark in his club career.
• The 38-year-old Portuguese star now has 503 goals scored for five different teams stretched across five leagues.
• The Portuguese superstar scored 103 goals for Manchester United, 311 for Real Madrid, 81 for Juventus, three for Sporting Lisbon. Now, he has five for Al Nassr as well.

19. Ravichandran Ashwin becomes the fastest Indian to pick up 450 Test wickets

• Ravichandran Ashwin picked up his 450th Test wicket during the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy game between India and Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
• He achieved the feat when he bowled Alex Carey in the 54th over. He also became the fastest Indian to scale the landmark, going past former leg-spinner Anil Kumble. Ashwin took 89 Tests to reach the milestone as compared to Kumble’s 93.
• Overall, he is the second-fastest to reach the milestone. Former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is only ahead of him, having reached the landmark in 80 matches.
• The Australian duo of Glenn McGrath (100) and Shane Warne (101) complete the list of the five fastest bowlers to pick up 450 Test wickets.

Obituaries News

20. World Cup Skiing Medallist Elena Fanchini Dies Aged 37

• Italian Skier Elena Fanchini passed at the age of 37 after a toiling battle with cancer on 9^th February 2023.
• Elena Fanchini competed at three Winter Olympics and six World Championships for Italy, and she won a silver medal in the download at the 2005 World Championships.
• Her last race was in December 2017 after that she stepped away from the game due to her diagnosis.
• Elena Fanchini was prepared to return in 2018, however, she was unable to fully make it back and missed the 2018 Winter Olympics as a result.
• The Italian Champion who retired from competition in 2017, passed away at her home in Solato at the age of just 37.

21. Popular artist B.K.S. Verma passes away

• Popular artist B.K.S. Verma, has passed away in the city. The subject of his paintings was mainly environmental and social issues presented in a surreal form.
• Born in 1949, Varma’s father Krishnamacharya was a musician while his mother Jayalakshmi was an artist. He was trained in art by the legendary art teacher A.N. Subbarao at the art and culture institution he founded, Kalamandir, in the 1960s.
• Varma had won several awards including the Lalit Kala Akademi award, Rajyotsava award, Aryabhatta award, the Rajiv Gandhi award among others. He was honoured with the Karnataka Rajya Puruskar (2001), Rajyothsava award (2001), and Honorary Doctorate by Bangalore University (2011).

Miscellaneous News

22. NCST functioning with less than 50% of sanctioned strength

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs in Lok Sabha has revealed that the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is currently functioning with less than 50% of its sanctioned strength.
• According to data from the Commission, rules provide for the ST panel to have one Chairperson, one Vice-Chairperson, and three Members (two among V-C and Members must be from ST community).
• Currently, it just has a Chairperson (Harsh Chouhan) and one Member (Ananta Nayak) with all other positions, including that of the mandatory ST Member, vacant for the last three years.
• It is a constitutional body. It has been established by amending Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338A in the Indian Constitution through the 89th Amendment Act.
• It consists of a chairman, a vice-chairman and three whole-time members (including a woman member). Its term is for 3 years and the chairman is appointed by the President. It investigates and monitors matters relating to Safeguards provided for STs.

Important Current Affairs of 10th  February 2023