BYJU’S Bulletin Board – News of the World: Edition 24

CURRENT AFFAIRS

• Death toll crosses 12,000 in Turkey Earthquake: The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is visiting the quake-hit areas. Sanjay Verma, the joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), reported that 10 Indians who were stuck in remote areas are safe. But the one Indian has gone missing. The WHO (World Health Organization) is arranging for medics and supplies to be sent to Turkey and Syria.

TECHNOLOGY

• Microsoft and ChatGPT–the race has begun: ChatGPT, launched by Open AI, is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot that can write essays, analyze problems and programme computers. Microsoft has responded by using the same technology that powers Bing and Edge to give its users a cutting-edge search engine experience.

Inflation strikes again as the RBI increases its repo rate to 6.5%: Inflation strikes again as the RBI increases its repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5% from 6.25%. The repo rate is the rate at which a central bank lends money to a government bank or financial institution against government securities. This was announced on 8 February, 2023. This happened for the sixth time since May 2022. Experts predict there will be a long pause after this.

ACADEMICS

• UGC revamps curriculum for UG students in Environmental Education: Environmental awareness and sensitivity towards the environment are the need of the hour. Hence, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has revised the environmental education curriculum for UG (undergraduate) students on 8 February, 2023. This is in line with the National Education Policy of 2020. One can access the details on the UGC website.

SPORTS

• Women’ Premier League scheduled from 4–26 March 2023:— IPL chairman Arun Dhumal notified the Press Trust of India (PTI) on 6 February 2023 that the Women’s Premier League will run from 4 March 2023 to 26 March 2023. The auction will be held on 13 February 2023 The auction will feature 409 players, 246 of whom are Indians and the remaining are international players.

SPACE

• James Webb Telescope discovers Colosseum-sized asteroid: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest optical telescope conducting infrared astronomy. This week NASA shared an image of an asteroid that they came across while going through test data from Webb’s MIRI instrument. Roughly 100–200 meters in size, and is the smallest object ever detected by the telescope.

ENVIRONMENT

• Walking towards a greener tomorrow with G20: G20 is the First Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting scheduled from  9–11 February, 2023 in Bengaluru. The event is going to be hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate and will be chaired by the secretary of the ministry Leena Nandan. The primary goal of this event is to combat climate change.

ARCHAEOLOGY

• Restorative plans are in place for Goan temples– Subhash Phal Desai, State Minister of Archaeology, stated that his government is reviewing the claims for the temples destroyed by the Portuguese in Goa. The Saptakoteshwar Temple, which has a 350-year history, is one of these temples. A decision will be made following a vetting procedure. The Goa government has set aside Rs. 20 crore for temple restoration alone in 2022.