Daily GK Update: 13th March 2023

Honours & Awards

RRR’s Naatu Naatu has created history by winning the prestigious Academy Awards 2023 in the Best Original song category.
The music of Naatu Naatu was given by M. M. Keeravani and Lyrics by Chandrabosedouble-dagger.
While India's The Elephant Whisperers (directed by Kartiki Gonsalves) won the award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Actor: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Summits & Conferences

As part of the G20 summit, the first Supreme Audit Institution 20 (SAI20) Senior Officers Meeting is being organized in Guwahati on March 13 and will continue till March 15, 2023.
Theme 2023: Blue Economy’ and ‘Responsible Artificial Intelligence
Aim: To bring together an ecosystem wherein SAIs are active partners in governance, promoting transparency and accountability.
SAI20 meeting was chaired by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Girish Chandra Murmu.

National Affairs

PM Modi has dedicated the 10-lane and 118-km-long, Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway in Karnataka to the nation.
It was constructed at a cost of over 8400 crore rupees.
It will reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru from three hours to about 75 minutes and boost connectivity and socio-economic growth in Karnataka.
He also laid the foundation stone for the Mysuru-Kushalnagar highway.
He also inaugurated the World’s longest railway platform at Hubballi station.

National Affairs

The Central Railway has achieved 100% electrification of its broad gauge network of 3,825 kilometers.
The CSMT-headquartered zonal railway informed that the 52-kilometer Ausa Road-Latur Road stretch in the Solapur division was the last non-electrified section and its electrification was completed in March 2023.
This move helps in reducing carbon footprints of 5.204 lakh tonnes every year as well as savings of 1670 crore rupees.

State Affairs

A new initiative called 'beggar-free city' has been started in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Commissioner of Police of Nagpur City, Amitesh Kumar informed that notification of 144 CrPC has been issued in this regard.
Notices have been served to people.
The Nagpur police will strictly enforce this and begging will not be allowed in public places.
This is the joint venture of Nagpur City police and Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) social welfare department.

Banking & Finance

According to the report, released by PhonePe and Boston Consulting Group, India's digital payments market will more than triple from $3 trillion to $10 trillion by 2026.
In 2015, the Indian government launched its Digital India program, with the objective to achieve a “faceless, paperless and cashless” status for financial transactions at the grass-root level.
NPCI launched UPI in 2016, which enables inter-bank transactions through mobile devices instantly.

Agreement

India and Australia signed an audio-visual co-production agreement to offer filmmakers financial incentives amounting to up to 30% of the expenditure incurred in the respective countries.
The agreement was signed by I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra and Australian High Commissioner Barry O'Farrell.
Australia is the 16th country with which India has a co-production agreement.
It would benefit mainly small filmmakers keen on shooting movies in that country.

Agreement

India and the US inked an initial pact on increasing private-sector cooperation in the area of semiconductors.
The two countries would facilitate business opportunities and develop an ecosystem with a view to reducing their dependency on China and Taiwan.
Both sides have agreed to set up a semiconductor sub-committee, led by the Department of Commerce for the US side and MeitY and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the Indian side.

National Affairs

The second edition of 'World Food India-2023’ will be organized from 3-5 November 2023 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
The event will be organized by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
During the event, Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras outlined pivotal elements of the WFI-2023 as Millets- ‘Shree Anna-The Super Food of India’, Innovation and Sustainability ‘Green Food’, White Revolution 2.0, making India an export hub and focus on technology and digitisation.

Banking & Finance

In an initiative to promote Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Kochi Metro has started accepting digital currency in its parking facilities.
With this, Kochi Metro is the first Metro in the country to accept CBDC.
The program was inaugurated at the parking facility in Thykoodam and system would be introduced in all other parking areas of the Metro soon
The program was introduced in association with IDFC FIRST Bank partnered with Anantham Online, a technology startup