Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2023

Notes:
The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 Mission will be launched aboard the ISRO’s PSLV in 2024. Its two satellites will study the Sun’s faint corona and surrounding atmosphere.
The 340-kilogram spacecraft will be deployed by PSLV in a high Earth orbit with an orbital period of 19.7 hours.

Notes:
Akash Weapon System is a short-range surface to air missile air defence system. The Indian government has signed a contract to procure this system for the Indian Army.
Defence PSU Bharat Dynamics won orders worth over Rs 8,400 crore for production and supply of Akash Weapon System to two regiments of the Indian Army.

Notes:
The ALE, a Japanese company, is currently planning to create an “Artificial Meteor Shower”. The meteor shower will be created using pressure driven system of gas tanks.
ALE is sending satellites into space to create the world’s first human-made meteor shower. It is named ‘Sky Canvas’ and the project was initially scheduled for launch in 2020. It was delayed due to a satellite malfunction.

Notes:
Recently, the World Health Organisation certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan as Malaria-Free Countries.
They succeeded in eliminating the Anopheles mosquito-borne disease in their territories. In Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, the last cases of regional spread of Plasmodium vivax malaria were discovered in 2012 and 2014.

Notes:
Uzbekistan held a referendum on a new constitution on April 30. The constitution seeks to declare Uzbekistan as a sovereign, democratic, legal, and social state.
The constitution also enshrines new rules from personal rights to expanding the powers of parliament.

Notes:
Sarbat Khalsa is a deliberative assembly of all factions of Sikhs that dates back to the 18th century. It is held twice a year on the occasion of Baisakhi and Diwali.
The last “Sarbat khalsa” was held on February 16, 1986. It was recently announced that the convening of a Sarbat khalsa congregation is the sole prerogative of the Akal Takht chief.

Notes:
Sea Lamprey is a rare species of fish that is known to extract blood of its prey. It was recently spotted on the Dutch island of Texel. It was last sighted on the island in 2017.
The sea lamprey is also known as ‘vampire fish’ due to its nature of sucking blood from its host like a parasite.

Notes:
‘Chondrostereum purpureum’ is a plant fungus that causes silver leaf disease in plants. A plant mycologist from India has become the first person in the world to contract a plant fungal disease.
It attacks most species of the rose family Rosaceae, particularly the genus Prunus. Among the millions of fungi present, only a few hundreds of fungi infect humans and animals.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh recently repealed the Loktantra Prahari Samman Act.
The Act provides a monthly pension of Rs 20,000 and Rs 12,000 to the people who lodged in jails during the Emergency from 1975 to 1977. The repeal of the Act shall not affect the previous operations of the said Act.

Notes:
The Einstein tile is a single shape that can be used to cover a surface completely without creating a repeated pattern. It was discovered recently by mathematicians.
“Einstein” is a play on German ein stein or “one stone”. A set of tile-types is considered to be aperiodic if copies of these tiles can only form patterns without repetition.