The world needs hydrocarbons and the current energy system cannot be unplugged before a new energy system is built, the President-designate of the UN COP-28 climate change summit Dr Sultan Al Jaber has said.

Speaking at the India Energy Week 2023 at Bangalore on Feb 7 , Dr Jaber also noted that the energy transition would require every segment of society to work together in an inclusive effort. 

Jaber called India's aim of generating 500GW of clean energy by 2030 ambitious yet achievable. The UAE, he added, was ready, willing, and able to partner with India.

India’s foreign secretary, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, attended the focal points meeting along with his counterparts from France and UAE in Paris, taking forward the India-UAE-France trilateral dialogue.

This meeting happened two days after the foreign ministers of India, UAE and France spoke over the phone  to adopt a roadmap for the implementation of a trilateral relationship between the three countries. The areas of cooperation include defence, energy, environment and people-to-people exchanges.

Defence is an area of close cooperation between the three countries. Therefore, efforts will be undertaken to further promote compatibility, and joint development and co-production, whilst seeking out avenues for further collaboration and training between the three countries’ defence forces.

Besides that, the three ministers agreed that the trilateral would serve as a forum to promote the design and execution of cooperation in projects in the fields of energy, with a focus on solar and nuclear energy as well as fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.

India, UAE and France will work with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to pursue concrete, actionable projects on clean energy, the environment, and biodiversity.

Norway's $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said Feb 9  it has completely divested its assets in the troubled Indian conglomerate Adani.

The fund, which is set up to put the country's oil and gas revenues to work, held some $200 million worth of shares in the group at the end of 2022.

It had a stake of 0.14 percent in Adani Green Energy, 0.17 percent in Adani Total Gas and 0.3 percent in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone.

Between 2014 and 2023, the fund had already divested from six subsidiaries of the Adani conglomerate, mainly for environmental reasons, namely their role in deforestation and their high greenhouse gas emissions.

The business empire of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani lost around $120 billion in value after US short-selling investment group Hindenburg Research accused it of artificially inflating share prices in a report released in January.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Feb 9 it was working on a rival to ChatGPT, joining a flurry of global tech firms rushing to match the popular AI-powered chatbot.

ChatGPT has sparked a gold rush in artificial intelligence technology, with Microsoft, Google and China's Baidu all working to develop chatbots that can mimic human speech.

The service, created by San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems and programming code on demand within seconds, sparking widespread fears of student cheating or professions becoming obsolete.

Alibaba is now working on a ChatGPT-style conversation bot of its own that is being tested by employees.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing a pilot project on QR code-based coin vending machine (QCVM). This project will be introduced in 12 cities.

“These vending machines will dispense coins against debit to the customer’s account using UPI instead of physical tendering of banknotes. This will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins,” said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das in his monetary policy address on Feb 8.

The central bank, based on the learnings from the pilot, will issue guidelines to banks to promote distribution of coins using these machines.

Also, with UPI becoming popular for retail digital payments in India, the RBI has proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country.

India's star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Feb 9 scripted his name in the record books during the ongoing first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.

Ashwin became the second fastest bowler to take 450 Test wickets in terms of Tests played, after Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan who achieved this landmark in 80 matches. It took Ashwin just 89 matches to achieve the feat as compared to Muralitharan's 80 games.

The off-spinner achieved the feat when he removed Alex Carey for 36 in his 11th over as he became just the second Indian bowler to reach 450 Test wickets after Anil Kumble. Ashwin followed up with another wicket in the match as he claimed Australia captain Pat Cummins's wicket for 6.

The 36-year-old also became the fastest Indian bowler to bag 450 wickets in the longest format of cricket after the legendary Anil Kumble, who had achieved the feat in 93 matches.

The off-spinner also claimed the record of Second quickest in terms of balls bowled (23635) behind former Australian player Glenn McGrath (23474).

Q1. AirAsia (India) has been renamed AIX Connect and Go Air as

1. Go First
2. IndiGo
3. Vistara
4. Akasa Air
5. None of These

Q2. The Union minister V K Singh  in Lok Sabha on Feb 9  has said that the domestic airlines reported 2,613 significant technical snags in their planes in the last

1. Two  years
2. Three years
3. Five Years
4. Seven Years
5. None of These

Q3. Name the state which has launched ‘Johar Khiladi Sports Integrated Portal’ has been launched for the overall development of sports and sportspersons in the state ?

1. Haryana
2. Jharkhand
3. Punjab
4. UP
5. None of These

Q4. Name the India’s foreign secretary who has  attended the focal points meeting along with his counterparts from France and UAE in Paris, taking forward the India-UAE-France trilateral dialogue ?

1. Sujatha Singh
2. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
3. Vijay Keshav Gokhale
4. Vinay Mohan Kwatra
5. None of These
   
   

Q5. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing a pilot project on QR code-based coin vending machine (QCVM). The number of cities in which this project will be introduced

1. 4 cities.
2. 8 cities.
3. 12 cities
4. 16 cities
5. None of These

Answers

1----------------------------1  Go First

2---------------------------3   Five Years

3---------------------------2    Jharkhand

4--------------------------4   Vinay Mohan Kwatra

5----------------------------3  12 cities

The Centre has issued multiple advisories to states to increase the representation of women in the police force to 33 per cent, but their actual strength as on January 1, 2022, stood at 11.75 per cent, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Feb 8.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued advisories dated April 22, 2013, May 21, 2014, May 12, 2015, June 21, 2019, June 22, 2021, and April 13, 2022, to all the state governments to increase the representation of women police to 33 per cent of the total strength.

According to data compiled by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), as on January 1, 2022, the actual strength of women police personnel is 11.75 per cent at all India level.

Ladakh has the highest percentage of women in the police force (28.3 per cent), followed by Andhra Pradesh (21.7 per cent), Chandigarh (21.6 per cent) and Bihar (21.2 per cent).

States with the least share of women in police are Jammu and Kashmir (3.2 per cent), Tripura (5.29 per cent) and Meghalaya (5.9 per cent).

The minister said all state governments have been requested to create additional posts of women constables, and sub-inspectors by converting the vacant posts of constables and sub-inspectors.

The aim is that each police station should have at least three women sub-inspectors and 10 women police constables so that a women's help desk is functional round the clock.