CURRENT AFFAIRS OF 18th FEBRUARY, 2023

CURRENT AFFAIRS OF  18^th FEBRUARY, 2023

1. World Pangolin Day is observed annually on the third Saturday of February with an aim to create awareness about Pangolins, a unique endangered mammal and their plight. In 2023 World Pangolin Day falls on 18 February.   
2. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution from Jamaica to declare the first-ever Global Tourism Resilience Day on 17 February 2023, in an effort to future-proof the sustainability of tourism. 
3. The Union Cabinet approved the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between India and Chile on 15 February, 2023 for cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.
4. The Reserve Bank on 14 February 2023, announced its second global hackathon– ‘HARBINGER 2023 – Innovation for Transformation’ with the theme ‘Inclusive Digital Services’. 
5. The Cabinet Committee on Security, on 15 February 2023, approved a proposal to raise seven new battalions of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). 
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Economic Times Global Business Summit hosted annually by The Times Group on 17 February, 2023. The theme of Global Business Summit 2023 is “Resilience, Influence, Dominance”. 
7. India and Japan has kick started an exercise ‘Ex Dharma Guardian’ at Camp Imazu in Shiga Province, Japan from  17 February to  2 March, 2023. 
8. Karnataka Bank was awarded with ‘Prathista Puraskar’ under ‘Digidhan Awards 2021-22’ by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India for achieving target with highest percentage in BHIM-UPI transactions in private sector bank category. 
9. Lieutenant General (Retd) Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik took oath as the 20^th Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on 16 February, 2023. 
10. Former West Bengal DGP Virendra was appointed as the State Information Commissioner (SIC) of West Bengal.
11. According to a paper published in the New Zealand-based journal Zootaxa, a new beetle species of Trogidae family named ‘Omorgus Khandesh’ has been discovered in India by Scientist Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate, working with Zoological Survey of India, Pune, Maharashtra. The beetle is important for forensic science as it helps detect the time of death of an animal or human and it is also called a keratin beetle.
12. Saudi Arabia will send its first-ever woman astronaut Rayyana Barnawi with her fellow Saudi astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a 10-day mission  to the International Space Station (ISS) later in 2023.
13. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Bhupender Yadav on 18 February, 2023 released twelve cheetahs brought from South Africa at Kuno National Park, Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh.
14. Justice Sonia Gokani took oath as Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court on 16 February, 2023.
15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Jal Jan Abhiyan virtually on Abu Road in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan on 16 February, 2023.
16. Noted Yakshagana playback singer and scriptwriter Bhagawatha Balipa Narayana passed away on 16 February, 2023 at the age of 84.