Daily Current Affairs Quiz: June 27, 2023

The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is observed annually on June 26 to spread awareness about the ill effects of drug abuse.
This is observed to honor Lin Zexu, who played a key role in the demolition of the opium trade in the Guangdong region of China.
2023 theme: People first: stop stigma and discrimination, strengthen prevention.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is planning its first joint military drill ‘Solidarity’ amid regional strain with China, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
According to the Indonesian military, the drill will be conducted in Indonesia’s South Natuna Sea.
During the 20th ASEAN Chief of Defence Forces Meeting in Bali, organized on June 7, ten ASEAN military chiefs agreed to conduct routine joint training and coordinated patrols in waters of the South China Sea.
The army, naval and special forces will be involved from September 18 to September 25, despite scepticism from member state Cambodia.

Co-inventor of lithium-ion batteries and co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, John Bannister Goodenough passed away at 101.
He shared the 2019 Nobel Prize with Stan Whittingham, a British-American scientist, for discovering that lithium may be held within sheets of titanium sulphide.
He was also instrumental in the invention of computer RAM (Random Access Memory).
The Nobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel’s Will of 1895, are awarded to “those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist most famously known for the invention of dynamite.

FIFA has announced that an expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup will be played in the USA in 2025.

The tournament will see 12 teams from Europe, six from South America, four from each of the CONCACAF (North and Central America), CAF (Africa) and AFC (Asia) regions and one team from OFC (Oceania), as well as one team, to be selected from the USA to compete.

FIFA will scrap the current FIFA Club World Cup format after the 2023 edition in Saudi Arabia and this new format for the Club World Cup will see it played once every four years.
The Federation Internationale de football association is the international governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal.
It was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland

Centre-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was formally sworn in as Greece’s prime minister Monday after easily winning a second term with a record-high margin but also facing a Parliament that includes lawmakers from more parties, including three small ones on the far right.

With 99.7 per cent of the vote counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 40.55 per cent – more than twice the 17.84 per cent that the left-wing opposition party Syriza garnered. It was the largest margin of victory in a Greek election in a half-century.
Greece Capital: Athens
Greece Currency: Drachma

Noted singer and music composer, Shankar Mahadevan was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University (BCU) in London, England.
Reason: To celebrate his contribution to music and the arts He is best known for songs like ‘Breathless’, ‘Mitwa’ and ‘Lakshya’.

Indian golf player, Diksha Dagar has secured her second Ladies European Tour (LET) at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open 2023. In the final, she defeated Trichat Cheenglab of Thailand.
She hails from Jhajjar in Haryana. In 2019, she won her first LET title at the South African Women’s Open, held in Cape Town.
After Aditi Ashok, Diksha Dagar is the only other Indian woman golfer to have won two or more LET titles.
She represented India at the Tokyo 2022 Olympics.
Czech Republic Capital: Prague
Czech Republic Currency: Euro

• The first hydrogen-powered trains in India are expected to start from the Jind district of Haryana by the end of this year, 2023.
• The officials informed us that the plant development has entered the final phase and hydrogen will be produced from water.
• The Hydrogen fuel-based train of eight bogies will be environment-friendly.
• Presently, trains are being run on diesel and electricity.
• The officials claimed that hydrogen-powered trains are running only in Germany.

S&P Global Ratings on June 26 retained India’s GDP growth forecast at 6% saying India will be the fastest-growing economy among Asia Pacific nations.
The GDP growth forecast for the current and the next fiscal has been kept unchanged from the forecast made in March partly on account of domestic resilience.

The first underwater tunnel in Assam will be constructed between Numaligarh and Gohpur at an estimated cost of Rs 6,000 crore.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the tender for the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) will open in the next month.
The idea of an underwater tunnel arose from the many bridges built over the Brahmaputra River to facilitate the movement of both vehicles and railways.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the project, and once the tunnel is completed, it will bring the two banks, north and south, of the Brahmaputra River closer together.
Governor – Gulab Chand Kataria

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) inaugurated the Medha Rail Coach Factory in Sangareddy district.
MoU signed with Government of Telangana Medha signed an MoU with the Government of Telangana in 2017.
The objective of the MoU is to set up a coach factory in the state. The land was allotted by the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC).
TSIIC allotted 100 acres of land for Rail & Metro coach manufacturing. Medha and Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail signed a joint venture (JV) agreement.

Telangana Capital: Hyderabad

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Hardwar Dubey today passed away. He breathed his last at a private hospital in Delhi.
The 74-year-old BJP leader was ill for quite some time. BJP President J P Nadda expressed condolences over his demise.
He said Hardwar Dubey’s entire life was devoted to public service and the organization and his passing away is an irreparable loss to the organization.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited (ABSLI), a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), has recently launched a new retirement solution called ABSLI Nishchit Pension Plan.
This plan is specifically designed to help individuals plan for their retirement by providing a 100% guaranteed corpus, ensuring a secure and uninterrupted income during their golden years.

ABSLI Nishchit Pension Plan provides accrued guaranteed additions during the policy term and loyalty addition at the end of the policy term, provided the policy is in force and all due premiums have been paid.

The Odisha Cabinet on June 21 approved a ₹1,000 crore increase in total cost outlay for an Augmentation of Basic Amenities and Development of Heritage and Architecture (ABADHA) scheme that aims to transform basic infrastructure in Puri town which is famous for the Lord Jagannath Temple.
When the ABADHA scheme was launched during 2017-18 to develop Puri, the State Cabinet had a cost outlay of ₹3,208 crores. This has made it one of the largest State-sponsored projects for the development of a religious place.

Odisha CM: Naveen Patnaik
Odisha Governor: Ganeshi Lal
Odisha Capital: Bhubaneshwar

DBS Bank India has appointed Rajat Verma as managing director and head of institutional banking for India.

Niraj Mittal, the current head of institutional banking for India, will be taking up a new role as country head of the DBS Bank in Australia.
He was instrumental in deepening the large corporate franchise across major conglomerates in India, the press release by the bank said.
Until recently, Verma was the managing director and country head of commercial banking, at HSBC Bank.