Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire Current Affairs
- 31 Jan 2023
- 5 min read
5th Khelo India Youth Games
The Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs inaugurated the 5th edition of Khelo India Youth Games 2022 in Madhya Pradesh at the Tatya Tope Nagar Stadium (Bhopal).
Around 6000 players from across the country will try their sports skills for more than 900 medals in 27 sports events of these games. For the first time sports like kayaking, canoeing, canoe slalom and fencing will be part of the Khelo India Youth Games.
The theme for this edition is - 'Hindustan Ka Dil Dhadka Do'.
The Khelo India Youth Games was started in 2018 under the name Khelo India School Games. The aim of these games is to find and groom sports talents at the local level and train them for national and international sports events.
India’s sports budget has also been increased to Rs. 2000 crores and in the next 5 years, a budget of Rs. 3200 crores will be given for Khelo India.
Read More - Khelo India Youth Games (KYIG)
US Boeing 747
The era of Boeing’s 747, the original and arguably most aesthetic “Jumbo Jet” has come to an end after its 5+ decades long run as “Queen of the Skies”. It was designed in the late 1960s to meet demand for mass travel. The jumbo also made its mark on global affairs, symbolizing war and peace across the world (such as the US’ ‘Doomsday Plane’ and another one nicknamed as ‘Shepherd’).
India won U19 Women’s T20 World Cup
The Indian Under-19 women's cricket team created a new history on 29th January, 2023 by becoming the first champions of the ICC U-19 T20 Women’s World Cup. The team was led by Shafali Verma.
This victory is significant because it is the first time that the Indian women’s team has won the World Cup title. In the past, the senior Indian women's team has reached the finals of the T20 and 50 over World Cups. With 36 balls to spare, the Indian team defeated the England women's team by 7 wickets in the final. The BCCI General Secretary announced a reward of Rs. 5,00,00,000.
Read More - Issues Faced by Females in Sports
Oldest Known Caecilian Fossil Discovered
A team of paleontologists from the US have discovered the first Triassic-era (about 250-200 MYA) caecilian fossil that could help fill an 87-million-year gap in the historical record of caecilians having amphibian-like structure (no fossils have been found before). The fossil has been named Funcusvermis gilmorei.
These Caecilian fossils are the oldest-discovered and extend the record of the small mammal by roughly 35 million years. Before this discovery, only 10 caecilian fossil occurrences had been discovered, dating back to the early Jurassic period (~183 MYA).
Modern-day caecilians are amphibians with no limbs and cylindrical bodies with compact “bullet-shaped” skulls that let them burrow underground. They spend their lives burrowing in leaf litter or soil, searching for prey like worms and insects.
The Triassic Period is the first period of the Mesozoic Era which marked the beginning of major changes; distribution of continents, evolution of life etc. At the beginning of the Triassic, only the supercontinent - Pangea existed; at the end of the Triassic, however, plate tectonic activity picked up.
Read More - Triassic Mass Extinction, Geological Time Scale
