Current affairs 18 February 2023

Bengaluru city center ranked 2nd slowest to drive in the world.

• According to the latest report, released by TomTom, Bengaluru’s traffic has made it the 2nd slowest place to drive through in the world in 2022 with about half an hour of travel time by road to cover 10 km.
• While London ranks first with an average of 36 minutes and 20 seconds to travel 10 km in 2022.
• Dublin (Ireland), Sapporo (Japan's town), and Milan(Italy) rank third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

UIDAI launches new AI chatbot Aadhaar Mitra.

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched a chatbot named Aadhaar Mitra to help people get an answer to their queries related to the Aadhaar card.
• The Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-based chatbot can answer queries related to enrolment number, PVC Card order status, and complaint status.
• It is available in both English and Hindi languages.
• It also shows videos to help the users understand its features and how to use them.

Indian-American Neal Mohan appointed as the new CEO of YouTube.

• Indian-American, Neal Mohan has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of YouTube.
• He will replace the current head, Susan Wojcicki, who will step down after 25 years.
• He joined Google in 2008, and later he was appointed chief product officer at YouTube in 2015.
• Prior to Google, he worked as a Senior Analyst at Accenture and later joined Microsoft.
• He is an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Tourism Ministry to organize 1st Global Tourism Investors' Summit.

• Minister of Tourism, G Kishan Reddy has announced that the Tourism Ministry will organize the 1st Global Tourism Investors' Summit from 17 to 19 May 2023 in New Delhi.
• Agenda: To showcase opportunities in the Tourism and hospitality sector.
• This Summit will deliberate on potential opportunities for investment across tourism segments including hotels and restaurants and other related sectors.
• He also informed that the govt is working to promote the Tourism sector.

IIT Kanpur develops energy-efficient system to transport coal, minerals.

• The IIT Kanpur has developed an energy-efficient compressed air-based pipeline system.
• Reason: For transporting coal and minerals, offering round-the-clock monitoring with considerable savings in time and costs.
• The cargo-based hyperloop system was developed by Professor, Bishakh Bhattacharya, and research scientists, Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasia and Yashasvi Sinha.
• It will address challenges such as material loss, uncertainty in delivery time, and air pollution.