Current affairs 03 March 2023

Vinod Kumar Shukla wins PEN/Nabokov Lifetime Achievement Award 2023.

Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla (87) has won the 2023 PEN America award for lifetime achievement in literature.
It is one of the most coveted literary prizes worldwide.
His acclaimed novels like Naukar Ki Kameez (1979) and poetry collections like Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega (1992).
He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award in 1999 for Naukar Ki Kameez, the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize in 2019, and the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year award in 2020.

The government of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), plans to establish RAK Digital Assets Oasis.
This announcement was made at the Blockchain Life 2023 conference.
It would be the world's first free zone dedicated to digital and virtual asset companies.
This would be a purpose-built, proper innovation-enabling free zone for non-regulated activities in the virtual assets sector.
UAE Capital: Abu Dhabi; UAE Currency: Dirham.

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has inaugurated the three-day-long Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela in New Delhi.
It is being organized with the theme Nutrition, Food, and Environmental Protection with Shree Anna.
The event also conducts technical sessions on contemporary issues in Agriculture, including the development of Shree Anna-based value chain, Smart Farming Model, Sustainable Agriculture, and Farmer Producer Organisations.

Asia's longest-ever cycle race was flagged off from Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar (J&K) and will culminate at Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu).
The race will cover the longest highway, National Highway-44 distance of 3651 kilometers, passing through twelve major states, three major metropolitan cities, and over twenty major cities of the country.
It has been accorded the status of Asian Ultracycling Championship by the World Ultracycling Association.

Government eMarketplace (GeM) has commemorated the success of SWAYATT initiative.
This initiative aims to promote Startups, Women, and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions (SWAYATT) on GeM.
It was established by GeM in February 2019.
Goal: To stimulate the inclusion of diverse categories of sellers and service providers on the portal.
It was achieved by taking aggressive measures to simplify their training and registrations.
GeM CEO: P.K. Singh