Current affairs 16 March 2023

Tamil writer Perumal Murugan's novel longlisted for Booker Prize 2023.

• Tamil writer Perumal Murugan's novel Pyre has been selected for the International Booker prize longlist for 2023.
• This book is a translation of his original Tamil book Pukkuli which tells the story of an inter-caste couple who elope, setting in motion a story of terrifying foreboding.
• Aniruddhan Vasudevan translated this novel into the English language in 2016.
• Prize money: £50,000, will be split equally between the author and translator.

Mary Kom, Farhan Akhtar roped in as brand ambassadors of Women's Boxing.

• The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) appointed legendary boxer MC Mary Kom and actor Farhan Akhtar as the brand ambassadors of the IBA Women’s World Championships 2023.
• BFI also unveiled the title sponsor, Mahindra Automotive for the event.
• The championship is scheduled from March 15 to 26 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi.
• India is hosting the World Championships for the third time.
• President, Boxing Federation of India: Ajay Singh

OpenAI launches "GPT-4" with higher accuracy.

• The artificial intelligence research company, OpenAI has unveiled its new and more advanced model called GPT-4.
• The latest version is more creative and accurate in its response.
• It has better problem-solving capabilities than ChatGPT (developed by OpenAI).
• GPT-4 is a large multimodal model, which cannot outperform humans in real-world scenarios but can exhibit “human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.

Atal Innovation Mission launches ATL Sarthi.

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - NITI Aayog launched ATL Sarthi.
• It is a comprehensive self-monitoring framework to strengthen the ecosystem of Atal Tinkering Labs.
• Atal Innovation Mission has established Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in schools to foster curiosity, creativity, and imagination in young minds.
• ATL Sarthi is a charioteer and will enable the Atal Tinkering Labs to be efficient and effective.
• Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog: Dr. Chintan Vaishnav

Wholesale inflation falls to two-year low of 3.85% in February.

• Wholesale Price-based Inflation (WPI) has been eased to two years low of 3.85% in February 2023 against 4.73% recorded in January 2023.
• It will primarily contribute to the fall in the prices of crude petroleum, food products, electronics, chemicals, and electrical equipment.
• In February, fuel and power rose 14.82% as compared to 15.15% in January 2023.
• While the food index stood at 2.76% (Feb 2023) against 2.95% (Jan 2023).
• Retail inflation (Feb 2023): 6.44%