Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (Apr 20 2023) for CSS

Table of Contents

6. India surpasses China as world population hits 8bn

• India is set to become the world`s most populous country by the end of June, UN estimates showed on April 19, 2023, posing huge challenges to a nation with creaking infrastructure and insufficient jobs for millions of young people.
• The seismic shift will see India`s population hit 1.4286 billion almost three million more than China`s 1.4257 billion at mid-year, the United Nations Population Fund`s (U N PP A) State of World Population 2023 report forecast.
• Meanwhile, the latest UN estimates show that Pakistan`s population has reached 240.5 million in 2023, and it has emerged among the eight countries that will account for half the projected growth in global population by 2050.
• China has generally been regarded as the world`s most populous country since the fall of the Roman Empire but last year its population shrank for the first time since 1960, while India`s has continued to rise, according to an AFP report

7. S. Asia has highest number of child brides, says UN

• South Asia is home to highest number of child brides in the world as increased financial pressures and school closures due to Covid forced families to marry off their young daughters, according to new estimates released by UNICEF on April 19, 2023
• `The fact that South Asia has the highest child marriage burden in the world is nothing short of tragic,` said Noala Skinner, Unicef`s regional director for South Asia, said in a statement

8. Israel`s FM says visit to S. Arabia `on the table`

• Israel`s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on April 19, 2023 held out the prospect of a visit in the future to Saudi Arabia, and said at least one more Arab country would normalise ties with Israel this year.
• `This (visit to Saudi Arabia) is on the table, there is no date yet,` he said, speaking to Israel`s Army Radio during a state visit to Azerbaijan.
• In 2020, Israel reached accords to normalise ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco under the so-called Abraham Accords

9. UN to consider `baby steps` towards recognising Taliban

• The United Nations is ready to take `baby steps` towards recognising the Taliban as it considers options to persuade Afghanistan`s de facto rulers to soften their attitude towards women.
• For reviewing the option, and its repercussions, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host a meeting of special envoys for Afghanistan from around the world in Doha on May 1.
• UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told an audience at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) this week that the Taliban`s desire for recognition provides an opportunity for engaging it on various issues

10. Veteran economist Rehana Islam passes away in UK

• One of Pakistan`s first professional female economists, Rehana Islam, recently passed away in England.
• Ms Islam had a career that spanned three decades, during which she worked at the World Bank, State Bank of Pakistan and various government ministries.
• She was an advocate of interest-free banking and served on the federal government`s Zakat and Ushr policy group in the late 1970s