Current Affairs April 17, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of April 17, 2019 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.
1. The International Day of Human Space Flight is observed every year on April 12 to mark the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes. On 12th April 1961 the first human space flight was carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.
2. India's first-of-its-kind 'Voter Park' has recently inaugurated in Gurugram, Haryana to increase voter awareness and educating people about the electoral process. At the park, voters will get information about the polling process and the history of elections in the country. The purpose of establishing Voter Park was also to motivate eligible people to vote in the Lok Sabha election so that they can contribute to the progress of the country. A 'Selfie Point' has also been set up in the park, where people can click selfies displaying the indelible ink mark on their finger after casting their vote.
3. The World Allergy Week (WAW) is an annual initiative of the World Allergy Organization (WAO) to raise awareness of allergic disease and related disorders and advocate for the provision of training and resources in the diagnosis, management, and prevention of these diseases and asthma, which are rising in prevalence around the world. The 2019 theme is "The Global Problem of Food Allergy". In 2019, the WAW ran from 7th to 13th April and the focus area was food allergy.
4. Pradeep Choubey (70), the renowned Hindi poet, has passed away in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh on April 12, 2019. He was the younger brother of celebrated humorist, satirist and poet Shail Chaturvedi. Born on 26th August 1949 in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district, Choubey shifted to Gwalior. He quit his job at Dena Bank to pursue his passion of poetry and travelled across the nation enthralling audiences with his punches, several of them targeted at the orthodox elements of society. Besides humour, he was famous for satirical comments on the system.
5. China has successfully tested the world’s first armed amphibious drone boat ‘Marine Lizard’ in Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province. Built by Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group under China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), the drone ship could be used in land assault operations and is capable of forming a combat triad with aerial drones and other drone ships. The Marine Lizard can be remotely controlled via satellites and have a maximum operation range of 1,200 kms. It possesses the capability of forming a combat triad with aerial drones and other drone ships. The Marine Lizard’s payloads include an electro-optical system and a radar system. In the weapon department, it is equipped with two machine guns and a vertical launching system for anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. This amphibious drone boat can autonomously sail, avoid obstacles and plan routes.
6. Harsheel Dani from India has clinched the 2019 Dutch International badminton title at Hague in Netherlands. In the final, he defeated Mads Christophersen of Denmark by 15-21, 21-12, 21-13.
7. The 4th Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Congress 2019 is a platform for discussing the opportunities and mechanisms of executing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which is started in New Delhi on April 15, 2019. The three-day event is being hosted by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation in association with UN (ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability). This event is being organised in India for the first time and 31 countries are taking part in this programme that was inaugurated by the vice president. The RCAP Congress 2019 is offering cities and regions from Asia-Pacific a variety of innovative solutions that build resilience to climate change at the sub-national level.
8. In Mumbai, EsselWorld launched India’s first foreign interactive and exotic world park at the Essel World Bird Park in Gorai. The rain forest themed park is spread across 1.5 acres and is home to over 500 birds belonging to 60 different exotic species. Hence, this is the first bird park in India to host three different varieties of birds – aquatic, terrestrial and free flying birds - across terrains, ranging from rainforests, deserts, rocky decks and lakes, all located within EsselWorld in Gorai. It is equipped with small ponds for aquatic birds, dense cover of trees for birds to incubate their eggs and a water stream that offers drinking water to birds. It also houses a special bird’s kitchen and healthcare centre. Some of the key attractions in the park are Ostriches, African grey parrots, Blue gold macaws, Toucans, Black swan and Rainbow lorikeet among others.
9. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel in collaboration with FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) launched a women safety app – My Circle - to help women in case they face any problem or a panic situation. The application is carrier agnostic which would work on phones with any telecom service network, both Airtel and non-Airtel. The app enables women to send SOS alerts to any five of their family or friends in 13 languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Bangla, Urdu, Assamese, Oriya, and Gujarati. A woman in distress can send an SOS alert by pressing the SOS prompt on the app. It can also be activated by voice command through Siri on iOS. It will instantly send an SOS alert along with the user’s location over SMS to the five contacts selected by the user and advise them to immediately reach out or respond to the emergency situation. The free-to-download app is now available on Google Play store (Android) and will be available on App Store (iOS) shortly.
10. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has recently successfully test fired the underdevelopment long range subsonic cruise missile 'Nirbhay' from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Odisha. It has a operational range of 1000 km and can fly very low to the ground to avoid detection by enemy radar called terrain hugging capability. The state-of-the-art missile is the India’s first indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile. It is capable of loitering and cruising at 0.7 Mach at altitude as low as 100 metre and covered the designated target range in 42 minutes and 23 seconds.
