Current Affairs April 28&29, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of April 28&29, 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 5th Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Media Summit on Climate Action and Disaster Preparedness has started in Kathmandu, Nepal on April 26, 2019. The theme of the two-day summit is “Media Solutions for Sustainable Future: Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities”. The basic aim of the summit is to address the issue of fully utilizing media’s potential of accelerating climate action and disaster preparedness and connect stakeholders to media professionals for collaboration and joint practical projects. Over 200 participants including political leaders, representatives of UN agencies and NGOs, climate change and disaster management experts, scientists and media persons are attending the event.
2. The World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD) is observed every year on April 26 across the globe to spread awareness about the role that intellectual property rights like patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright play in encouraging innovation and creativity. It aims to increase people’s awareness and understanding of the intellectual property. The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a large variety of intellectual goods for consumers. The 2019 theme is ‘Reach for Gold: IP and Sports’. Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names and images used in commercial activities.
3. On 26th April, Divyansh Singh Panwar bagged silver in 10m Air Rifle event with 249.0 points in the 2019 ISSF World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters in Beijing. He also secured a quota for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the ongoing tournament, Divyansh had bagged a gold in 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event along with Anjum Moudgil. This is India's fourth 2020 Tokyo Olympic quota after Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (10m air rifle women) and Saurabh Choudhary (10m Air Pistol men) had secured berths in the earlier World Cups and last year's World Championship.
4. The State Bank of India (SBI) has launched India’s first ‘Green Car Loan’ (Electric Vehicle) to encourage customers to buy electric vehicles. The new scheme will offer loan at 20 basis points lesser than the interest rate on the existing car loan schemes. Additionally, borrowers will also get a longer repayment period. The EMI per Rs 1 lakh will be lower at Rs. 1,468 for 96 months against Rs.1,622 for 84 months, based on the maximum tenor, in line with the existing scheme. The move is in line with the Union Government's endeavour to ensure that India has 30% of EVs out of all vehicles by 2030.
5. The Japanese scientists have successfully created the first-ever artificial crater on an asteroid ‘Ryugu’. It’s a step towards shedding light on how the solar system evolved. The announcement comes after the Hayabusa2 probe fired an explosive device at the Ryugu asteroid early this month to blast a crater in the surface and scoop up material. The aim of blasting the crater on Ryugu is to throw up "fresh" material from under the asteroid's surface that could shed light on the early stages of the solar system. The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born. The Ryugu asteroid is around 340 million kilometers from Earth.
6. The 2019 World Immunization Week (WIW) is a global public health campaign i.e. celebrated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) from April 24 to 30 with theme “Protected Together: Vaccines Work!”. The week highlights the urgent need for immunisation against vaccine-preventable diseases for children and adults the world over. The 2019 theme aims to raise awareness about the importance of full immunization throughout life and urge greater action. This year’s campaign emphasizes the role and responsibility of everyone—policymakers, health workers, and individuals—in closing the immunization gap to protect children and broader communities.
7. Indonesia has recently released a special commemorative stamp on the theme of Ramayana to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of its diplomatic ties with India. The stamp is designed by renowned Indonesian sculptor Padmashri Bapak Nyoman Nuarta. It featured a scene from Ramayana in which Jatayu valiantly fought to save Sita, which symbolises the resolve of two peoples in the face of adversity. A specially signed version of the stamp will be on display at the Philately Museum in Jakarta.
8. The unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft is the joint mission of the European-Japanese space agencies. It is named after Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo. Recently, it has successfully completed its near-Earth commissioning phase and is now ready for the operations that will take place during the cruise and for its scientific investigations at Mercury. The mission comprises two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The ESA-built Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will carry the orbiters to Mercury using a combination of solar electric propulsion and gravity assist flybys – one of Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury – prior to MPO and MMO orbit insertions. Earlier, on 20th October 2018, BepiColombo started its 7-year long journey to the Solar System's innermost planet from an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Since launch, BepiColombo has already covered over 450 million km – just about 4% of the total distance it will have to travel before arriving at Mercury at the end of 2025. The composite spacecraft is now some 50 million km from Earth, and tele-commands take about 3 minutes to reach it.
9. General (Retd.) Dalbir Singh Suhag has been appointed as India's new high commissioner to the Republic of Seychelles. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly. His appointment comes amid deepening military ties between India and the island nation. Incidentally, Suhag was the chief of army staff when India conducted surgical raids across the Line of Control into Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 2016 after the terrorist attack on an Indian army camp in Uri. Seychelles is strategically important to India as New Delhi is developing Assumption Island as a naval base to expand its footprint in the strategically-key region where China has been trying to enhance its military presence.
10. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has decided to fund the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the National Research Centre on Meat (NRCM) for research on cell-based meat, which can also be called clean meat or cultured meat. It is nutritionally equivalent to conventional meat, and tastes, smells, looks and feels exactly like real meat. The only difference lies in the method of production. The advantage of cell-based meat is that animals won’t be slaughtered. Rather than raising livestock and slaughtering them for meat, cell-based meat is produced through ‘cellular agriculture’, with animal cells being cultivated into meat. This new method of producing meat shows strong promise of revolutionising the food system in terms of tackling pressing global issues such as food security, environmental sustainability and animal welfare. the headquarters of CCMB is located at Hyderabad, Telangana.
