Current Affairs May 01, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of May 01, 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 “Politics of Jugaad: The Coalition Handbook” has been authored by journalist Saba Naqvi. In it, the author examined the possibility of a coalition government after 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It traces the history of political alliances in the country taking into account their performance on economic and and social policies, among others. The book also makes a study of the Congress' "tryst with dynasty" with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra taking a plunge into active politics for the party helmed by her brother Rahul Gandhi.
2. In China, the 2nd edition of Belt and Road Forum (BRF - 2019) was officially held in Beijing with theme “Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future”. In it, 37 heads-of-state and 159 countries had participated along with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Monetary Chief (IMF) Christine Lagarde. The BRF is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The aim of BRI is to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa through massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects. The initiative offers to bring much-needed modern infrastructure to developing countries, but critics say it mainly favours Chinese companies while saddling nations with debt and causing environmental damage. The idea of BRI was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The BRI (or yi dai yi lu) is made up of a “belt” of overland routes and a maritime “road” connecting Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe and Africa.
3. Bajrang Punia is set to become the first Indian wrestler to fight at iconic Madison Square Garden in New York. Punia, who won the 65kg men’s freestyle gold at the recent 2019 Asian championships, will be among top wrestlers selected by the American governing body for the May 6 tournament. Bajrang will take on two-time US champion Yianni Diakomihalis in the 65kg category in the “Grapple at the Garden” Beat the Streets event, which since 2010 has become a major showcase for international wrestling.
4. Dr. Srinivasa Chakravathy and his team at IIT Madras has developed a unified script for nine Indian languages, named the Bharati script. The team has developed a method for reading documents in Bharati script using a multi-lingual Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scheme. The team has also created a finger-spelling method that can be used to generate a sign language for hearing-impaired persons. In collaboration with TCS Mumbai, the researchers have found a way for persons with hearing disability to generate signatures using this finger-spelling technique. The scripts that have been integrated include Devnagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. Here, it must be noted that Urdu and English alphabet systems have a very different phonetic organisation. But that does not mean a mapping is not possible. It is quite possible and can be done.
5. The World Day For Safety And Health At Work is observed every year on 28th of April by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to promote safe, healthy and decent work. The day marks the need and awareness of a safe and healthy environment at the workplace. All of us spend most of our day at our workplaces and it is a necessity that our workplace is safe and secure, and we feel healthy and happy while we are there. It is both the duty of the management and the employees to make sure the best of conditions and environment are provided to the employees to make sure their productivity is always on the rise, and they are healthy throughout the year.
6. The researchers at Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi) have developed an ultrasensitive quantum thermometer using graphene quantum dots. The thermometer can precisely measure a wide range of temperature: 27 degree C to –196 degree C. It has high sensitivity when measuring different temperatures and can measure very minute (micro Kelvin) changes in temperature. It showed extremely quick response time of just about 300 milliseconds to register a change in temperature from 27 degree C to –196 degree C. And, the time taken to return to its initial temperature value was as little as about 800 milliseconds. It also showed excellent repeatability with negligible variation in sensing response when tested for over 50 cycles during a one-year period. The thermometer is developed by a team led by Prof. Saikh S. Islam, Director of the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The results of the study were published in the journal Nanoscale Advances.
7. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has officially celebrated the first-ever International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace on 24th April 2019 for the international observance. The day is a reaffirmation of the UN Charter and its principles of resolving disputes among countries through peaceful means. It acknowledges the use of multilateral decision-making and diplomacy in achieving peaceful resolutions to conflicts among nations.
8. The six-member expert committee led by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan was appointed on December 26, 2018 to review the Economic Capital Framework (ECF) for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is in news recently because the Jalan panel is likely to submit its report by June 2019. The panel is expected to spell out details regarding how the RBI should handle its reserves and whether it can transfer its surplus to the government. The report is also expected to detail the amount the central bank should transfer to the government. The terms of reference of the committee would be to review status, need and justification of various provisions, reserves and buffers presently provided for by the RBI. The committee will also review best practices followed by the central banks globally in making assessment and provisions for risks, to which central bank balance sheets are subjected.
9. Dominic Thiem clinched the 2019 men's singles title at the Barcelona Open Tennis tournament. In the final, he defeated Daniil Medvedev by 6-4, 6-0 at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. With this feat, Thiem has become the first Austrian to take the Barcelona title since Thomas Muster in 1996.
10. The BCCI recommended Indian pacers Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and women’s team spinner Poonam Yadav for the 2019 Arjuna award. The decision was taken during a meeting of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) in New Delhi. Bumrah is currently playing in the IPL for Mumbai Indians (MI). He is a regular across all three formats of cricket for the country. He will be spearheading India's campaign in the upcoming World Cup in the UK. Pacer Shami has been a crucial cog in the Indian bowling set up. All-rounder Jadeja has also made a comeback in the limited overs team and has been named in the 15-member squad for the World Cup. The 27-year-old leg-spinner, Poonam, is the fourth name to be nominated for the coveted award. She has picked up 63 wickets from 41 ODIs and 74 wickets from 54 T20 games.
