Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
Microsoft India has partnered with Apollo Hospitals to set up a National Clinical Coordination Committee (NCCC), which will guide the two entities on all cardiology and cardiovascular related Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects. It will also provide clinical insights on developing clinical algorithms and treatment guidelines based on the inferences of national, multi-centre prospective study. The committee will work for the AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score API. It will have members drawn from Apollo Hospitals, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi; and King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the biggest cause of mortality in India with nearly 25% of mortalities – amongst the age group of 25 to 69 years.

Notes:
Anant Setalvad (84), yesteryear cricket commentator, has passed away in Mumbai on August 4, 2019. His pleasant baritone voice distinguished him from other cricket commentators from the mid 1960s through to the 1980s. Regarded as a giant in cricket commentary on All India Radio (AIR), Anant shared the microphone with Vijay Merchant, Pearson Surita, Raju Bharatan, Balu Alaganan and Suresh Saraiya. He was commentator for AIR in Ranji Trophy and other BCCI tournaments and also for Test matches. He was on the AIR panel for the 1969 India-Australia Test match in Mumbai and also in the panel for the 1973 Test against the Tony Lewis led England at the CCI.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has launched India’s first large-scale trial for two new TB vaccines – VPM1002 and Immuvac. The initiative would enroll 12,000 healthy household contacts of a patient whose sputum has tested positive for TB and are therefore at high risk of contracting the disease. VPM1002 is produced by the Serum Institute of India (Pune) & Immuvac is manufactured by Cadila Pharmaceuticals. These anti-Tuberculosis vaccines aim to prevent infection (pre-exposure) or prevent primary progression or reactivation of latent TB infection (post-exposure). According to the Global TB Report 2017 issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), India has the highest number of TB cases in the world.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT Guwahati have developed a low-cost portable device to detect bacteria without cell culture or microbiological assays. The hand-held device with bio-compatible sensor can also diagnose time-critical illnesses such as meningitis. The bacterial infection is a common cause of morbidity and mortality across the world. Despite the development of a range of antibiotics, the challenge continues to lie in diagnosing bacterial infection early on. The present techniques are extremely time – consuming. Presently, cells derived from a patient are cultured or grown in laboratories to detect and micro-analyse bacteria. However, the new portable device can instantly detect the charges on the cell walls of bacteria. The rapid detection kits are like those used for blood sugar monitoring. The research has enabled rapid detection of bacteria, which is not just important in healthcare but also in anti- bioterrorism measures and environmental monitoring. The team work has been recently patented & published in the July 2019 issue of ‘Journal of Materials Chemistry of the Royal Society of Chemistry’.

Notes:
The 5th edition of International Army Scout Masters Competition 2019 has started at Jaisalmer military station in Rajasthan from August 5 to 16. The purpose of the International Army Games (IAG) is to foster military co-operation between the participating nations, develop trust between the armies for the sake of establishing a peaceful society, improving professional training and sharing of best practices being followed by participating nations. The teams from 8 countries viz. India, China, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sudan are participating in the competition. The competition is consists of 5 stages wherein Navigation Skills, Endurance, Marksmanship and Team spirit will be evaluated by a panel of international judges, arbitrators, and referees.

Notes:
The Delhi government has launched a project titled ‘Oral History Programme’ that seeks to record oral histories of the city as told by its senior citizens. The project is an attempt to democratise knowledge by recording stories told by hundred of common people in Delhi from different strata of society over the next two years. It is undertaken by Delhi Archives in collaboration with Ambedkar University. It aims to document the history of the city from the perspective of its inhabitants. The project will enable a richer representation of the city than allowed by official records and written documents. The Oral History programme is actually reviving a 3-decade old project of the Delhi Archives. In the 1980s, the official repository of the city’s records began an oral history programme that interviewed eminent personalities, including Gulzarilal Nanda, who served as the acting prime minister of the country twice, and Sushila Nayyar, a close aide of Mahatma Gandhi. But the project was stopped after 56 eminent people were interviewed.

Notes:
India has recently signed the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements (UNISA) to boost the confidence of foreign investors. It was signed by India’s High Commissioner to Singapore Jawed Ashraf, who was representing the Government of India (GoI). The purpose of the convention is to strengthen the international dispute resolution framework, and in turn help ease trade and commerce among countries. It will enable the enforcement of mediated settlement agreements amongst signatory countries. So far, the treaty named Singapore Convention on Mediation (SCM) has signed by 46countries including the United States, China, and India. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Convention on 20th December 2018 during its 73rd session. The Convention has opened for signature by all States in Singapore on 7th August 2019, and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Notes:
The researchers at the University of Leeds in Britain have created a new form of gold which is 0.47 nanometres thick – one million times thinner than a human finger nail. They claimed that it is the world’s thinnest-ever unsupported gold. The researchers named their created precious metal as “golden algae” because of its greenish hue under water and the similarities between its shape and that of an algae’s. The Golden Algae is regarded as 2D because it consists of just two layers of atoms sitting on top of one another, so there are no “bulk” atoms hidden beneath the surface. According to researchers , the Golden Algae could have wide-scale applications in the medical device and electronics industries. It could also be used as a catalyst to speed up chemical reactions in a range of industrial processes.

Notes:
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announcement its 3rd bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for FY 20 (2019-20). In it, RBI reduced the policy repo rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) by 35 basis points (bps) from 5.75% to 5.40% with immediate effect. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands revised to 5.15%, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 5.65%. This is the 4th straight time that the RBI has cut interest rates. The move is said to give a fillip to the economy. The MPC, headed by Shaktikanta Das, also cut GDP growth target to 6.9% from 7% for the ongoing financial year.

Notes:
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (or World Tribal Day) is observed on August 9 to front-up and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. The 2019 theme is ‘Indigenous Languages’. It was reported in the year 2016 that about 2680 indigenous languages were in danger and on the verge of getting extinct. To safeguard the loss of these indigenous languages, the United Nations (UN) has designated 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This will help in persuading, convincing and creating awareness to people about the Indigenous Languages.