Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2019

Notes:
On April 1, ISRO has successfully launched India’s latest EMISAT defence satellite from the Sriharikota spaceport. In today’s mission, the rocket PSLV-C45 flew in a new configuration called “QL”. In this configuration, the rocket is fitted with four longer versions of strap-on motors that provide the vehicle the required additional thrust. Earlier, the rocket used to be in “XL” version with six strap-on motors or two or with no strap-on motors known as core alone configuration. The PSLV-C45 successfully injected EMISAT in a 748-km sun-synchronous polar orbit and 28 international customer satellites in a 504-km orbit. Of these, 24 are from the US, two from Lithuania, and one each from Spain and Switzerland. EMISAT is a satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 (IMS-2) bus weighing about 436 kg. The satellite is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement.

Notes:
Researchers led by Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan has put a theory speculated by the late Stephen Hawking to its most rigorous test to date, and their results have ruled out the possibility that primordial black holes smaller than a tenth of a millimeter make up most of dark matter. They used the gravitational lensing effect to look for primordial black holes between Earth and the Andromeda galaxy. However, gravitational lensing effects are very rare events because it requires a star in the Andromeda galaxy, a primordial black hole acting as the gravitational lens, and an observer on Earth to be exactly in line with one another. In order to maximise the chances of capturing an event, the researchers used the Hyper Suprime-Cam digital camera on the Subaru telescope in Hawaii, which can capture the whole image of the Andromeda galaxy in one shot. Taking into account how fast primordial black holes are expected to move in interstellar space, the team took multiple images to be able to catch the flicker of a star as it brightens for a period of a few minutes to hours due to gravitational lensing. The team’s results showed primordial black holes can contribute no more than 0.1% of all dark matter mass. Therefore, it is unlikely the theory is true.

Notes:
On March 28, President Ram Nath Kovind became the first-ever Indian President to visit Bolivia. Here, President Evo Morales Ayma conferred the highest State Honour of Bolivia – Condor de los Andes en el Grado de Gran Collar – on President Kovind. Both the countries have agreed to facilitate Bolivian supplies of lithium Carbonate to India and foster joint ventures for Lithium battery / cell production plants in India. This move will make Bolivia, which is known to have one-fourth of the world’s lithium reserves, one of the major provider of metal for India’s e-mobility and e-storage needs. To mark the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, India offered two busts of Gandhiji to Bolivia. The Bolivian side accepted the offer and is likely to place the busts in its capital La Paz and its largest city Santa Cruz. This South American nation has also joined the International Solar Alliance (ISA) by signing the framework agreement on ISA. In a total, India and Bolivia have signed 8 MoUs in various fields of mining, space, traditional medicine during President’s Kovid three day visit to the country.

Notes:
For the second successive year, Telangana has been ranked first in e-learning training programme of Department of Personal and Training (DoPT) of the Government India. In FY 2018-19, Dr. MCR HRD Institute had enrolled over 20,000 field staff in different districts of the State to impart training on 12 soft skill modules and three domain-specific modules on the RTI, office procedures, and finance and accounts, apart from Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The institute is also mentoring Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, J&K, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat to guide trainers for e-learning training programme and develop modules in regional languages to spread the Comprehensive Online Modified Modules on Induction Training (COMMIT) programme as a national mission.

Notes:
UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has conferred the prestigious Zayed Medal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving a “big boost’ to bilateral strategic ties between the two countries. The award comes in appreciation of PM Modi’s role in consolidating the long-standing friendship and joint strategic cooperation between the two countries. The Zayed Medal is the highest decoration awarded to kings, presidents and heads of states.

Notes:
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently released its flagship publication Asian Development Outlook 2019. In its report, ADB has lowered India’s growth by 40 basis points to 7.2% in fiscal year 2019-20. Still, it will be fastest growing economy in the world. The report mentioned that recent policy measures by the Government of India (GoI) to improve the investment climate and boost private consumption and investment will help India to lift economic growth in the next two fiscal years. The growth rate in FY 2020-21 is likely to be 7.3%. India’s growth slowed from 7.2% in fiscal 2017 to 7% in 2018, with weaker agricultural output and consumption growth curtailed by higher global oil prices and lower government expenditure. The report added that sub-region wise, southeast Asia will sustain growth at close to 5% this year and the next one.

Notes:
Chicago has created history by electing an African-American woman as its mayor for the first time. Lori Lightfoot is a former federal prosecutor and practicing lawyer who has never before held elected office. She won the city’s mayoral race by a huge margin. She will also be Chicago’s first openly gay mayor. Lightfoot’s primary proposals include increasing access to affordable housing, creating an office of public safety to reduce crime and reform policing, and pushing through a real estate transfer tax to help combat homelessness. She also backs abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lightfoot will take over office from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who previously served as chief of staff under former President Barack Obama.

Notes:
The Nepal-India Franchise Investment Expo and Conclave will be held in Kathmandu from 15th to 16th May, 2019. The event primarily focuses on building the relations between India and Nepal through entrepreneurship development. The conclave is organised by Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FNCCI) in association with Embassy of India and Franchise India. The event is expected to introduce new investment opportunities to Nepalese market. According to Indian Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri the summit will help in bringing the leading Indian iconic brands to Nepal. Their entry would not only bring investment into Nepal but also technology transfers and business know how. According to organizers 250 businesspersons and investors will attend the conclave and more than 1000 prospective franchisees and investors are expected to visit the expo.

Notes:
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has said that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid Ryugu to make a crater on its surface. The move will pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system. For this, the Hayabusa2 dropped a “small carry-on impactor” made of copper onto the asteroid and the spacecraft safely evacuated and remained intact. Now, JAXA is analyzing data to examine if or how the impactor made a crater. The copper explosive is the size of a baseball weighing 2 kg. If successful, it would be the first time for a spacecraft to take such materials. The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth. Earlier, Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a tiny flat surface on the boulder-rich asteroid in February 2019, when the spacecraft also collected some surface dust and small debris.

Notes:
Chinese scientists have discovered a possible “death switch” mechanism in plant’s immune system that triggers infected cells to self-destruct, thus limiting the spread of the disease and keeping other parts of the plant healthy. This is as per the findings published in the journal ‘Science’. The discovery provides clues to cell death control and immunity for plants. The researchers hope further research can lead to a new generation of disease-resistant crops that use significantly less pesticide and are more environmentally friendly. The research was done by scientists from Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Development Biology. The ‘death switch’ is usually harmless to the plant because it only affects diseased cells, which are a tiny portion of the entire plant.