Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2019

Notes:
Two Indian Navy warships – the stealth guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata and tanker INS Shakti – will participate in the International Fleet Review (IFR) as part of 70TH Anniversary celebrations of PLA (Navy) at Qingdao, China on 23 April, 2019. IFR is a parade of naval ships, aircraft and submarines, and is organised by nations to promote goodwill, strengthen cooperation and showcase their organisational capabilities. IFR also serves as an ideal platform for world’s navies to showcase their prowess and indigenous ship designing and ship building capabilities in a global/ international arena.

Notes:
The Chhyoiphel Kundeling Monastery has recently inaugurated by a Buddhist scholar Shyalpa Tenzing Rinpoche at Lisankhu village in Sindhupalchok district in Nepal. The Monastery has been reconstructed with Government of India (GoI) grant of 18.9 million Nepalese rupees. Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India Dr. Ajay Kumar was also present on the occasion. In addition to reconstructing the monastery, the project also included building additional infrastructure such as residences, kitchen, sanitation facilities and compound wall. The Chhyoiphel Kundeling Monastery was established in 1946 with the active initiation and contribution of Lisankhu villagers. It has been carrying out various socio-cultural activities like teaching Buddhism,Thangka painting, wood carving and sculpting etc. Apart from being an important heritage building, the monastery is also an integral part of social and cultural life of people in the area.

Notes:
Russia has recently dismissed the findings of the long-awaited report by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller and said that it failed to present any evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections. The report titled “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” details extensive contacts between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives who, it said, sought to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. It is the product of a 22-month investigation by Robert Mueller. He was appointed to probe Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The 448-page report did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia.

Notes:
NASA astronaut Christina Koch will set record for longest single spaceflight by a woman. Her mission on the International Space Station (ISS) has extended to 328 days. Koch arrived at the space station on 14th March 2019, and now is scheduled to remain in orbit until February 2020. With this, she will eclipse the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. As part of the schedule changes two new astronauts, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir, will join Koch on the ISS later this year, their first space flights ever. Morgan will also stay at the ISS longer than originally planned, getting there in July and remaining there until mid-2020. By extending the space flights of Koch and Andrew Morgan, NASA will be able to gather more data on the changes to human cognitive and bodily functions to support its future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Notes:
The first edition of Naval Commanders’ Conference – 2019 is scheduled to begin in New Delhi from April 23. The 3-day conference is the apex forum within the Service for interaction between the Naval Commanders. The Chief of the Naval Staff, with the Commanders-in-Chief, will review major operational, logistics, training and administrative activities undertaken during the previous six months and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the ensuing six months. The Conference assumes greater significance in the backdrop of Pulwama associated events that have brought country’s defence under sharper focus and will provide the higher naval leadership a forum to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain. The conference also serves as a platform for institutionalised interaction of Naval Commanders with senior Government Officials.

Notes:
The World Earth Day (WED) is observed every year on 22nd of April to demonstrate support for environmental protection. This is a day which is meant to emphasise the need to protect the planet and preserve its environment. The day also marks the anniversary of the Modern Environmental Movement, started in 1970. The 2019 theme is ‘Protect our species’, which aims to draw attention to the rapid extinction of species across the world.

Notes:
India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) has partnered with the Department of Posts (DoP) to modernise a network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices across the country. The multi-year digital core programme will transform the DoP into a multi-service digital hub, modernise the delivery of mail and packages, enhance customer experience and launch innovative services that will drive new revenues. At the heart of this transformation is the Core System Integration (CSI) program designed and implemented by TCS. This involved deploying an integrated ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution that caters to mail operations, finance and accounting, and HR functions. Besides, it will also connect the network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices to make this largest distributed ePostal network in the world. The integrated solution is built to cater to the Department’s immense scale, and future needs. It supports the HR needs of over 500,000 employees, services over 40,000 concurrent users, and processes over 3 million postal transactions a day.

Notes:
The World Book and Copyright Day (WBCD) is celebrated worldwide on 23rd April to pay tribute to the veteran literary figures like William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso De La Vega. It is a symbolic date in world literature. On this day, UNESCO and organisations representing publishers, booksellers and libraries select World Book Capital (WBC) for a year to maintain the celebrations of books and reading. For the year 2019, Sharjah, UAE has been declared as the World Book Capital. It will be preceded by Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the year 2020.

Notes:
The ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ scheme of the West Bengal government has won the prestigious 2019 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations. The scheme aims to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready. Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, Utkarsh Bangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of WSIS. Earlier, in 2017, the West Bengal government had received another UN award for its ‘Kanyashree’ project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls. WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.

Notes:
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released the 2019 Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP) in which India’s overall rank is 19th out of 28 countries, with a score of 64.9. Australia topped the index, followed by the Netherlands and Germany. The ICP explores the issue of cancer preparedness through three broad domains: Policy and planning; Care delivery; and Health systems and governance. It was released as part of the report titled “Cancer preparedness around the world: National readiness for a global epidemic” prepared by EIU.