Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2019

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.

Notes:
The global startup ecosystem map Startupblink has released its latest 2019 Startup Ecosystem Ranking. In it, India has been ranked 17th out of 100 countries, based on the strength of its startup ecosystem. The index is topped by United States, followed by UK, Canada, Israel, and Australia. The ranking is carried out on the basis the impact startups have been able to make in the country. Additionally, it has also considered how many startups and support organisations are there such as accelerators, coworking spaces, startup events along with technology infrastructure, red tape, bureaucracy, etc. It used data from startups, accelerators and co-working spaces registered on its platforms as well as data received from global partners such as Crunchbase and SimilarWeb. StartupBlink also ranked cities globally in its top 25-city ranking that included Bengaluru at 11 and New Delhi at 18 andMumbai at 29.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has divested its entire stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for Rs 1,450 crore and Rs 20 crore, respectively. The move is part of ending the cross-holding in regulatory institutions and follows the recommendation of second Narasimham committee report of October 2001 and the RBI’s own discussion paper on the same entitled ‘Harmonizing the role and operations of development financial institutions and banks. The current change in the capital structure of both these financial institutions was brought in by the government through amendments to the Nabard Act of 1981 and the NHB Act of 1987 which were notified on January 19, 2018 and March 29, 2018, respectively. With this, the Government of India (GoI) now holds 100% stake in both these financial institutions.

Notes:
Rana Dasgupta has won the 2nd edition of Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2019 for his 2010 novel “Solo”, a tale of estrangement and the ultimate failure of material existence. The award consists of an amount of $10,000, a Tagore statue and a certificate. Beside this, the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize for social achievement was awarded to Yohei Sasakawa, the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, for “his incredible efforts to uproot leprosy and great contribution to world peace”. The Prize was also awarded to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen as “a beacon of democracy”.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research has launched the ‘Malaria Elimination Research Alliance (MERA) India’ to eliminate malaria from India by 2030. The initiative is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control. The principal activity of the alliance is to prioritise, plan, conduct, scale up and translate relevant research in a coordinated and combinatorial way in order to have a tangible impact of this research on the population at risk for malaria. The MERA India does not intend to duplicate international efforts rather complement this on a national scale while contributing to the broader global agenda. The alliance will facilitate trans-institutional coordination and collaboration around a shared research agenda which responds not only to programmatic challenges and addresses gaps in available tools but also pro actively contributes to targeted research. It aims to harness and reinforce research in coordinated and combinatorial ways in order to achieve tangible impact on malaria elimination.

Notes:
In shooting, Abhishek Verma secured India’s fifth Olympic quota place by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal at the ISSF World Cup at Beijing, China on April 27, 2019. He clinched the top spot with a total score of 242.7. This is India’s fifth 2020 Tokyo Olympic quota after Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (10m air rifle women), Saurabh Choudhary (10m Air Pistol men) and Divyansh Singh Panwar had secured berths.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.