Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2019

Notes:
The Indian Navy has launched guided missile destroyer INS Imphal at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai on April 20. It’s the third state-of-the-art warship built as part of Project 15B, in which ships are built to carry and operate two multiple role helicopters. INS Imphal has a length of 163m and 17.4m at the beam and a displacement of 7.300 tonnes, which are propelled by four gas turbines to achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots. Under Project 15B, the Navy had launched first ship ‘INS Vishakhapatnam’ in April 2015, while the second ship ‘INS Mormugao’ was launched in September 2016.

Notes:
Iran and Pakistan have decided to set up a Joint Border Reaction Force (JBRF) following a number of deadly attacks by militant groups on their frontier. The announcement comes following tensions between the two countries who have in recent months accused each other of not doing enough to stamp out militants allegedly sheltering across the border. The The Iran-Pakistan border skirts the volatile southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan which has been the scene of frequent attacks on Iran’s security forces.

Notes:
The UN English Language Day is observed every year on 23rd of April to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. For the English language, 23 April was chosen because it is the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare.

Notes:
The National Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) is celebrated every year in India on April 24 by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It is also known as the National Local Self-Government day. On this day, in 1993, the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act of 1992 came into force that has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the village, Intermediate and District level Panchayats.

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:
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 Japanese scientists have successfully created the first-ever artificial crater on an asteroid ‘Ryugu’. It’s a step towards shedding light on how the solar system evolved. The announcement comes after the Hayabusa2 probe fired an explosive device at the Ryugu asteroid early this month to blast a crater in the surface and scoop up material. The aim of blasting the crater on Ryugu is to throw up “fresh” material from under the asteroid’s surface that could shed light on the early stages of the solar system. The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born. The Ryugu asteroid is around 340 million kilometers from Earth.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announced that it will shortly issue Rs 20 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The new denomination has motif of Ellora Caves on the reverse that depicts the country’s cultural heritage. It also contains a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, with micro letters ‘RBI’, ‘Bharat’, ‘India’ and ’20’, along with a guarantee clause, Governor’s signature with Promise Clause and RBI emblem towards the right of Gandhi’s portrait. On the right side of the portrait are — an Ashoka Pillar emblem and electrotype (20) watermarks. The base colour of the note is Greenish Yellow. It will bear the signature of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The dimension of the new Rs 20 note will be 63 mm x 129 mm. All the banknotes in the denomination of Rs 20 issued by the RBI in the earlier series will continue to be legal tender.

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:
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.