Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

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:
India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been chosen as the Professional Cricketers Association’s(PCA) Player for the month of July 2019 for his consistent performances in the county championships. Ashwin signed with Nottinghamshire for six County Championship matches as practice for India’s World Test Championship fixture against West Indies that gets underway later this month. In three matches, he took 23 wickets at 19.91 and scored 197 runs at 39.40.

Notes:
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has launched a Maharashtra government’s initiative “Mission Shakti” at the function in Ballarpur to train athletes from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli for international events like the Olympics. The aim of Mission Shakti is to groom tribal student for an Olympic medal by 2024. The mission is directed towards six sporting disciplines – archery, shooting, volleyball, swimming, weightlifting and gymnastics. The actor also felicitated a team of tribal mountaineers who had recently scaled Mount Everest as part of ‘Mission Shaurya’.

Notes:
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs , Food and Public Distribution has released the draft “e-commerce guidelines for consumer protection 2019” to protect the interest of online shoppers. The draft stated that an e-commerce entity such as Amazon and Flipkart cannot directly or indirectly influence the price of the goods or services. It added that every e-commerce entity needs to publish the name & contact details of the grievance officer on their website along with the mechanism by which users can lodge their complaints. As per the draft, e-commerce platforms cannot falsely represent themselves as consumers or post reviews about goods & services in their name. The platforms are also required to display terms of contract with the seller relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty, delivery and mode of payments. The draft is open for stakeholder comments for 45 days or till September 16, 2019.

Notes:
The National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) of India has recently signed an agreement with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to initiate a skill development programme for different levels of beneficiaries in the solar thermal energy sector. Both the organizations will engage national and international experts to bring the best practices by developing specialized training material. The agreement is part of the ongoing MNRE-GEF-UNIDOproject implemented jointly by UNIDO and to support capacity building and skill development of technical manpower in the Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy Technologies (CST) which are being used to replace conventional fossil fuels e.g. coal, diesel, furnace oil etc. and save costs and emissions in the industrial process heat applications. The headquarters of UNIDO is in Vienna, Austria.

Notes:
The RBI task force on Offshore Rupee Markets (ORM), headed by Usha Thorat, has suggested liberal currency market for offshore users. The panel recommended that onshore market hours may be suitably extended to match the flexibility provided by the offshore markets (or NDF markets). This is aimed at incentivizing non-residents to hedge in the onshore market. The Thorat panel suggested that banks may be allowed to freely offer prices to non-residents at all times, out of their Indian books, either by a domestic sales team, or by using staff located at overseas branches. It recommended that non-deliverable rupee derivatives (with settlement in foreign currency) may be allowed to be traded in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), and IFSC Banking Units may be allowed to deal in such derivatives with a distinct foreign currency-Indian rupee (INR) position limit.

Notes:
The World Biofuel Day (WBD) is observed every year on 10th of August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The day also highlights the various efforts made by Government in the biofuel sector. The 2019 theme of Biofuel day is ‘Production of Biodiesel from Used Cooking Oil (UCO)’. Biofuels have the benefits of reduction of import dependence, cleaner environment, additional income to farmers and employment generation.

Notes:
Sudha Rani Relangi, who is currently serving as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice, has been appointed as new director of prosecution in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of two years. The post had been lying vacant since the last Director of Prosecution OP Verma completed his term on 24th December 2018.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT Madras have designed a system titled ‘Project Water Chakra’ to recycle human urine. The project won the Indian Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 award in July 2019. The researchers have retrofitted urinals on the campus to collect urine i.e. then processed into several useful materials for use in manufacturing. The concentrated urine is stored for 3 days to allow the urea to get converted to ammonia. By a process of steam distillation, the ammonia is segregated and this commercial grade liquid can be used to make cleaning products, such as detergents or in rubber manufacturing. Then, to precipitate phosphorus through struvite process, magnesium is added to the rest of the liquid. Hence, through electrochemical process we can recover 90% of water and it can be used for gardening purposes and flushing.

Notes:
Dr. Chandrima Shaha is set to be the first woman president of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). She is currently Professor of Eminence at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) of Delhi. As a biologist, Ms. Shaha has focussed on apoptosis (or programmed cell death). Her laboratory uses the uni-cellular leishmania parasite as a model to understand the conditions under which cells respond to their environment and kill themselves, if need be.