Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, Mohali traffic police have launched 3-D Smart Traffic Signal devised by the students of a Chandigarh university. The wireless system, called ‘Intelights’, has been installed at the traffic crossing near the Airport Road, on a pilot project basis, and will regulate traffic signals with a smart bird’s eye view wireless sensor system. Intelights proposes a 360-degree solution to curb the rising problem of traffic congestion. One of the major reasons for traffic congestion is the inefficient working of traffic signal timers installed at intersections. Presently, the timers of traffic lights display a preset value which leads to waste of time. For instance, consider a scenario where green light of ’20 seconds’ is displayed but there is no vehicle present at that particular intersection – thus leading to unnecessary waste of time. To tackle this issue, ‘Intelights’ proposes an Intelligent Traffic Timer Control; which uses dynamic signal control technology to adjust the timers of red, yellow and green lights according to the traffic density at an intersection. The system uses existing CCTV cameras to gather live traffic video feed, and automatically evaluates the traffic density using Artificial Intelligence, and sets the signal timers accordingly. This process is repeated for every cycle of traffic lights to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Notes:
Jay Om Prakash (93), the veteran filmmaker and Hrithik Roshan’s maternal grandfather, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on August 7, 2019. He is best known for his collaboration with two of Bollywood biggest superstars — the late Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra. He had a strong penchant for beginning his film titles with the letter ‘A’. With Khanna, he made films such as “Aap Ki Kasam” (1974) and “Aakhir Kyon?” (1985). His collaboration with Jeetendra yielded five big hits — “Apnapan” (1977), “Aasha” (1980), “Apna Bana Lo” (1982), “Arpan” (1983) and “Aadmi Khilona Hai” (1993).

Notes:
The 5th edition of International Army Scout Masters Competition 2019 has started at Jaisalmer military station in Rajasthan from August 5 to 16. The purpose of the International Army Games (IAG) is to foster military co-operation between the participating nations, develop trust between the armies for the sake of establishing a peaceful society, improving professional training and sharing of best practices being followed by participating nations. The teams from 8 countries viz. India, China, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sudan are participating in the competition. The competition is consists of 5 stages wherein Navigation Skills, Endurance, Marksmanship and Team spirit will be evaluated by a panel of international judges, arbitrators, and referees.

Notes:
Nobel Prize-winning US author Toni Morrison (88) has passed away in New York, United States on 5th August 2019. She is the first African-American woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature for her novels depicting the struggles of black Americans living in a white society ridden with racial discrimination. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “Beloved” that told the story of a runaway female slave and was made into a film starring Oprah Winfrey in 1998. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the highest civilian honor – Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Notes:
In India, the 5th edition of National Handloom Day (NHD) has celebrated on 7th August 2019 to honour the handloom weavers in the country and also highlight India’s handloom industry. The day seeks to focus on the contribution of handloom to the socio economic development of India and also to increase the income of weavers. This year, Bhubaneswar has been chosen as the venue for the main event due to its rich tradition of Handlooms. The prime objective of holding the NHD in Bhubaneswar is to empower women and girls. The day was chosen as the National Handloom Day (NHD to commemorate the Swadeshi Movement which was launched on 7th August 1905 in Calcutta Town Hall to protest against the partition of Bengal by the British Government. The movement had aimed at reviving domestic products and production processes.

Notes:
The researchers at the University of Leeds in Britain have created a new form of gold which is 0.47 nanometres thick – one million times thinner than a human finger nail. They claimed that it is the world’s thinnest-ever unsupported gold. The researchers named their created precious metal as “golden algae” because of its greenish hue under water and the similarities between its shape and that of an algae’s. The Golden Algae is regarded as 2D because it consists of just two layers of atoms sitting on top of one another, so there are no “bulk” atoms hidden beneath the surface. According to researchers , the Golden Algae could have wide-scale applications in the medical device and electronics industries. It could also be used as a catalyst to speed up chemical reactions in a range of industrial processes.

Notes:
Ethnologue (a directory of languages) lists 7,111 living languages worldwide (languages that are still being used and spoken by people). According to it, Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has the highest number of ‘living’ indigenous languages in the world (840), while India stands 4th with 453. Interestingly, the U.S. (335 languages) and Australia (319), widely English-speaking nations, are among the countries where the highest number of languages are spoken. Among regions, Asia (2303) and Africa (2140) account for the highest number of indigenous languages (over 70% of the total).The United Nations has designated Year 2019 as International Year of Indigenous Languages to promote native tongues in five key areas viz. creation of favourable conditions for knowledge-sharing and dissemination of good practices with regards to indigenous languages.

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 Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has recently released a report card on “Breastfeeding & Infant & Child feeding Practices” with data from the State and UTs on 8th August in New Delhi. In it, Manipur has topped the rankings in the Breastfeeding report card in the country. National capital Delhi is also among the worst-performing States. It has been developed by devising a composite score based on three indicators namely early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and complimentary feeding at 6-8 months of child’s age. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar are at the bottom positions in the report card.

Notes:
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (or World Tribal Day) is observed on August 9 to front-up and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. The 2019 theme is ‘Indigenous Languages’. It was reported in the year 2016 that about 2680 indigenous languages were in danger and on the verge of getting extinct. To safeguard the loss of these indigenous languages, the United Nations (UN) has designated 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This will help in persuading, convincing and creating awareness to people about the Indigenous Languages.