Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
The book “Kashmir’s Untold Story: Declassified” has been authored by filmmaker Iqbal Chand Malhotra and defence analyst Maroof Raza. It will tell the riveting story of the history of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), from the time of its political and geographic consolidation under Maharaja Gulab Singh to the present-day. It will also shed light on why the special status was integral to the accession treaty. The book world reveal amazing insights into the Government of India (GoI)’s policy towards the state, right from 1889, when it first imposed central rule and dispossessed the rule of the then Maharaja, till date. It will also provide answers to some of the most asked questions on the situation in the Valley, like “Why has this state of siege in the Kashmir valley continued for 72 years since the Partition of India?”, “What role has Pakistan played in it all these years?”, or the question of the hour, “Will there ever be a resolution to the militancy in the state?”. Now, the former state has been bifurcated into two union territories — J&K and Ladakh.

Notes:
Rizia Rahman (79), the renowned Bangladeshi novelist and the Ekushey Padak winning author, has passed away in Dhaka on August 17, 2019. She was born in Kolkata in 1939 and migrated to East Bengal after the partition. Rizia wrote in all genres of creative work viz. short stories, poems, essays and children’s fiction but she was renowned for her novels. Some of her well-known novels are as follows: Bong Theke Bangla, Rokter Okshor and Ghar-Bhanga-Ghar.

Notes:
Mohammed Zahur Hashmi (92), the veteran music composer, has passed away in Mumbai on August 20, 2019. Popularly known as Khayyam, he was best known for his music in classic films such as ‘Umrao Jaan’ and ‘Kabhi Kabhie’. He was a recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Padma Bhushan. In 2016, the veteran composer established Khayyam Jagjeet Kaur KPG Charitable Trust and pledged to donate his entire wealth to the trust to support budding artists and technicians in India.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has recently classified nicotine as Class A poison by amending the Karnataka Poisons (Possession and Sale) Rules 2015. The move is to curb illegal sale, smuggling of nicotine cartridges & e-cigarettes. Highly toxic chemicals (such as cyanogen, hydrocyanic acid, nitrogen peroxide, and phosgene) which even in very small quantities as gas or vapour in the air are dangerous to life.

Notes:
Wipro has partnered with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to conduct advanced applied research in autonomous systems – robotics and 5G. Both the organizations have jointly set up a hybrid industry-academia collaboration unit – Wipro IISc Research and Innovation Network (WIRIN) – which will drive idea discovery, research and innovation in technology and product design. Both will focus on the research and development of cutting-edge technologies in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Visual Computing, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X). The insights from the research will be leveraged by Wipro for its customers and the industry ecosystem.

Notes:
Prof. Meeta Narain of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been conferred the prestigious ‘Pushkin Medal – 2019’ for her contribution to Russian studies abroad. Narain has contributed towards re-writing of Russian studies textbooks for graduate students after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Her work gave a contemporary flavour to the textbooks, which are now being used in departments of Russian language studies at various universities of India, in many former Soviet nation institutes, Europe, the US and other countries. The Pushkin Medal is the highest honour given to an Indian scholar by the Russian government in recognition of outstanding contributions to the promotion of the Russian language and culture. It was instituted in the name of famous Russian author and poet Alexander S. Pushkin.

Notes:
The Telangana Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Google India for ‘Digital Telangana’. The MoU will improve and get more local language content online using Google’s digital publishing tool “Navlekha”. As part of the MoU, Google will work with the state government to help digitize the government’s content in Telugu to make it easier for the common man to get access to all the information and services on government sites in their local languages. Apart from this, Google will also collaborate with the government to support its digital literacy vision and aid in the overall digitization agenda of the state.

Notes:
South Korea has recently conducted 2-day drill exercise to practise defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan. The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo. The exercise will involve warships and aircraft. The drill — re-named “East Sea territory defence training” — will solidify the military’s resolve to defend the Dokdo islands and the area surrounding the Sea of Japan. The delayed exercise comes as tensions with neighbouring Japan continue. Seoul has controlled the rocky islets in the Sea of Japan since 1945 when Tokyo’s 35-year colonial rule over the Korean peninsula ended. Tokyo also claims the islands and accuses South Korea of occupying them illegally. The two nations are both market economies, democracies and US allies, and both are threatened by nuclear-armed North Korea.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a novel technique for production of meat which is completely natural. The lab-grown meat is nutritious and will be a step towards cruelty-free food. The taste of the final meat product will remain similar as raw meat but with improvised nutritional values as per customer needs. The product can be printed in varying shapes and sizes using a 3D bioprinter with the edible components and preserved for future use. According to researchers, the meat industry has been facing immense pressure in keeping up with the food requirements due to rapid increase in population. Citing predictions from the UN population prospects, Dr Biman B Mandal stated that the current meat industry will not be able to meet the global needs by 2050. Around 4,000 litres of water are required to produce one kg chicken meat and more than 8,000 litres of water are required to produce one kg of mutton. Hence, the lab grown meat made will have immense value in the Indian as well as the foreign market as it is nutritious and can be tuned for the high in demand needs of fast-food joints.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government has recently launched its exclusive education TV channel – Kalvi Tholaikkatchi – to benefit students of classes I to XII. The content will include shows aimed at school children, besides those on jobs and related issues. The Education TV will telecast programmes from 6 am to 9.30 pm every day. The programmes will be based on board exam preparation for students, employment news and opportunities for the youth and career-guidance information. The content for the channel has been prepared by a group of 25 teachers and the programmes will also have guest speakers like authors and subject experts. The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has also contributed towards content development for the channel. The TN SCERT has a channel on YouTube already with around 2.5 lakh subscribers and more than 3,000 videos. The videos range from chapter-wise tutorials on subjects to easy science experiments conducted by middle school students.