Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), has been elected as the new chairman of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC). He succeeded Nakul Chopra. It may be recalled that Goenka was the founder chairman of BARC India and played an instrumental role in setting up of the TV Viewership measurement company. It was under his leadership that BARC India established its measurement system. BARC India is a joint industry company founded by stakeholder bodies that represent Broadcasters, Advertisers and Advertising & Media Agencies. Its headquarters is located in Mumbai.

Notes:
The central banks of the UAE and Saudi Arabia have launched a common digital currency called “Aber”, which will be used in financial settlements between the two countries through Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologies. It will establish an additional means for the central financial transfer systems of the two countries and enable banks to directly deal with each other in conducting financial remittances. Through this digital currency, both the United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) are studying the impact on the improvement and reduction of remittance costs and the assessments of risks.

Notes:
In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has recently launched the new ‘Africa Centre for Climate and Sustainable Development’ in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and FAO to fight climate change and boost sustainable development in Africa. The centre will provide a fast-track, demand-driven mechanism for African countries to access grant resources that support policies, initiatives, and best practices on climate change, food security, access to water, clean energy, and accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. The Africa Centre has its roots in a declaration endorsed by the G7 meeting of the Environment Ministers in 2017. The new centre is established to facilitate coordination among the G7 and African countries on common initiatives in Africa to develop and scale-up innovative solutions for sustainable development, and to achieve the goals set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has been awarded the Carnot prize for his contribution towards sustainable energy solutions by the team of University of Pennsylvania on January 30. The award recognizes Goyal’s tenure as minister of power in which he is credited to have reformed the electricity sector and extended access to electricity to 18,000 villages, as documented by the International Energy Agency (IEA). He was to be awarded the prize by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Design in October 2018. But, he had to skip the event because of the Amritsar tragedy in which over 60 people died after being mowed down by a train.

Notes:
The 13th International Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition ‘PETROTECH-2019’ is being organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in Greater Noida from 10th to 12th February, 2019. India’s flagship hydrocarbon international conference is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister of India. Over 95 Energy Ministers from partner countries have been invited by the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas to participate in the Conference. The 3-day mega event will showcase the recent market and investor friendly developments that have taken place in the India’s oil and gas sector. It is expected to see participation of over 86 eminent speakers and 7000 delegates from around 70 countries, including technologists, scientists, planners, policy-makers, management experts, entrepreneurs, service-providers and vendors.

Notes:
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has recently signed agreements worth $93 million for providing Naval MRSAM (Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile) systems to India. The contracts for the air defence system were entered with the Indian Navy and the Cochin Shipyard. Under the contracts, IAI will provide complementary systems for the air defense system (ADS). The MRSAM family is an operational air-defense system used by Israel’s navy as well as by India’s naval, air and ground forces. It provides broad as well as topical defense against a range of assault air, marine and ground threats. MRSAM comprises several key state-of-the-art systems, including a digital radar, command and control, launchers, and interceptors with advanced homing seekers.

Notes:
The World Leprosy Day (WLD) is observed every year on the last Sunday of January to spread awareness about the disease, the impact of discrimination and social stigma attached to it and how these negative effects hamper the efforts to stop the spread of the disease. This year, in 2019, it falls on 27 January and its theme is ‘Ending discrimination, stigma and prejudice’. Leprosy (or Hansen disease) is one of the oldest recorded diseases in the world. The disease is caused by the bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae and is contagious. It is an infectious chronic disease that targets the nervous system, especially the nerves in the cooler parts of the body – the hands, feet, and face. This chronic disease can be passed on from one person to another or even by breathing airborne droplets from the affected individuals. Even cough and sneezes, or coming into contact with the affected individual nasal fluids could lead to leprosy. The infection can be contracted at any age.

Notes:
On 30th January2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial at Dandi in Navsari district, Gujarat to the nation on Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary. At the memorial site, there are statues of Mahatma Gandhi and 80 Satyagrahis who had marched with him during the historic Dandi Salt March in 1930 to make salt from sea water against the British law. The memorial also has 24-narrative murals depicting various events and stories from the historic 1930 Salt March. Solar trees are installed to meet the energy requirements of the memorial complex. The memorial project of the Union Ministry of Culture is advised by a High Level Dandi Memorial Committee (HLDMC), and is designed, coordinated and implemented by IIT Bombay in association with an international design team.

Notes:
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has been renamed as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade with a mandate to deal with matters related to start-ups, facilitating ease of doing business among others. The move comes amidst demand by traders’ body CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) for forming a separate ministry for internal trade. The newly-named department under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry will look into matters related to promotion of internal trade, including retail trade, welfare of traders and their employees, facilitating ease of doing business and start-ups. Earlier, the matters related to internal trade were under the domain of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

Notes:
The Mizoram government has banned import of pigs and piglets from other countries in view of possible outbreak of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) that has cost the lives of thousands of swines in the state. The orders were issued as the dreaded PRRS outbreak always occurred from March to July, during a dry spell after pre-monsoon downpours. According to the records of the Veterinary department, the PRRS has cost the lives of over 10,000 swines in Mizoram since 2013 and it is believed that it happened due to import of pigs and piglets from Myanmar where the disease was known to be prevalent. The PRRS is also known as blue-ear pig disease, which affectes domestic pigs. The symptoms include reproductive failure, pneumonia and increased susceptibility to secondary bacterial infection.