Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua has launched the world’s first female AI news anchor ‘Xin Xiaomeng’ to read alongside its male AI news presenters. She was developed jointly by Xinhua and search engine company Sogou Inc. Xiaomeng is expected to make a debut in March during the upcoming meetings of the country’s national legislature and top political advisory body. Earlier, in 2018, China became the first country in the world to develop the first of its kind AI ‘journalist’, a male news presenter by the name of Qui Hao.

Notes:
Acclaimed actress Kareena Kapoor Khan has become the brand ambassador of the Swasth Immunised India campaign to spread awareness among parents about child vaccination to help prevent the future generation from life-threatening diseases. The nation-wide vaccination and immunisation campaign has been launched by Serum Institute of India (SII) in association with Network18. The primary aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about the importance and benefits of vaccine administration, advocating its acceptance and building a strong immunization outreach in the country. Working alongside the government, the campaign will strive to reach full immunization coverage through continuous education and awareness.

Notes:
Indian Hockey Captain Manpreet Singh has been honoured with the 2018 Player of the Year award by the Asian Hockey Federation while women’s team striker Lalremsiami bagged the Rising Player of The Year prize. Manpreet led the Indian team to an unbeaten streak at the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat where the team was declared joint winners with Pakistan. He also contributed to the team’s silver medal win at the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda and continues to remain instrumental in the Indian midfield. The 18-year-old Lalremsiami put up an impressive performance as a striker at the 2018 World Cup. She was also a part of the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires where the under-18 team won a silver medal. The Indian men’s team was awarded the 2018 Best Performance of The Year for being the only Asian side to have reached the top eight at the World Cup in Bhubaneswar.

Notes:
The Odisha government has launched a boat ambulance service to ferry patients to hospitals in remote areas. The service includes six boat ambulances and 60 jetties with walkway. The operational cost of the ambulances is estimated to be around Rs 90 lakh per annum. This new facility is hope for residents who live in far-flung areas and river-locked pockets of the state. The floating ambulances will cater to the needs of people in areas where the ‘108’ ambulance service has failed to make headway, due to lack of proper road route. The first boat ambulance was launched at Batighar in the Kendrapara district. The total project cost Rs 5.40 crore.

Notes:
In Chess, Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta lifted the 2019 Cannes International Open trophy with 7.5 points. He took an easy draw with Pier Luigi Basso of Italy in the ninth and final round. It was a clear point lead over nearest rivals Nikita Maiorov of Belarus, Nasuta Grzegorz of Poland and Yuri Solodovnichecko of Ukraine.

Notes:
The landlocked & war-torn nation, Afghanistan has recently launched new export route to India through the strategic Chabahar Port of Iran to boost regional connectivity. According to officials, the first shipment of 57 tonnes consists of dried fruits, textiles, carpets and mineral products in 23 trucks products were dispatched from western Afghan city of Zaranj to Chabahar port. The consignment will be shipped to the Indian city of Mumbai. The Iranian port provides easy access to the sea to Afghanistan and India has helped developed this route to allow both countries to engage in trade bypassing Pakistan.

Notes:
India has been invited to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi, UAE on the 1st and 2nd March of 2019. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be the Guest of Honour and address the inaugural plenary of the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC at the invitation of UAE Foreign Minister. This is the first time that a leader of the non-Muslim country has been invited to the OIC conference. The move will boost relations with West Asian and Muslim-majority nations. New Delhi sees the invitation as a milestone in the comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE. It is also a welcome recognition of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India and of India’s contribution to the Islamic world.The official languages of the OIC are Arabic, English, and French.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh government has again declared Monkeys as vermin for the next one year in 11 districts’ 91 tehsils and sub-tehsils of state. Monkeys were declared as a vermin species because have been adversely affecting crops and causing harm to humans. Hence, this allows state forest authorities and people to carry out extermination (hunting/poaching) of monkeys on a large scale. Vermin are wild mammals and birds that are harmful to crops, farm animals or that carry disease. As per Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, States can send a list of wild animals to the Centre requesting it to declare them vermin for selective slaughter. The Central Government may by notification, declare any wild animal other than those specified in Schedule I and part 11 of Schedule H of the law to be vermin for any area for a given period of time. As long as the notification is in force such wild animal shall be included in Schedule V of the law, depriving them of any protection under that law.

Notes:
Bengaluru-based Semiconductor Company “SignalChip” has launched India’s first indigenous semiconductor chips for 4G /LTE and 5G NR modems in New Delhi. The SCBM34XX and SCRF34XX/45XX series of chips, code-named ‘Agumbe’, are the result of over 8 years of relentless and deep R&D by Signalchip engineers. The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6GHz. These chips also support positioning using India’s own satellite navigation system, NAVIC. The Agumbe series builds up on SCRF1401: India’s first RF transceiver chip for high performance wireless standards like 3G/4G and WiFi, created by Signalchip in 2015. The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations. These are optimally designed to support evolving network architectures like Open RAN/CRAN with flexible interface configurations. Through the IPs created for this device, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields and is currently forging ahead with additional chipsets for advanced 5G NR features.

Notes:
The Afghanistan cricket team has created history by posting the highest-ever T20 international score at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on 23rd Feb 2019. They posted 278 runs from their 20 overs in the second T20I against Ireland.. Here, Afghan batsman Hazratullah Zazai scored the 2nd highest individual score (162 runs off 62 balls) in T20Is, behind Australian cricketer Aaron Finch’s 172. His innings also included a record 16 sixes and his first-wicket partnership with Usman Ghani was also a record for any wicket in a T20I, with 236 runs scored. With this feat, Afghanistan broke Australia’s record score of 263/3 which they achieved back in 2016 against Sri Lanka.