Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
President Donald Trump has recently signed an executive order ‘Space Policy Directive-4 (SPD-4)’ to establish its Space Force as a new military service within the Department of Air Force. The main goal of the Space Force is to secure and extend American dominance of the space domain. As per the order, the Space Force would be an armed branch of the military and include both combat and combat support functions to enable prompt and sustained offensive and defensive space operations in all domains. The force will be organized, trained, and equipped to meet and protect the US national interests in the space, consistent with international laws. Currently, the Air Force is the US military branch that currently has responsibility for space.

Notes:
The 12th edition of the country’s biennial air show and aviation exhibition – Aero India 2019 – has been launched by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the Air Force Station Yelahanka in Bengaluru on 20th Feb. The chiefs of the three Armed Forces — Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, Admiral Sunil Lanba and General Bipin Rawat — were in attendance at the show organised by the Ministry of Defence. The 5-day aero show is themed ‘The Runway to a Billion Opportunities’, to communicate India’s value proposition in addressing the immense opportunities in the aerospace and aviation sectors in the country today. This year, there are 403 registered exhibitors, of which 238 are Indian companies and 165 foreign companies. Around 60 aircraft are on display, including Rafale jet, Boeing planes, Airbus A330, Super Hercules and HAL’S Light weight helipcopter. The logo for Aero India 2019 is inspired by the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Notes:
The 16th meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers would be held at the Chinese city of Wuzhen in the eastern Zhejiang province on February 27. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will participate in the meeting together with the host Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Ministers are expected to exchange views on the global situation, regional developments of common concern, address global challenges such as terrorism and discuss trilateral exchanges and activities. The meeting assumes significance as it will be the first high-level interaction between India and China after the Pulwama terror attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed on February 14. China has expressed shock over the incident, but reiterated its stand to block moves to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee. The last RIC Foreign Ministerial Meeting had been held in New Delhi on 11 December in 2017.

Notes:
The Supreme Court has appointed former apex court judge Justice DK Jain as the first court-appointed ombudsman for the BCCI under the terms of newly approved constitution of the cricket board. The role of the ombudsman would be to resolve the disputes relating to the players within the state cricket associations as also financial issues. The ombudsman will have to hold hearings at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai. It must be noted that Article 40, chapter nine of the BCCI constitution deals with the issue of appointment of ombudsman for the purpose of providing an independent dispute resolution mechanism. The types of disputes that come under the ambit of ombudsman pertain to members, associations and IPL franchisee.

Notes:
Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has recently launched the Integrated Large Scale Eri Farming under North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. It’s the centrally funded Scheme for Eri silk Farming that will initially cover five districts of the state, which are: Papumpare, East Kameng, Siang, East Siang and West Siang. The skill training will be imparted to eri silk farmers and weavers under the Samarth Scheme. Beside this, Government of India (GoI) will also provide financial assistance to 4000 beneficiaries under NERTPS. The purpose of the Samarth (Scheme For Capacity Building In Textile Sector) scheme is to skill the youth for gainful and sustainable employment in the textile sector.

Notes:
Kodi Ramakrishna (69), the veteran Telugu film director, has passed away in Hyderabad on Feb 22. Born at Palakollu in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, Ramakrishna made his debut in 1992 with romantic comedy ‘Intlo Ramaiah- Veedhilo Krishnaiah’ starring Chiranjeevi. He was known for championing the use of visual effects (VFX) to enhance cinematic experience in Telugu cinema. His films like ‘Ammoru’ and ‘Arundhati’ were praised for their VFX work. Some of his other popular films include Gudachari No 1, Muddula Krishnaiah, Pelli Pelli Pandiri and Rikshavodu. In 2016, Ramakrishna also commenced work on a biopic on Sathya Sai Baba, and it features Malayalam actor Sreejith Vijay in the titular role. The project still remains incomplete.

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:
An Iranian naval force has started a massive three-day drill, codenamed “Velayat 97”, across two million square kilometers of sea between the Straits of Hormuz and the Indian Ocean, including a sensitive global shipping route. The drill will showcase Iran’s submarines, warships, helicopters and drones. It is being held from the Strait of Hormuz to the southeastern coasts of Makran, the Sea of Oman and the northern parts of the Indian Ocean, down to the 10-degrees latitude. The naval exercise comes at a time of tensions with the US, after Washington condemned Iran at the summit in Warsaw. In addition Iran has upped tensions with Saudi Arabia after a terror attack in southeastern Iran, which Tehran blamed partly on Riyadh. Iran has also recently condemned the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the US. Sending its navy to the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint for the world’s oil, is provocative. The Strait of Hormuz is an international transit route where American forces routinely pass and which has seen tense encounters between them and Iranian forces in the past.

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:
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.