Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
At Aero India show 2019, Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has launched its new product “Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG)” to meet the ever-increasing need for drinking water worldwide. The AWG employs a novel technology to extract water from the humidity present in the atmosphere and purify it. It uses heat exchange for condensing the atmospheric moisture to produce pure, safe and clean potable water. The AWG comes with a Mineralisation Unit, which is used to add minerals which are required to make the water potable. The AWG is configurable in static and mobile (vehicular) versions and is available in 30 litres/day, 100 litres/day, 500 litres/day and 1,000 litres/day capacities. The Atmospheric Water Generator can be used to provide drinking water in community centres and public places like health care centres, schools, colleges, offices, railway stations, bus stands, airports, sea ports, off-shore oil rigs, military establishments, remote field areas and remote establishments and residential complexes. It is manufactured by BEL in collaboration with CSIR-IICT and MAITHRI, a start-up company based in Hyderabad.

Notes:
IIT-Madras has entered into an agreement with Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) to address public health issues and predict adverse pregnancy outcomes using technology. The aim of the pact is to bring physician-scientists, biologists, engineers and data scientists together to solve public health problems related to maternal and child health. The objective is to apply advanced analytical approach for prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes, evaluate maternal and childhood consequences of exposure to environmental pollutants, among others. The THSTI is an autonomous institute of Department of Biotechnology (DBT). DBT is a department under Ministry of Science and Technnology.

Notes:
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has formed a four-member committee to look into the matter of taxation related pain points and submit its final report and recommendations by mid-March 2019. Its recommendations could include applying a filter for tax officer before a notice is issued and setting a time limit for concluding an investigation. The committee is head by income tax commissioner Sanjeev Sharma.

Notes:
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been elected third time unopposed as the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The elections of the office bearers and executive committee members of WFI for the next four-year term (2019-2023) were held at the Constitution Club of India (CCI). Along with Brij Bhushan, I.D. Nanavati has been elected as the Senior Vice President, V.N. Prasood as the Secretary General and Satyapal Singh Deshwal as the Treasurer. Singh, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Kaiserganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh, was the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang.

Notes:
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), J P Nadda has inaugurated the 4th edition of Global Digital Health Partnership Summit in New Delhi on 25th February 2019. The global intergovernmental meeting on digital health is hosted by the MoHFW in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP). The GDHP is an international collaboration of governments, government agencies and multinational organisations dedicated to improving the health and well-being of their citizens through the best use of evidence-based digital technologies. The vision of the GDHP is to support governments and health system reformers to improve the health and well-being of their citizens through the best use of evidence-based digital technologies.

Notes:
The first-ever Skill Saathi Youth Conclave has inaugurated by Union Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Rail Auditorium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The program aims to create a mass movement around skill development in the state and inspire youth to make the most of various skill development opportunities in the country. The conclave was aired live across 427 locations in Odisha, where more than 2 lakh candidates were mobilized for career counseling under Skill Saathi initiative. The initiative provides information on vocational training programs under Skill India mission, conduct psychometric test and provide face-to-face counselling interventions to guide aspirants to make the right choice of based on their interest and aptitude.

Notes:
In Kerala, the International Advertising Association (IAA) hosted the 44th edition of IAA World Congress 2019 at the Grand Hyatt Lulu International Convention Centre in Kochi from February 20 to 22. The theme of the IAA World Congress was ‘Brand Dharma’ which enlightened the delegates about the basic principles a brand has to follow to connect with its customers and society at large. Around 2,000 delegates from India and abroad participated in the event. The New York-based IAA has a presence in 55 countries, and consists of advertisers, advertising agencies and the media. The World Congress is held every alternate year in various destinations around the world.

Notes:
On 27th Feb, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the National Youth Parliament Festival (NYPF-2019) awards to the winners at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The winners from the national level competition were Shweta Umre from Maharshtra (Ist Position), Anjanakshi M.S from Karnataka (IInd position) and Mamta Kumari from Bihar (IIIrd position). The 2019 fest was jointly organized by National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), under the aegis of Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. Youth in the age bracket of 18-25 years were invited to participate in the District, State and National level Youth Parliaments. The fest was based on the theme of ‘Be the Voice of New India’ and ‘Find solutions and Contribute to Policy’. It provided a chance to the youth to brainstorm about new India and to find ways and chalk out plans to realize our resolves before 2022.

Notes:
In Rajasthan, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has recently inaugurated the ‘Titanwala Museum’ in Bagru that showcases the Chhipa community’s hand-block printing. The museum will be open from Monday to Sunday between 9 am and 6 pm. The Bagru hand-block printing is one of the traditional techniques of printing with natural colour followed by the chippas of a remote place of Rajasthan. It uses vegetable dye colors such as indigo/dabu (a mixture of mud resist dabu and indigo dip dyeing techniques) and harda (which is a yellow base color). The art of block printing is a labor intensive process which requires lot of skillfulness, time and tolerance power of artisan. The wooden blocks of teak-wood are used for printing the design which are soaked in oil overnight and then washed before put to use. These collections of block are considered to be the wealth of Chhipa’s that they have collected over a period of time. The cloth to be printed is soaked in the solution of clay and other chemicals to make the fabric soften and then dried before used for printing. Neat stamping is foremost to get the appealing prints.After printing, cloth is left for drying in sun for final touch-up. Different types of motifs used in Bagru printing are Aath Kaliya, Chopad, and Kamal.

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.