Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
Indian middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu from Andhra Pradesh retired from all forms of cricket on July 3, 2019. He did not specify reasons for calling it quits. He was in India’s official standbys list for the on-going World Cup but was omitted twice. Rayudu played 55 ODIs for India, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05. However, he did not play any Test.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has launched a toll-free Chief Minister helpline No. 1076 that will enable people from across the state to register their complaints and will ensure a time-bound action on the complaints also. The CM helpline number 1076 will work 24×7 and anyone from any part of the state can call on this number anytime. The 500-seater call centre has been established for the helpline and it has the capacity to handle 80,000 inbound and 55,000 outbound calls on a daily basis. When the complainant calls the helpline, he/she will get an SMS informing that the complaint has been sent to the department concerned.

Notes:
The world’s largest “Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute” has started functioning in Dhaka from 4th July 2019. The 500-bed hospital with 50 ICU and 12 operation theatres will provide advanced treatment to burn patients in Bangladesh. The institute has been built at a cost of over 500 crore Taka.

Notes:
The book titled ‘Whispers of Time’ has been authored by Dr Krishna Saksena. The story witnesses three generations in the author’s long life of 90 years in which she found a great difference. If the first was too strict and severe in clinging hard to traditions, the second had softened down to new values of love and helpfulness. In a way it was a beautiful world of togetherness. But this world soon dwindles into a world of selfishness and deceit. The series of events are developed in a powerful manner that makes the novel both real and revealing. The book has recently unveiled by Smriti Zubin Irani, the Union Minister of Textiles & Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD), at India International Centre (IIC) in New Delhi.

Notes:
After 18 years of research, the scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia and a team of Indian researchers have identified a new gene – called NAPRT1 – directly linked to schizophrenia. Using DNA from thousands of people in India, the team has found clues in the quest for the causes of schizophrenia, and for potential treatments. This study identified a gene that encodes an enzyme involved in vitamin B3 metabolism — we were also able to find this gene in a large genomic dataset of schizophrenia patients with European ancestry. The team of Indian researchers was led by R. Thara, co-founder and director of the Chennai-based Schizophrenia Research Foundation. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves. People with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality.

Notes:
In India, the National Doctor’s Day (NDD) is observed every year on 1st of July to raise awareness about the importance of doctors and the crucial role they play in our day to day lives. The day aims at making the effort for helping medical professionals come closer and take their responsibilities more seriously and delicately. The day is also marked to honour the legendary physician and the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. Dr Roy was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter. He is often considered the great architect of West Bengal, who founded five eminent cities, Durgapur, Kalyani, Bidhannagar, Ashokenagar, and Habra. The 2019 theme is “Zero tolerance to violence against doctors and clinical establishment”.

Notes:
In Maharashtra, the state government has decided to inter-link rivers to solve the crisis of drought. For Mumbai, the best option is the Damnganga-Pinjal river inter-linking project that will fulfill Mumbai’s water needs till 2060. The project proposes to divert excess water from reservoirs in the Damanganga basin to Mumbai through the Pinjal dam, built on the Pinjal river in Vaitarna basin.

Notes:
Afghanistan Wicket-keeper batsman, Ikram Alikhil has achieved a rare feat as he broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of the highest score by a teenager in the World Cup. He scored 86 off 92 balls in Afghanistan’s final league fixture against West Indies in Leeds on 4th July 2019. The record was previously held by Tendulkar who scored 84 against in the 1992 World Cup at the age of 18 years and 318 days.

Notes:
Lucrezia Terzi, a researcher at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCKCEN), has come up with a new way of predicting the monsoon at a science and technology conference organised in Vienna by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). The new method measures how much Beryllium-7 (an isotope of the element Beryllium) is present in the air. The Be-7 is chosen because it is created only in the stratosphere, when cosmic rays hit and break the nuclei of nitrogen and oxygen. Due to the sun warming the oceans differently at different latitudes, and the spin of the earth, water-bearing air moves up and down in circular fashions, which is the basic cause of the monsoons. When air flows down from the stratosphere (upwards of 33,000 feet from the earth’s surface), it brings with it some Be-7. That makes the strong connection between the amount of Be-7 and the timing of monsoons.

Notes:
As per the Finance Bill 2019, a new section — 15HAA — has been inserted in the SEBI Act to act against entities that tamper or destroy electronic databases or fail to furnish information when sought by the capital markets regulator. Now, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) can impose penalties of up to Rs 1 crore on brokers for certain violations. These new powers assume significance as the regulator is in the midst of probing the leak of sensitive data through WhatsApp and also recently passed fresh orders on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) co-location matter, which had been challenged at the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).