Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
The Plan Bee initiative of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has won the Best Innovation Award in Indian Railways for the 2018-19 fiscal. The initiative helps in preventing trains from hitting elephants crossing tracks. The Plan Bee is an amplifying system imitating the buzz of a swarm of honey bees to keep wild elephants away from railway tracks. The unique initiative is helpful in diverting herds of elephants, especially when trains approach and dashing becomes imminent. The first prize comprises a citation along with a cash award of Rs 3 lakh.

Notes:
TCS iON, a unit of IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has partnered with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to provide students with a digital learning course to equip them with career skills. TCS iON has curated a free, 20 hour-career skills course that will cover topics like corporate etiquette, effective e-mail writing, impactful presentations and IT awareness that will be available to students throughout the duration of their degree course. The course will be available for students of more than 10,000 AICTE approved institutions. It can be accessed on TCS iON Digital Learning Hub through any device. The unique course provided by TCS iON will help improve placement opportunities for AICTE institutions & will initiate a strong start to the professional careers of the students. AICTE is the national-level apex advisory and regulatory body for technical education.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has conducted the quarterly Residential Asset Price Monitoring Survey (RAPMS) on housing loans disbursed by select banks / Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) across 13 cities. The report indicated that housing affordability has worsened over the past 4 years as the House Price to Income (HPTI) ratio increased from 56.1 in March 2015 to 61.5 in March 2019. The HPTI ratio reflects affordability. Mumbai (with a HPTI of 74.4) remains the least affordable city in India. While Bhubaneswar (54.3) remains the most affordable city for home buying with a price-to-income ratio of 54.3 in the March quarter compared to 47.2 in March 2015. The concept of price-to-income ratio is used by lenders to measure affordability of residential property, essentially as a measure of purchasing power for home buyers.

Notes:
The researchers in the United States (US) have found that Electronic Cigarettes (ECs) produce a stress response in brain stem cells. They identified the mechanism underlying EC-induced stem cell toxicity as “Stress-Induced Mitochondrial Hyper-fusion (SIMH) using cultured mouse neural stem cells. The study showed that exposure of stem cells to e-liquids, aerosols, or nicotine produces a response that leads to SIMH. Stem cells are present throughout life & become specialized cells with more specific functions, such as brain cells, blood cells, or bone. ECs are nicotine-delivery devices that aerosolize nicotine and flavour chemicals through heating. The high levels of nicotine in ECs lead to a nicotine flooding of special receptors in the neural stem cell membrane. If the nicotine stress persists, SIMH collapses, the neural stem cells get damaged and could eventually die. If that happens, no more specialised cells, astrocytes and neurons, for example, can be produced from stem cells. Then, damaged stem cell mitochondria could accelerate aging and lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Nicotine exposure during prenatal or adolescent development can affect the brain in multiple ways that may impair memory, learning, and cognition

Notes:
Pardeep Singh from Punjab has created a new Commonwealth record in the clean and jerk category on the way to gold in the 109kg category by lifting 202 kgs at the 2019 Commonwealth Championships (CWC) in Apia (Samoa). Two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Vikas Thakur clinched the silver in the men’s 96 kg event. Vikas lifted a total of 338 kg (153kg185kg). India ended their campaign with a rich tally of 35 medals in the youth, junior and senior categories, breaking numerous national, Commonwealth, world and Asian records.

Notes:
The West Bengal government has observed the first-ever Save Water Day on 12th July 2019 across the state to spread the message of water conservation. From now onwards, the day will be observed in the state every year to create awareness among people to check misuse of water. The state government also organized the Padayatra in Kolkata to save the natural resource as water scarcity has become a major issue in the world.

Notes:
Well-known breast surgeon and Padma Shri awardee, Dr. P Raghu Ram has been conferred the Honorary Fellowship of The Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) of Thailand in recognition of his bold vision coupled with an intense body of work that has paved the way for improving breast healthcare in India. It is the highest recognition bestowed by the institute. He received the honour at the 44th Annual Scientific Congress of the Royal College in Pattaya. With this, Dr. Ram achieved the rare distinction of having been conferred FRCS from five Surgical Royal Colleges (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ireland and Thailand) as well as FACS from the American College of Surgeons. He is also the president-elect of the Association of Surgeons of India.

Notes:
In Tennis, Simona Halep defeated Serena Williams in the final by 6–2, 6–2 to win the Ladies’ Singles tennis title at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. Halep became the first Romanian female player to reach and win the Wimbledon final. At 37 years 291 days, Williams is the oldest Grand Slam women’s singles finalist to compete since the start of the Open Era in 1968. This was the first Wimbledon where a final set tie break rule was introduced. Upon reaching 12–12 in the third set, a classic tie break would be played. No women’s singles match required the use of the final set tie break.

Notes:
The Union Environment Ministry has selected 12 beaches in India to vie for a ‘Blue Flag’ certification. These beaches are at Shivrajpur (Gujarat), Bhogave (Maharashtra), Ghoghla (Diu), Miramar (Goa), Kasarkod and Padubidri (Karnataka), Kappad (Kerala), Eden (Puducherry), Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu), Rushikonda (Andhra Pradesh), Golden (Odisha), and Radhanagar (Andaman & Nicobar Islands). The Blue Flag certification is an international recognition conferred on beaches that meet certain criteria of cleanliness and environmental propriety. The Blue Flag Programme for beaches and marinas is run by a Denmark-based organization – Federation of Environment Education (FEE).There are nearly 33 criteria that must be met to qualify for a Blue Flag certification, such as the water meeting certain quality standards, having waste disposal facilities, being disabled- friendly, have first aid equipment, and no access to pets in the main areas of the beach. Some criteria are voluntary and some compulsory.

Notes:
The World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) is observed every year on 15th of July to generate awareness and discussion about skill development for the youths to have a better livelihood. The 2019 theme is “Learning to learn for life and work”. This year, the world’s leading short video platform ‘TikTok’ and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) have collaborated to support Skill Development in India and to celebrate World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) 2019. The partnership aims to leverage TikTok’s 200 million user community to build awareness around NSDC’s mission to educate India’s youth. The aim of NSDC is to promote skill development by catalysing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions.