Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
Recently, National drug pricing regulator NPPA has fixed the retail prices of 36 formulations, including those used for treatment of cancer, diabetes, infections, asthma, seizures, inflammation and pain, among others. As per data available with NPPA, the MRP for 105 brands will be reduced up to 85% entailing minimum saving of Rs 105 crore to consumers. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) currently fixes prices of drugs placed in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) under Schedule-I of the DPCO. So far, around 1000 drugs have been brought under price control under the initiative. It also monitors annual price increase for these and the non-scheduled drugs. It also administers Pharma Sahi Dam and Pharma Jan Samadhan platforms for information on medicine prices and registering public grievances. The headquarters of NPPA is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the Chagos Islands (Diego Garcia) to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965. It has ruled that continued British occupation of the remote Indian Ocean archipelago is illegal. In a non-binding opinion issued on 25th Feb 2019, the ICJ ruling deals a humiliating blow to the legitimacy of Britain’s territorial claim over the Chagos islands, which they call the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The ruling is not legally binding. It must be noted that UK retained possession of the Chagos archipelago, which includes the strategic US airbase of Diego Garcia, after Mauritius gained its independence in 1968 & effectively paying Mauritius more than £4m for the islands. About 1,500 native islanders were deported so the largest island could be leased to the US for the airbase in 1971. They have never been allowed to return home.

Notes:
Eminent Indian playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar has been chosen for the 2019 META Lifetime Achievement Award. He will be conferred upon with the award on March 12, along with the winners of the 14th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) festival. Elkunchwar is critically-acclaimed and widely-known for having experimented with a wide range of drama and is considered a powerful force in both Indian and Marathi theatre scene. He has over 30 plays and essays to his credit including works like ‘Sultan’, ‘Holi’, ‘Garbo’, ‘Yatanaghar’, and ‘Atmakatha’. His 1985 play ‘Wada Chirebandi’ (Old Stone Mansion) has been staged in Marathi, Hindi and Bengali, besides being adapted for television.

Notes:
Tamil Nadu has become the first State in India to introduce Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) in the government sector to spread awareness on newer heart valve treatments without open surgery. TAVI was launched at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital (TNGMSSH), Omandurar Estate, in November 2018. With the help of TAVI, two persons have undergone the procedure free of cost. Conventionally, an open heart surgery is performed for replacing the aortic valve for treating aortic stenosis. But not all patients such as the elderly are fit to undergo open heart surgery. This is where TAVI helps as in this procedure the valve is replaced through a keyhole procedure from the groin. The procedure costs Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in the private sector, while it is done free in the government sector.

Notes:
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has recently announced a new railway zone of the Indian Railways, named as Southern Coast Railway (SCoR). This new 18th railway zone of the country will be headquartered at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The new zone will comprise the existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions that currently fall under the South Central Railway (SCR). The cost of creating infrastructure for a new zone is more than Rs. 205 crore. The Indian Railways’ operations are currently divided into 17 zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions, each having a divisional headquarter. There are a total of 73 divisions at present.

Notes:
The 7th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Intersessional Ministerial Meeting (7th RCEP ISSL MM) will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 2nd March 2019. The aim of the 16-member RCEP is to cover issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights. From India, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu will attend the meeting. The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 countries namely 10 countries of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners (also known as AFP’s or ASEAN FTA Partners) namely Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

Notes:
Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia has won a gold medal in 65 kilogram freestyle at the Dan Kolov-Nikol Petrov tournament in Ruse, Bulgaria. He beat American Jordan Oliver 12-3 in the final & also secured the maximum ranking points from the tournament. This was Punia’s 10th medal in as many international tournaments since the 2017 World Championships in Paris. Earlier, Pooja Dhanda claimed gold in women’s 59 kg while Sarita Mor won a silver in the same weight category. Sakshi Malik won silver in 65 kg women’s freestyle. In the men’s freestyle events, Sandeep Tomar claimed silver in 61kg.

Notes:
Macky Sall has been re-elected for a second term as President of Senegal with a 58% majority in the first round voting in February 2019 Senegalese presidential election. The President of Senegal is elected using the two-round system; a candidate must receive over 50% of the vote to be elected in the first round. If no candidate crosses the threshold, a second round will be held with the top two candidates. According to the 2001 Constitution of Senegal, the president is elected for a 5-year term.

Notes:
The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) has been honoured with the coveted SKOCH award for 2018 for its remarkable achievements in the field of disaster management at the 56th SKOTCH Summit at New Delhi on February 25, 2019. The Skoch award covers the best efforts in the areas of finance, governance, banking, disaster management, technology, economics and inclusive growth. The OSDMA received an Order-of-merit in the Gold category for constructing 879 multipurpose cyclone and flood shelters that played a key role in saving human lives during Cyclone Phailin in 2013. It also bagged an ‘Order-of-merit’ in the silver category for constructing disaster resilient houses for about 17,000 Phailin affected families by relocating them to safer places. The ‘Order-of-merit’ Bronze was given to the OSDMA for its Early Warning Dissemination System for different hydro-meteorological disasters across the coastline of Odisha which will benefit 1,205 villages in 22 blocks of six coastal districts.

Notes:
India’s aerospace scientist and Chief of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr. G Satheesh Reddy has been conferred the Missile Systems Award 2019 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Satheesh is the first Indian to win the award, which recognises his leadership role in the Indian missile programme. He will share the prize with Rondell J. Wilson, a former Principal Engineering Fellow of Raytheon Missile Systems. Dr. Reddy, who is Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, is considered the architect of advanced missile technologies and smart guided weapons technologies in India. As Project Director, he led the design and development of the India’s first 1,000 kg class guided bomb which has enhanced precision strike capabilities. AIAA is the world’s largest and reputed aerospace technical society.