Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
The National Book Trust (NBT) has appointed educationist and author Govind Prasad Sharma as its new Chairman. Born in 1939, Sharma has served as the Principal of Government P.G. College, Madhya Pradesh. Later, he was appointed as the Additional Director of Higher Education (Gwalior Chambal Division) and has also been the Director of Madhya Pradesh Hindi Granth Akademi. He is the author of more than six academic books and several research papers, and has edited a few collected works. NBT is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Higher Education of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). The activities of the Trust include publishing, promotion of books and reading, promotion of Indian books abroad, assistance to authors and publishers, and promotion of children’s literature.

Notes:
The 16th edition of BioAsia was held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre at Madhapur from February 25 to 27 2019. It is the annual flagship event of the Government of Telangana and is focused on healthcare being re-imagined as a result of technological disruption. Over 1,500 delegates from more than 50 countries participated in the Asia’s largest Biotechnology and Life-sciences forum, which was organized with the theme “Life Sciences 4.0 – Disrupt the Disruption”. In it, the Genome Valley Excellence Award 2019 was presented to Dr. Don W Cleveland of the University of California for his work in cancer genetics.

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:
The Union cabinet has recently approved a proposal for setting up the Centre for Disability Sports at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to benefit para-sports in the country. The centre will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 170.99 crore over a period of five years & will be registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The centre will have a Governing Body comprising a maximum of 12 members, some of them experts from “National Level Sports Federations apart from experts in para games”. The Section 30 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, requires the government to take measures to ensure “effective participation of Persons with Disabilities in sports activities which includes the provision of infrastructural facilities for sports activities for them”. The upcoming centre was proposed in the budget of 2014-15. At present, no specialized sports training facilities for Divyangjan are available in the Country. Hence, this void is proposed to be filled up by setting up sports infrastructure so that persons with disabilities (Divyangjan) can undergo rigorous and specialized training in this Centre.

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:
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:
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has recently ordered a ban on molasses in the state in the aftermath of the hooch tragedy in two districts – Golaghat and Jorhat – which claimed 158 lives. Molasses is an important component in making “sulai”, an intoxicating drink widely consumed in the tea garden areas of Assam.

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.

Notes:
The General Assembly of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has decided to include cricket in the sports programme in the 2022 edition of the Asian Games, which is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China. The last time cricket featured in the Asian Games was in the 2010 and 2014 edition but Team India opted out of the event on both the occasions citing hectic schedule. The 2010 and 2014 editions saw cricket being played in the twenty-20 format and that is likely to continue during the 2022 Asian Games in China.

Notes:
The World Wildlife Day (WWD) is observed every year on 3rd of March to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna & flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. The 2019 theme “Life Below Water: For people and planet” aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.