Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has constituted a 5-member committee to examine the issues related to framing of a proper, structured scheme for providing insurance cover to advocates and suggest modalities for its implementation. The committee, under the chairmanship of Legal Affairs Secretary Alok Srivastava, will recommend a comprehensive insurance scheme for the welfare of advocates all over the country to address concerns relating to untimely death and medical insurance. The committee will submit its reports within 3 months.

Notes:
Subhash Chandra Garg , a 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, has been designated as the new Finance Secretary (FS) of India. He is also the current Union Economic Affairs Secretary. He succeeded Ajay Narayan Jha. As per the convention, the senior-most among the five secretaries in the Finance Ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary. Here, Ajay Bhushan Pandey is the Revenue Secretary, Rajiv Kumar is Secretary in Department of Financial Services, Atanu Chakraborty is Secretary in Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and Girish Chandra Murmu is the Expenditure Secretary. Pandey and Kumar are 1984 batch IAS officers of Maharshtra and Jharkhand cadre respectively. Chakraborty and Murmu are 1985 batch IAS officers of Gujarat cadre.

Notes:
To reduce casualties in Pulwama type attacks & warefare, the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) has developed a range of ‘combat casualty drugs’ that can extend the golden hour till the trooper is shifted to hospital. INMAS is a medical laboratory of DRDO. The spectrum includes bleeding wound sealants, super absorptive dressings, and glycerated salines, all of which can save lives in the event of warfare in a jungle and high altitude areas as well as in terror attacks. According to developers of the drugs, chances of survival and minimum disability are highest when effective first aid care is given within the golden hour. Among the drugs developed is glycerated saline, a battlefield intravenous fluid that does not freeze till -18 degrees Celsius and is useful in handling trauma cases in high altitude areas. Glycerated saline has life saving capacities as it gives more time to the medical personnel to shift the wounded patient to a higher care facility. INMAS has also developed a special medicated dressing material which is 200 times more absorptive than normal dressings during bleeding wounds. They have also developed a chitosan gel which helps in preventing blood loss by forming a film over the wound.

Notes:
The 5th edition of the SAFF Women’s Championship 2019 has started in Biratnagar, Nepal on March 12. Defending champion India has been drawn in Group B in the six-team competition alongside Maldives and Sri Lanka, while host Nepal has been kept in Group A with Bangladesh and Bhutan. The opening match was played between Nepal and Bhutan. Unbeaten in 19 matches from the last four editions, India will take on Maldives on March 13. Indian coach Maymol Rocky has expressed confidence in her side. The tournament will be last opportunity for Indian coach Maymol Rocky to fine tune her team for the crucial 2020 Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, which is scheduled to be held in Myanmar from April 1-9.

Notes:
In USA, the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an imaging system which could be deployed to find tiny tumours, as small as a couple of hundred cells, deep within the body. They used their imaging system, named “DOLPHIN,” which relies on near-infrared light, to track a 0.1-millimetre fluorescent probe through the digestive tract of a living mouse. They also showed that they can detect a signal to a tissue depth of eight centimeters, far deeper than any existing biomedical optical imaging technique. The researchers hope to adapt their imaging technology for early diagnosis of ovarian and other cancers that are currently difficult to detect until late stages. According to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, existing methods for imaging tumours all have limitations that prevent them from being useful for early cancer diagnosis.

Notes:
In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD-2019) and its 60th anniversary, American toymaker Mattel has released a new range of barbies to honor 20 female role models across 18 countries speaking 14 different languages. Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar has been selected as a Barbie Role Model to help inspire the next generation of girls. She is the first Indian woman to win a Commonwealth Games gymnastics medal. Others honoured in the latest dolls include Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka of Japan, German double Olympic gold medallist cyclist Kristina Vogel, Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira, Mexican mountaineer, writer and lecturer Karla Wheelock and British activist & supermodel Adwoa Aboah. Mattel has been slowly trying to bring more diversity into their line to present the true representation of real-life women instead of one single standard.

Notes:
Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has been honoured with the ‘Yashwantrao Chavan National Award 2018’ for his contribution to economic development. He was presented the award at a function on 12th March 2016 on the occasion of the 106th birth anniversary of Yashwantrao Chavan, who was the first chief minister of Maharashtra. The award is given every year by the Yashwantrao Chavan Prathisthan to individuals and institutions in recognition of their outstanding contribution to national integration, and social and economic development, among others.

Notes:
Jammu-born film director and novelist Ved Rahi has been selected for prestigious ‘Kusumagraj’ national award for literature. The award is instituted by the city-based Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) and carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and a citation. It is named after Jnanpith-laureate Marathi poet and playwright late VV Shirwadkar, popularly known as ‘Kusumagraj’. Born in Jammu in 1933, Rahi has penned seven novels in Dogri. He was given the Sahitya Akademi award for his Dogri novel, ‘Aale’ in 1983. Rahi also made the film ‘Veer Savarkar’ (2001), a biopic on the life of revolutionary Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. He was director of the 1991 Doordarshan television serial, ‘Gul Gulshan Gulfaam’. Rahi has written dialogues for several Bollywood movies, including ‘Bezuban’, ‘Charas’ and ‘Mom ki Gudiya’.

Notes:
As per the latest report by the World Gold Council (WGC), India has the 11th largest gold reserve with the current holding pegged at 607 tonnes. However, India is the world’s largest consumer of gold. The top slot is occupied by the U.S., which boasts of gold reserves of 8,133.5 tonnes, followed by Germany with 3,369.7 tonnes. Italy and France complete the top five lists with reserves of a little over 2,400 tonnes each. India’s overall position in terms of total gold holding would have been tenth had the list included only countries. Whereas, International Monetary Fund (IMF) is included and is third on the list with total gold reserves of 2,814 tonnes. Pakistan, with its gold reserves of 64.6 tonnes, occupies the 45th position. The WGC is market development organization for the gold industry. It is headquartered in London, United Kingdom (UK).

Notes:
The 4th edition of the Internet of Things (IoT) India Congress 2019 will be held in Bengaluru on August 22-23, 2019. The event will see digital technology leaders converge to discuss and explore business opportunities in mainstreaming IoT. It will include tracks on segments such as healthcare, manufacturing, telecom, smart cities, energy, retail, cyber security, skills and development, IoT Standards, legal and regulatory, and agriculture. The two-day Congress will host live zones and hackathons where people can touch, feel and experience IoT and solve sector-specific challenges.