Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been named 2019 laureate of the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award. He is the 46th recipient of the Pritzker Prize, and the 8th Japanese architect to receive the honour. The prize will be presented at a ceremony at the Palace of Versailles in May 2019, with a public lecture in Paris. Isozaki is credited with bringing together the East and West in his innovative designs. He is regarded as Japan’s most influential postwar architect and is known for his visionary ideas including an inflatable concert hall. His first international commission was the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, which he worked on from 1981 through 1986. Isozaki said that he was inspired by the red sandstone buildings of India. Among Isozaki’s works are the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona for the 1992 Olympics, the Shenzen Cultural Center in China and the Allianz Tower in Milan. His buildings are also found all over Japan, including museums and community centers in Kyushu, Osaka and Tokyo.

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The 34th edition of Aahar 2019 – the International Food and Hospitality Fair has started in New Delhi on March 12. The 5-day fair, organized by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), features wide range of food products, machinery, food and beverages equipment, hospitality and decor solutions, confectionery items from over 560 participants from India and foreign countries. The foreign participants in the fair are from countries including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Spain, USA and UK among others.

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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:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently launched new Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 aimed at protecting people in all countries from the threat of influenza. The strategy will provide a framework for WHO alongside countries and other partners to work to prevent seasonal influenza, control the spread of the infection from animals to humans and prepare for the next pandemic. A global influenza pandemic was listed as one of the WHO’s top ten threats to global health in 2019. Influenza is one of the world’s greatest public health challenges.Every year across the globe, there are an estimated 1 billion cases, of which 3 to 5 million are severe cases, resulting in 290 000 to 650 000 influenza-related respiratory deaths. WHO recommends annual influenza vaccination as the most effective way to prevent influenza.

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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.

Notes:
Erode turmeric (of Tamil Nadu) has finally got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag on 6th March 2019, which will help the farmers and traders from the region to claim sole rights over the famed ‘Erode Manjal’. The Geographical Indication Registry of India granted the coveted status based on the application filed by ‘Erode Manjal Vanigarkal Matrum Kidangu Urimaiyalargal Sangam’. The GI tag is granted to products that are special for a particular geographical area and prevents misuse of the popularity of the products by others. ‘Erode Manjal’ is famous across the globe. The cultivar is called Erode local, i.e., Chinnanadan. Erode turmeric is a rhizome, both finger and bulb obtained from the Erode local cultivar. The crop is grown in hot moist conditions prevalent in the area with temperature ranging from 20 degrees to 37.9 degrees Celsius with an average of 600 to 800 mm rainfall in a year. The turmeric thrives best on the loamy or alluvial soils. Quality parameters of the turmeric included 2.5 to 4.5% of curcumin content, a golden yellow colour and resistance to pests after boiling.

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The Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) of the Delhi government has constituted a 17-member high-level committee to reform higher education in the capital. The committee, chaired by DDC vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah, will recommend goals, metrics, policies, and actionable plans for reforming Delhi’s higher education system within a year. The DDC is the premier think-tank which advises the state government on key policy issues. Nalanda 2.0, a non-profit policy think tank with a “mission to making India’s higher education system world class”, is collaborating with the DDC as the knowledge partner in the initiative.

Notes:
M R Kumar has been appointed the new Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and will hold the post for a period of five years. Prior to this post, he was Zonal Manager (in-charge) of North Zone. LIC is the largest insurance company in India headquartered in Mumbai. It was founded in 1956 when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act that nationalised the private insurance industry in India. Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged to create the state owned Life Insurance Corporation.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to inject rupee liquidity into the system through long-term foreign exchange buy/sell swap — a first-of-its-kind instrument used for liquidity management. The RBI would conduct dollar-rupee buy/sell swap auction of $5 billion for tenor of 3 years on March 26 to inject rupee liquidity for longer duration. Under the buy/sell foreign exchange swap, a bank will sell US dollars to the RBI and simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. The liquidity generated due to the buy/sell USD/INR swap auction could support credit growth and soften bond yields. The move is seen to lower the dependence on open market operations which have been a significant amount of the overall borrowing. According to RBI, the market participants would be required to place their bids in terms of the premium that they are willing to pay to the Reserve Bank for the tenor of the swap, expressed in paisa terms up to two decimal places. The auction cut-off would be based on the premium. The auction would be a multiple-price based auction — successful bids will get accepted at their respective quoted premium.

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Astronomers from Japan, Taiwan, and Princeton University have discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the distant universe, which were formed when the universe was only 5% of its current age. These quasars are lying 13 billion light-years away from the Earth. The team used data taken with ‘Hyper Suprime-Cam’ (HSC) instrument, mounted on the Subaru Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, which is located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. This finding, published in The Astrophysical Journal, increases the number of black holes known at that epoch considerably, and reveals, for the first time, how common they are early in the universe’s history. It also provides new insight into the effect of black holes on the physical state of gas in the early universe in its first billion years. Supermassive black holes, found at the centers of galaxies, can be millions or even billions of times more massive than the Sun. While they are prevalent today, it is unclear when they first formed, and how many existed in the distant early universe. A supermassive black hole becomes visible when gas accretes onto it, causing it to shine as a quasar.