Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
The World Theatre Day (WTD) is observed every year on 27th of March to draw attention to the power of the stage. It also tells the importance of theater arts as it continues to move, entertain, teach and change us. The day was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI), the world organization for performing arts. The day is a celebration for those who can see the value and importance of the art form “theatre”, and acts as a wake-up-call for governments, politicians and institutions which have not yet recognized its value to the people and to the individual and have not yet realized its potential for economic growth.

Notes:
Mankading is a method of run out where a bowler dismisses a non-striker by hitting the bails before bowling when the latter is outside the crease. Though this is a legally permissible dismissal, it is considered against the spirit of the game. The method is named after legendary Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad. During India’s tour of Australia in 1947, Vinoo Mankad had dismissed Bill Brown, not once but twice by removing the bails when he was outside the crease. It is in news recently because Kings XI Punjab captain and bowler Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Jos Buttler in a run out popularly called ‘Mankading’ during a match against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in 2019 IPL. The Laws of Cricket 41.16 states that a “Non-striker leaving his/her ground early: If the non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play to the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the bowler is permitted to attempt to run him/her out. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one in the over.” The law also states that if the bowler fails in an attempt to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal Dead ball as soon as possible.

Notes:
Three researchers – Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun have won the 2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award for conceptual and engineering breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing. Bengio is Professor at the University of Montreal and Scientific Director at Mila, Quebec’s Artificial Intelligence Institute; Hinton is VP and Engineering Fellow of Google, Chief Scientific Adviser of The Vector Institute, and University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto; and LeCun is Professor at New York University and VP and Chief AI Scientist at Facebook. The ACM A.M. Turing Award is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing”. It is the premier international award for achievements in computing and includes a $1 million prize funded by Google Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing.

Notes:
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously passed the first-ever resolution ordering members to enforce laws against terror financing. The resolution demands all states to ensure that their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offenses to collect funds or financial resources to terrorist groups or individual criminals. It also calls on members to create financial intelligence units. Nations that fail to carry out the resolution would face U.N. sanctions. U.N. counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov said the resolution comes at a “critical time,” adding terrorists have gotten their hands on cash through both illegal and legal channels.

Notes:
Israeli researchers have discovered the world’s longest salt cave, called Malham. It stretches over 10 km, runs through Mount Sodom, Israel’s largest mountain. The cave is a network of twisting passageways at the southern tip of the Dead Sea. It is near the desert site where, according to the Bible, Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. The Malham cave is larger than the previous record-holding cave in Iran. Iran’s Cave of the Three Nudes (Namakdan) on Qeshm Island, which is about 6km in length, was identified as the longest salt cave after a study by Czech and Iranian scientists in 2006. Mount Sodom is named after a location mentioned in the Book of Genesis, describing how Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom.

Notes:
The 2nd Joint Logistics Node (JLN) of tri-services has recently become operational at Naval base in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The first JLN consisting of the three services was set up at Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2018.These centres will be used by the three services to procure rations, critical spares, and ammunition for basic weapons like rifles used by the Navy, Air Force and Army. The move aims to improve utilisation of resources, manpower and remove duplication. It has given the Indian defense forces a much-needed advantage against their adversaries, particularly those using the sea route from Pakistan. The JLN consists of three elements – the Joint Logistics Command & Control Centre (JLC&CC), which is the overall command organisation, the Tri-services Detachment at Material Organisation (TRIDAMO), which will meet logistical needs of the armed forces and the Triservices Advanced Detachment.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has set up a multi-disciplinary terror monitoring group (MDTMG) to ensure synergised and concerted action against terror financing and terror-related activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The MDTMG will have representatives from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Intelligence Bureau, CBI, NIA, and Income Tax Department. It will also identify and take action against hardcore sympathisers among government employees, including teachers, who are providing covert or overt support to terror activities. Besides, it will also investigate the network of various channels being used to fund terror and terror related activities and take coordinated action to stop flow of such funds. The ADGP CID of JK Police will head the MDTMG which will meet on a weekly basis and submit their action taken report regularly.

Notes:
Facebook Inc has recently banned praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism. This move has drawn a qualified approval from New Zealand where a massacre of 50 people in mosques was live streamed in March 2019. The social media giant also pledged to improve its ability to identify and block material from terrorist groups. The ban was a shift in Facebook’s policy after criticism by civil rights groups that it was failing to confront extremism. Now, Facebook users searching for offending terms will be directed to a charity which combats far-right extremism. White nationalism is a type of nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a race and seeks to develop and maintain a white national identity. On the other hand, White separatism is a separatist political and social movement that seeks the separation of white people from people of other races and ethnicities, the establishment of a white ethnostate by removing non-whites from existing communities or by forming new communities elsewhere.

Notes:
The International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members is observed every year on 25th of March by United Nations to mobilize action, demand justice and strengthen resolve to protect UN staff and peacekeepers, as well as colleagues in the non-governmental community and the press. The day commemorates the anniversary of the abduction of Alec Collett, a former journalist who was working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) when he was kidnapped by armed gunman in 1985. His body was finally found in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon in 2009.

Notes:
The book “Gandhi: The Writer” was authored by Bhabhani Bhattacharya, who wrote social-realist fiction. He is described as belonging to the social realism school of Indo-Anglian literature. His writings exhibit the influence of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Unlike other social realists like Premchand, Bhattacharya adopted a pedagogical approach to making novels out of ideas, utilizing satire and making his ideas more tangible through situational examples.