Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
On 27th March, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted its first-ever Anti-Satellite (A-SAT) missile test ‘Mission Shakti’ from the Dr AP J Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha. A DRDO-developed Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Interceptor Missile has successfully shot down a live satellite on a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is 300km from the earth, within three minutes. Hence, Mission Shakti is an important step towards securing India’s safety, economic growth and technological advancement. With this feat, India has joined elite group of four along with US, Russia & China. A-SATs are space weapons designed to disable or destroy satellites for strategic military purposes. Most military satellites orbit up to 2,000 km above the earth’s surface on LEO. However, no country has used A-SAT system in warfare till now. Several nations have shot down their own (defunct) satellites to demonstrate their ASAT capabilities in a show of force.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT-Delhi have designed an “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based low-power electronic hardware system” to easily detect Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB), Intestinal parasite, and Cervical cancer in a few milliseconds. The research is focused on building an intelligent Neuromorphic system which can be used for healthcare access in resource-constrained areas with limited access to human specialists. The approach demonstrated by the researchers is portable, low-power and can classify with high accuracy in detection of the diseases.The long-term impact and goal of this work will be to enable potential future deployment of the platform in rural and resource-constrained areas and improve the access to diagnostic health-care. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), cervical cancer is the 4th most frequent cancer in women with an estimated 570,000 new cases in 2018 representing 6.6% of all female cancers.

Notes:
In the wake of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Facebook has launched two new India-specific -tools to boost civic engagement on its platform — Candidate Connect and Share You Voted. The first feature ‘Candidate Connect’ allows people to see short 20 second videos uploaded by candidates and cross compare them with what other candidates have to say on the same pre-selected topic in 12 Indian languages. While, the “Share You Voted” will provide people with polling information and enable them to announce and celebrate their vote. Facebook has also set up 24×7 response team for elections for monitoring and tracking of objectionable content in real time round the clock. The election response team will be based in Singapore and will work closely with the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Notes:
Justice (Retd.) DK Jain, who is the newly appointed ombudsman for the BCCI, will also be its ad-hoc Ethics Officer. The mandate of the Ethics Officer is to look into matters of conflict of interest involving players, coaches and officials. Justice Jain is already looking into Hardik Pandya-KL Rahul chat show controversy due to which the duo served provisional suspension. The Rule 39(1) of the new BCCI Constitution states: “The BCCI shall appoint an Ethics Officer at the Annual General Meeting for the purpose of guidance and resolution in instances of conflict of interest. The Ethics Officer shall be a retired Judge of a High Court so appointed by the BCCI after obtaining his/her consent and on terms as determined by the BCCI in keeping with the dignity and stature of the office. The term of an Ethics Officer shall be one year, subject to a maximum of 3 terms in office.

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:
Prafulla Rajguru (82), the veteran journalist and academician, has passed away in Jorhat, Assam on March 28, 2019. Rajguru had retired as the head of the department of English from DCB Girls College in Jorhat in 1997 and after his retirement he joined leading Assamese daily ‘Amar Asom’ as executive editor of the Jorhat edition where he served till 2000.Rajguru authored four books and was a member of several social organisations like the Asom Sahitya Sabha. He was also the founder president of Jorhat Press Club and was its adviser till his death.

Notes:
To promote innovation in FinTech space, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to set up a Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech Startups. The central bank will issue guidelines within two months for fintech companies to test their new products on a small group of users before scaling up. The sandbox will enable fintech companies to conduct live or virtual testing of their new products and services. It will also benefit fintech companies by way of reduced time to launch innovative products at a lower cost. These companies will also be able to test the viability of the product without a wider and expensive rollout. A regulatory sandbox is a framework set up by a regulator that allows FinTech startups to conduct live experiments in a controlled environment under supervision. Fintech (or financial technology) companies use technology to provide financial services such as payments, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, among others.

Notes:
Vijayawada Railway Station has received Gold Rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for Green Measures. The station boasts of 100% LED lighting, five star rated fans, pumps and motors and solar water heating systems. It is one of the busiest railway junctions in the country. IGBC with the help of Environment Directorate of Indian Railways has come up with a system called Green Railway Stations Rating System (GRSRS) where railway stations will be encouraged to adopt more eco-friendly ways. The aim is to reduce the adverse effects to the environment because of the operation of the railways, and also to make the experience of the journey better for the passengers. The rating system helps to address national priorities like water conservation, handling of waste, energy efficiency, reduced used of fossil fuel, lesser dependence on usage of virgin materials and health and well being of occupants.

Notes:
In a bid to strengthen Indo-French ties, India has been designated as the Guest of Honour at Paris Livre (Paris Book Fair) in 2020, while France will be the guest country at the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) in 2022. The announcement was recently made by the nodal agency – National Book Trust (NBT). The Livre Paris (Paris Book Fair) will take place from March 20 to 23, 2020. The designation of India as the guest country was declared in the joint statement signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s visit to India in March 2018. The statement also mentions France as NDWBF’s 2022 guest country.

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Ministry of commerce has launched a blockchain-enabled marketplace app for coffee to help farmers integrate with markets so that they can realise fair prices for the commodity. The app is developed in coordination with Eka Software Solutions and is intended to bring in transparency in coffee trade and maintain the traceability of Indian coffee from bean to cup so as the consumer tastes real Indian coffee and the grower is paid fairly for his produce. The blockchain will also reduce the number of layers between coffee growers and buyers and help farmers double their income. India is the only country in the world where entire coffee is grown under shade, handpicked and sun dried. Indian coffee is highly valued in the world market and sold as premium coffees. The share of farmers in the final returns from coffee is very meagre.