Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
In Mumbai, ESPNcricinfo has partnered with IIT Madras to launch ‘Superstats’, a next level artificial intelligence tool that can analyse cricket statistics through machine learning. The tool will forecast if and how a player’s or a team’s performance can turn around a game, on real time. Superstats will analyse the game of cricket on a combination of stats metrics- Luck index, Forecaster and Smart Stats using data science for the first time to give a context to every event in a game and also venture into new territories such as luck and forecasting. According to IIT researchers, the algorithms process data to quantify the impact of luck and analyse the real value of a player’s performance in the game of cricket on real time. Apart from forecasting, it also reveals trends and patterns during a game as the actual match data is fed on real time. For this, Superstats uses the vast ball-by-ball database of ESPNcricinfo, which has more than a decade of detailed data, and scientific methods, processes and complex algorithms based machine learning. This work was led by Raghunathan Rengaswamy and Mahesh Panchagnula of IIT-Madras along with the ESPN team.

Notes:
The World Meteorological Day (WMD) is observed every year on 23rd of March to mark the establishment of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on this day in 1950. This year, the organisation is celebrating its 69th anniversary. The 2019 theme ‘The Sun, the Earth and the weather” recognizes the critical role that the Earth’s nearest star plays in what transpires on the planet. The energy that the Sun sends towards the Earth is taken up by all life forms to perform their biological functions. It also regulates global climate, which, in turn, influences local weather conditions. The same energy is also absorbed by the oceans which carry it around the planet, creating further conditions for diverse marine life to exist.

Notes:
The Financial Technology (Fintech) Conclave has been organized by NITI Aayog in New Delhi and was inaugurated by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das. The objective of the conclave is to shape India’s continued ascendancy in FinTech, build the narrative for future strategy and policy efforts, and to deliberate steps for comprehensive financial inclusion. Nearly 300 Representatives from across the financial space – central ministries, regulators, bankers, startups, service providers and entrepreneurs are participating in the conclave. India is one of the fastest growing FinTech markets globally and industry research has projected that USD 1 Trillion or 60% of retail and SME credit, will be digitally disbursed by 2029. The Indian FinTech ecosystem is the third largest in the globe, attracting nearly USD 6 billion in investments since 2014.

Notes:
On 25th March, US President Donald Trump has officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. With this, Israel has got an absolute right to self-defence. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and subsequently annexed it in 1981. But, Israel’s sovereignty over the territory is not recognized by the international community. Mr Trump’s move reversed more than a half-century of the US policy over the issue. Meanwhile, Russia said, it feared a new wave of tensions in the West Asia following the decision by Washington to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, which are claimed by Syria. The Syrian government has criticized the move calling it a blatant attack on its sovereignty. The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau in south-western Syria. It is located about 60km south-west of the Syrian capital ‘Damascus’, and covers about 1,200 sq km. The area is also a key source of water for an arid region. Rainwater from the Golan’s catchment feeds into the Jordan River. The area provides a third of Israel’s water supply. The land is fertile, and the volcanic soil is used to cultivate vineyards and orchards and raise cattle. The Golan is also home to Israel’s only ski resort.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has launched a programme, titled “Lose to Win”, to help overweight employers to shed extra kilos and adopt a healthy lifestyle. The programme involves adopting a healthy diet and engaging in physical activity, helping employees lose excessive weight within 8 weeks. The programme team comprises nutritionists and health educators from Health and Education Department of the ministry. Apart from awareness sessions, the programme includes a workshop on healthy nutrition where the participants are briefed on essential topics, including how to read food labels as well as explaining the make-up of balanced diets.

Notes:
The United States has recently clinched a strategic port deal with Oman that allow American ships and warplanes to take advantage of two Arabian Sea ports of Duqm and Salalah located near strategic Strait of Hormuz. The framework agreement is aimed at bolstering Omani-American military relations. With this pact, the US military will have better access to Gulf region and will reduce the need to send ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime choke point off Iran. The agreement will allow the US forces to take advantage from the facilities offered at some of the Sultanate’s ports and airports during visits of the US military vessels and aircraft. These two Omani ports – Duqm and Salalah are located just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow outlet through which about a 5th of the world’s oil trade exits the Persian Gulf. The Port of Duqm is located on the south-eastern seaboard of Oman, overlooking the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The narrow waterway is also an international transit route where American forces routinely pass and which has seen tense encounters between them and Iranian forces in the past.

Notes:
On 1st of April 2019, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a 436 kg electronic intelligence satellite Emisat for the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) along with 28 satellites of international customers from the spaceport of Sriharikota. It will also demonstrate its new technologies like three different orbits with a new variant of PSLV rocket ‘PSLV-C45’. Emisat is a satellite based on ISRO’s Indian Mini Satellite -2 (IMS-2) bus platform. It has been developed for monitoring radar network by India and is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement. It will be placed in an orbit of about 753 km altitude. The customer payloads are from Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and the US. They will be hurled into space at an altitude of about 505 km.

Notes:
Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi (99), the eminent folk artist, radio commentator, harmonium player, music composer and author, has passed away at Houston in the USA. She used music as a tool to spread the message of social equality in the days when the society considered women coming out of their homes as a taboo. Born on 1920 in Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), she had actively participated in Indian freedom struggle and represented her talent in front of freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvepally Radhakrishnan. She had composed and sung “Jaya Jaya Jaya Priya Bharathi”, a famous patriotic song written by her uncle Devulapally Krishna Shastry. She recently published her two books, Bava Geetalu and Compilation of Folk Songs. She was honoured with a Doctorate by Andhra University in 1977 and received a lifetime achievement award in America and ‘Queen of Folk’ award in Paris.

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:
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.