Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria has been appointed as the new Vice Chief of Indian Air Force (IAF). He succeeded Air Marshal Anil Khosla. Prior to this post, Bhadauria was head of IAF’s Bengaluru-based Training Command. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Air Force on June 15, 1980 with the Sword of Honour. He went on to hold several important positions such as Commandant of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Senior Air Staff Officer at the Central Air Command and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from January 2016 to February 28, 2017. Bhadauria served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Southern Air Command from March 1, 2017. He took over as the chief of the Bengaluru-based Training Command on August 1, 2018.

Notes:
Pungam Kannan (80), the former Indian footballer, has passed away at Kolkata, West Bengal. Born in Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu, Kannan played 14 matches for India & was the former Mohun Bagan & East Bengal forward. He won Santosh Trophy for Bengal twice in a row (1971-73) and was the top-scorer. It was legendary German coach Dettmar Cramer who had given him the best appreciation by calling him ‘Pele of Asia’ in 1968 when he was invited by the AIFF to conduct two-week coaching in Mumbai.

Notes:
Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL) has acquired the Philippines-based personal care maker Splash Corporation for an undisclosed amount to enter the country which has a consumer base of around 100 million. The acquisition strengthens Wipro’s consumer care portfolio in personal care and strengthens its South-East Asian market footprint. Splash is the largest Filipino personal care player and amongst Top 5 in the Philippines market. Its product categories such as exfoliants and leave-in hair care range are new for WCCL. This is Wipro’s 11th consumer business acquisition, and the 9th in the personal care segment. Other Wipro consumer acquisitions include UK’s Yardley, Singapore-based personal-care company LD Waxson Unza Holdings and China’s Zhongshan and a lot more. The company has made five acquisitions in the Indian market in the consumer line business.

Notes:
Ace India goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh has been nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award by Hockey India. While, Midfielder Chinglensana Singh Kangujam and forward Akashdeep Singh and women’s team defender Deepika have been nominated for the Arjuna Award. Hockey India has also nominated R.P. Singh and Sandeep Kaur for Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement, while coaches Baljeet Singh, B.S. Chauhan and Romesh Pathania have been proposed for Dronacharya Award.

Notes:
The first part of the Indo-French joint naval exercise – Varuna 19.1 – has started off the Goa coast from 1 to 10 May 2019. The exercise will see the participation of the French Navy’s aircraft carrier FNS Charles de Gaulle, two destroyers, FNS Forbin and FNS Provence, the frigate FNS Latouche-Treville, the tanker FNS Marne and a nuclear submarine. From the Indian side, the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, destroyer INS Mumbai, the Teg-class frigate, INS Tarkash, the Shishumar- class submarine, INS Shankul, and the Deepak- class fleet tanker, INS Deepak, are taking part in the exercise. The exercise is being conducted in two phases. The harbour phase at Goa would include cross-visits, professional interactions and discussions and sports events. The sea phase would comprise various exercises across the spectrum of maritime operations. The second part of the exercise – Varuna 19.2 – is scheduled to be held in May end in Djibouti.

Notes:
In Meghalaya, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) North Eastern Region (NER) has recently installed two geological display boards at two important geological sites in the State with geo-scientific information which will help in creating awareness among visiting tourists, students and the general public. The boards are unvieled at two important geological sites in the State namely Mawmluh cave and Therriaghat, Sobhar in East Khasi Hill District. The stalagmite in the Mawmluh cave has been tagged a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP). It makes it first formally ratified marker of a geological time period in India. The Um-Sohryngkew (Wahrew) river section at Therriaghat is known for having the most complete records of Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary transition in India. There is also a high level of iridium metal from the boundary which marks catastrophic event when a giant meteorite hit earth. The Meghalayan Age period began about 4200 years ago experienced an abrupt mega-drought and cooling around the world.

Notes:
M Jayshree Vyas, a professionally-qualified chartered accountant, has been appointed as the first independent woman director of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Though still late by at least a few weeks from the deadline of April 1 given to all top 500 listed companies based on their market capitalisation for appointing an independent woman director on their board. The delay happened as BSE was awaiting market regulator SEBI’s approval on the appointment. As of April 6, 51 of the top 500 NSE-listed companies by market capitalisation (including BSE) did not have independent woman director, according to nseinfobase.com run by Prime Database. In March alone, about 50 companies made a beeline to appoint an independent woman director. BSE already has two non-executive women directors namely Usha Sangwan and Rajeshree Sabnavis on its Board. The Companies Act of 2013 mandates a certain class of companies to have at least one woman director on board. SEBIs, in compliance with the Companies Act 2013, made it compulsory to have at least one woman on a board from October 2014.

Notes:
To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India and IIT Delhi have signed an MoU to set up a Centre of Excellence for Waste to Wealth Technologies for implementation of sustainable, scientific and technological solutions for waste management, through validation and deployment of available technologies for transformation of waste to wealth. The waste to wealth mission project has been approved under the recently constituted Prime Minister’s Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). The partnership will provide an effective platform for stakeholders to bring together integrated approaches for effective recycle, reuse and resource recovery of waste.

Notes:
According to the latest rankings released by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), Indian shooting ace Apurvi Chandela from Jaipur has recently attained the world number 1 position in the women’s 10m air rifle event. Beside her, Anjum Moudgil also occupied the World No 2 spot in the same event to make it a one-two for India. Both the shooters have already secured the 2020 Tokyo Olympics quotas for the country.

Notes:
According to the latest data from US space agency NASA, the giant asteroid named 99942 Apophis is expected to approach dangerously close to the Earth on April 13, 2029. However, there is no need to worry as it will be about 31,000km away from the surface of the Earth. This is going to be a great opportunity for asteroid scientists as it’s relatively rare for such a large object to pass so close to the Earth. The colossal asteroid is named after the Egyptian god of chaos and destruction. Apophis was discovered in 2004 by U.S. astronomers. Since then, optical and radar telescopes have tracked Apophis as it continues on its orbit around the sun, so scientists know well its future trajectory. Current calculations shows that Apophis still has a small chance of impacting earth.