Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
India is officially invited to Group of 7 (G-7) industrialized nations summit along with Australia, Chile and South Africa. The summit is scheduled to be held in Biarritz, France in August 24-25, 2019. According to analysts, the invitation clearly reflects the strong strategic connect between India and France. And also, the invitation to Australia, France and Chile besides India reflects the French emphasis on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific region. The G-7 groups together the US, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany. This is not first time that India will be present at this exclusive club. In 2005, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had attended the G-8 +5 meet in Gleneagles in Scotland at the invitation of then British prime minister Tony Blair.

Notes:
The World Asthma Day (WAD) is celebrated every year on first Tuesday of May to increase awareness about asthma and aims to improve the lives of people with asthma across the world. Asthma is a chronic disease of the lungs which causes breathing problems. Asthma usually appears through symptoms like coughing, tightness in the chest, breathlessness. The 2019 WAD is observed on 7th of May with theme ‘Stop for Asthma’. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are 235 million people currently suffering from asthma around the world. Asthma is one of the major non-communicable diseases and it is also the most common chronic disease in children. Regular exercise can help reduce asthma symptoms.

Notes:
Pakistan’s former captain and star all-rounder Shahid Afridi has recently released his controversial autobiography, titled ‘Game Changer’. Be it his views on Kashmir, 2010 spot fixing scandal or his age revelation, Afridi has been creating headlines ever since his autobiography was released. It is co-authored by Afridi and journalist Wajahat S Khan and is published by HarperCollins India imprint Harper Sport. The book details some interesting and exciting information from the cricketer’s life. He has criticised many former players, including Javed Miandad, Waqar Younis and Gautam Gambhir in the book. Afridi is popularly known as ‘Boom Boom’ and holds the world record for the fastest ODI century in 37 deliveries.

Notes:
In a significant victory, India’s Jagjit Pavadia has been re-elected to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for a 5-year term beginning 2nd March, 2020. She posted the highest number of votes at 44. Ms Pavadia has been a member of the INCB since 2015 and her current term is set to expire in 2020. The victory added to India’s successful record of winning crucial elections at the UN and to the world organisation’s subsidiary bodies. Established in 1968, the INCB is an independent and quasi-judicial monitoring body for the implementation of the UN’s international drug control conventions. INCB consists of 13 members who are elected by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and who serve in their personal capacity.

Notes:
India’s first natural Ice Cafe has started at a height of 14,000 feet in Leh, Ladakh. The ice cafe is located on the Manali-Leh Highway. It is created by natural process by the Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials, with the help of some locals during winters. It is built in the shape of a mound with the purpose of saving water in winter and using it later for irrigation purposes when the ice melts in spring. The cafe utilises the same concept as used by Sonam Wangchuk for his ice stupa project in Ladakh and has been attracting a large number of tourists.

Notes:
Baidyanath Mishra (99), the renowned economist, has passed away in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on May 8, 2019. Mishra had started his career as a lecturer in Ravenshaw University in Cuttack in 1949. He later worked at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT). He was vice-chancellor of OUAT from 1981 to 1985. Mishra was also the chairman of State Planning Board from 1985 to 1990.

Notes:
BharatPe has launched India’s first UPI Bahi Khata for merchants, which allows merchants to record their cash/ credit (udhar) sales customer wise, request accounts receivable from customers via SMS payment links, and keep track of accounts payable to suppliers, among other services. It also serves as a networking platform for merchants to connect and collaborate with other BharatPe merchants near them to source and expand their businesses. BharatPe is the India’s first fintech start-up enabling payments for merchants through interoperable UPI QR codes.

Notes:
A team of herpetologists led by Ashok Captain have described a new species of reddish-brown pit viper — a venomous snake with a unique heat-sensing system — from a forest in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. The discovery makes the Arunachal pit viper (Trimeresurus arunachalensis) the second serpent to have been discovered after the non-venomous crying keelback in the State’s Lepa-Rada district in 2018. The new species also makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it. Before the Arunachal Pradesh discovery, India had four brown pit vipers — Malabar, horseshoe, hump-nosed and Himalayan — which were discovered 70 years ago. The discovery was recently published in the March-April volume of the Russian Journal of Herpetology.

Notes:
Bajaj Auto Executive Director Rakesh Sharma has been elected as Vice-President of Geneva-based International Motorcycle Manufacturers Association (IMMA) at Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Sharma is a representative of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). IMMA represents the manufacturing industry of powered two wheelers at the global level.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has recently received the first AH-64E (I) – Apache Guardian helicopter at Boeing production facility in Mesa, Arizona in the United States. The AH-64E Apache is a leading multi-role attack helicopter and is flown by the US Army. The IAF had signed a multi-billion dollar contract with the US government and Boeing Ltd in September 2015 for 22 Apache helicopters. The first batch of these helicopters is scheduled to be shipped to India by July 2019. The helicopter has been customized to suit IAF’s future requirements and would have significant capability in mountainous terrain. The helicopter has the capability to carry out precision attacks at standoff ranges and operate in hostile airspace with threats from ground.