Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
The International Nurses Day (IND) is celebrated around the world on 12 May to highlight the importance of nurses’ role in providing the best healthcare services. The day also observes the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, who was also known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’. She was famous as manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War. The theme for 2019 is – “Nurses A Voice to Lead – Health for All”.

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.

Notes:
Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R Vala administered the oath of office to Justice Oka at the Raj Bhavan. He succeeded Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in January 2019. Justice Oka has given many landmark judgements including those revolving around noise pollution, the rights of atheists and the right to give “no religion” as an option in government application forms, a judgement striking down the beef ban in Maharashtra and encouraging prison reforms, among others.

Notes:
China has expanded its ban on Wikipedia to block the community-edited online encyclopedia in all available languages. Hence, Wikipedia had joined thousands of other websites which cannot be accessed in China. According to a report by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), China started blocking all language editions of Wikipedia from April 2019. China’s online censorship apparatus — dubbed the ‘Great Firewall’ — blocks a large number of foreign sites in the country, such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and The New York Times. Topics that are deemed too sensitive are also scrubbed. An earlier enforced ban barred Internet users from viewing the Chinese version, as well as the pages for sensitive search terms such as Dalai Lama and the Tiananmen massacre.

Notes:
Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri, the former judge of Supreme Court of India (SCI), has been appointed as the chairperson of News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA). He will succeed Justice (Retd.) R. V. Raveendran, and will assume the office of Chairperson of NBSA on May 26. This is an honorary post and not a government job. Justice Sikri was retired as senior most puisne judge of Supreme Court of India on 6 March 2019. NBSA is an independent body for self-regulation of 24×7 news channels, who are members of the NBA. Its task is to consider and adjudicate upon complaints about broadcasts.

Notes:
A comprehensive survey on plastic pollution has been conducted by marine scientists on the Australian external territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Around 600 people live in these remote places, which are sometimes described as “Australia’s last unspoilt paradise”. The scientists found an estimated 414 million pieces of plastic including nearly one million shoes and 370,000 toothbrushes on the beaches of remote Islands in the Indian Ocean. The survey published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ estimated that the beaches on the islands are littered with 238 tonnes of plastic. They believe their overall finding is conservative, as they weren’t able to access some beaches known to be hotspots of pollution. Researchers said, the scale of the problem means cleaning up our oceans is currently not possible, and cleaning beaches, once they are polluted with plastic, is time consuming, costly, and needs to be regularly repeated as thousands of new pieces of plastic wash up each day. The only viable solution is to reduce plastic production and consumption while improving waste management to stop this material entering our oceans in the first place.

Notes:
Dr. Pramod Kumar Mishra, Odisha-born IAS officer and Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, has been conferred with the prestigious United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction for the year 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland. He received the 2019 Sasakawa award in recognition of his long-term dedication to improve the resilience of communities most exposed to disasters and his personal commitment to social inclusion as a critical principle to reduce inequality and poverty, enhancing the safety net of the socially and economically marginalized. The UN Sasakawa Award is the most prestigious international award in the area of Disaster Risk Management. It was instituted more than 30 years ago and is jointly organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the Nippon Foundation. A total grant of USD 50,000 is distributed among the winners which can be either organizations or individuals. The theme of the 2019 Sasakawa award was “Building Inclusive and Resilient Societies”.

Notes:
In Tennis, defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain has clinched the Italian Open 2019 title after beating Novak Djokovic 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in the final in Rome on May 19. This is Nadal’s ninth Italian Open title. It is the 81st title of Nadal’s career. Nadal also broke a tie with Djokovic by claiming a record 34th ATP Masters 1000 crown. Whereas, in Women’s single Czech’s Karolina Pliskova registered two straight-set victory against Britain’s Johanna Konta 6-3, 6-4 to claim the Italian Open title.

Notes:
On May 17, Kerala became the first sub-sovereign entity in the country to access the international market by listing masala bonds issued through its off-budget mechanism – the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has become the debutant head of state in the country to open trading at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for the day. The resources earned through the bonds would be channelised for funding a clutch of infrastructure development projects cleared by the KIIFB director board. KIIFB is a state agency that mobilises fund for infrastructural projects, over and beyond funds earmarked in the budgets. Masala bonds are popularly known as the Indian Rupee denominated bonds, which can only be issued in a country and subscribed by a resident of such country that is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and whose securities market regulator is a member of International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSC).

Notes:
Ieoh Ming Pei (102), the Chinese-American architect behind buildings including the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, has passed away in Manhattan, United States on May 16, 2019. His designs are renowned for their emphasis on precision geometry, plain surfaces and natural light. He carried on working well into old age, creating one of his most famous masterpieces – the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar – in his 80s. Born in Guangzhou (China) in 1917, Pei moved to the US at the age of 18 to study at Pennsylvania, MIT and Harvard. He worked as a research scientist for the US government during World War Two, and went on to work as an architect, founding his own firm in 1955. Pei sparked controversy for his pyramid at the Louvre Museum. The glass structure, completed in 1989, is now one of Paris’ most famous landmarks. His other work includes Dallas City Hall and Japan’s Miho Museum. In 1983, Pei was given the prestigious Pritzker Prize. He used his $100,000 prize money to start a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study architecture in America.