Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Mueenul Haq, the current ambassador to France, has been appointed as the new Pakistan High Commissioner to India. Mueen is a career diplomatic and previously served as the chief of protocol at the foreign office. The post of high commissioner to India fell vacant after Sohail Mehmood was appointed the foreign secretary in March 2019. Prime Minister Imran Khan has recently approved the appointments of over two dozen ambassadors in various countries including India and China.

Notes:
The researchers at NASA space agency has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on the surface of Ultima Thule, which is located in the Kuiper Belt – beyond the orbit of Neptune. The mixture is very different from most icy objects explored previously by spacecraft. Ultima Thule (also known as 2014 MU69) is 4 billion miles from Earth and has captured scientists’ curiosity since they discovered it had a snowman-like appearance. It has two distinct, flat segments and is thought to be an “ancient relic,” likely forming “billions of years ago”. The research also sheds new light on Ultima Thule’s geology and composition. The 22-mile-long object probably formed after the two lobes orbited each other. However, it’s still unknown what caused them to merge into the object seen today. Scientists have also found new features on Ultima Thule, including several bright spots, patches and craters, including a 5-mile-wide depression that likely formed from some kind of impact.

Notes:
PCT Humanity, a charity run by an Indian in the UAE, has set the new Guinness Book of World Records for its hunger relief efforts during the holy month of Ramzan in Abu Dhabi. Joginder Singh Salaria, founder of Pehal charitable Trust (PCT), said the efforts were in continuation to the vegetarian iftar held daily at the premises of his company Pehal International, Dubai Industrial Park. The charity set the new Guinness World Records for “Longest Line of Hunger Relief Package” in Abu Dhabi. Besides the record, the main aim of charity is to feed people pure vegetarian food to stay healthy and fit and also save animals.

Notes:
India’s social media platform – Helo has become the official team sponsor of Indian Wheelchair Cricket Association for 2019 Asia Cup, which has started on May 15 in Nepal. This association makes Helo the first social media app to host and promote Indian Wheelchair Cricket on its platform. As part of the association, Helo will now be the official digital media partner for the team during the tournament. In preparation for the tournament, more than 200 Wheelchair Cricket players have joined Helo as part of this campaign to connect with their local communities across India. The Wheelchair Cricket Association is affiliated to the Disabled Sporting Society and has 16 state teams under it. The players are 70-90 per cent physically challenged and will do batting, bowling, fielding and running on wheelchairs only.

Notes:
Priyanka Mohite, the 26-year-old Satara based mountaineer, has become the first Indian woman to successfully scale Mount Makalu — the fifth-highest mountain in the world at 8,481 metres. Earlier, in May 2018, Priyanka managed to scale Mount Lhotse, which is the fourth highest mountain in the world. In 2013, Mohite had become the youngest girl from her state to have conquered the 8,848m Mount Everest — the highest peak in the world — becoming only the third-youngest Indian to do so. Mt Makalu is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas, 19 km south-east of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China. The first climb on Makalu was made by an American team led by Riley Keegan in 1954.

Notes:
Late Malawian soldier Chancy Chitete has been posthumously conferred with the UN’s highest peacekeeping award – Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage.- The award will be given during the 2019 International Day of UN Peacekeepers commemorations at UN Headquarters in New York on May 24. In November 2018, Chitete was killed in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during an operation in the eastern part of the country to combat the ADF, an armed force that had been terrorizing civilians and disrupting the UN’s ongoing efforts to treat, and halt, the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. The award was established in 2014 for uniformed and civilian personnel who meet the criteria and is named after the late UN peacekeeper Captain Diagne, who saved hundreds of lives in Rwanda in 1994, before being killed.

Notes:
The United Nations (UN) has recently released the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2019 Mid-year Update. In it, the UN has lowered its forecast for India’s GDP growth in 2019-20 to 7.1% from its estimate in January of 7.5%, citing an overall slowdown in global growth. The report stated that the global economy is experiencing a broad-based growth slowdown led by slowing industrial production coupled with the weakening of international trade activity due in large part to the unresolved trade disputes between the U.S. and China. Overall, the UN lowered its growth forecast for South Asia marginally to 5.8% in 2020 from the 5.9% estimated for the year in January.

Notes:
On May 24, the Defence Research and Defence Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested a 500 kg class Inertial Guided Bomb (IGB) from Su-30 MKI Aircraft from the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan. The guided bomb achieved the desired range and hit the target with high precision. The weapon system is capable of carrying different warheads. The test firing of the guided bomb came two days after the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully test fired the aerial version of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from a Sukhoi jet at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The 2.5 tonne air-to-surface missile has a range of around 300 km, and it will significantly enhance the IAF’s combat capability. The BrahMos cruise missile travels at a speed of Mach 2.8, nearly three times that of sound.

Notes:
In Ukraine, comedian and political newcomer Volodymyr Zelensky has been sworn-in as the new President of war-torn country. He starred in the long-running satirical drama ‘Servant of the People’ in which his character accidentally becomes Ukraine’s president. He plays a teacher who is elected after his expletive-laden rant about corruption goes viral on social media. He ran under a political party with the same name as his show. With no previous political experience, Mr Zelensky’s campaign focused on his difference from the other candidates rather than on any concrete policy ideas. Despite this, he stormed to victory and won 73% of the vote.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed large modern currency chests to increase the service charges on cash deposited by non-chest bank branches from the existing rate of Rs. 5 per packet of 100 pieces to a higher rate subject to a maximum of Rs. 8 per packet. For this, only a Currency Chest (CC) that fulfils the minimum standards will be eligible to be classified as a large modern CC. The increased rates can be charged only after such classification by the issue office concerned.