Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Veeru Devgan (85), veteran action choreographer and father of Ajay Devgan, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on May 27, 2019. He choreographed action scenes in more than 80 films such as Hindustan Ki Kasam, Mr. India and Mr. Natwarlal (1993). He also acted in films like Kranti, Saurabh and Singhasan. Recently, he stopped going to film parties, but he was seen at the screening of ‘Total Dhamaal’.

Notes:
Prem Singh Tamang, the president of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and popularly known as P S Golay, has been sworn-in as the new chief minister of Sikkim. Governor Ganga Prasad administered the oath of office to Mr. Golay in a grand ceremony at the Palzor stadium in Gangtok. Mr. Golay is not a member of the state assembly at present as he did not contest the polls. The SKM won 17 of the 32 legislative Assembly seats in the State in the recently held Assembly polls. The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which had ruled the State for 25 years, won 15. Mr. Golay succeeded Pawan Chamling of the SDF who has the record of longest-serving Chief Minister of the country, ruling the State for five consecutive terms for a little over 24 years.

Notes:
In squash, Mahesh Mangaonkar from India has clinched the Sekisui Open title for the second time in his career in Kriens, Switzerland on May 25, 2019. In the final, Top-seeded Mahesh beat third seed Bernat Jaume of Spain in four games 11-9, 3-11, 11-5, 11-5. He had won the corresponding title for the first time in 2016. Sekisui Open is a Challenger tour event of the Professional Squash Association (PSA), the world body which governs the sports .

Notes:
Russia has recently launched the third and final Project 22220 LK-60Ya-class nuclear-powered icebreaker – the Ural – at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg to open up Arctic shipping routes.The ship is one of a trio that when completed will be the largest and most powerful icebreakers in the world. It is part of an ambitious programme to renew and expand its fleet of the vessels in order to improve its ability to tap the Arctic’s commercial potential. The Ural will eventually be handed over to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom in 2022 after the two other icebreakers in the same series – Arktika (Arctic) and Sibir (Siberia) – enter service. The main task for the Project 22220 icebreakers will be to clear passages for ship traffic on the Northern Sea route, which runs along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait. As per estimated of U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic holds oil and gas reserves equivalent to 412 billion barrels of oil, about 22% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.

Notes:
The first session of the UN-Habitat Assembly has started at the headquarters of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya on May 27, 2019. In it, India has been elected to the Executive Board of the UN-Habitat Assembly. The special theme for 2019 Assembly is ‘Innovation for a better quality of life in cities and communities’ with the sub theme of ‘Accelerated Implementation of the New Urban Agenda towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals’. The 5-day Assembly will be attended by four Heads of State, over 40 ministers and high-level representatives from 116 countries with over 3,000 delegates attending. During the first session, The Assembly is expected establish the Executive Board of UN-Habitat and elect its members, to review and approve the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2020-2025 and also review the Progress in implementation of New Urban Agenda, among other things.

Notes:
The Union government has constituted the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal to adjudicate whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an unlawful association. The Tribunal is comprised of sitting Judge of Delhi High Court Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal. Earlier, the Home Ministry had issued a notification extending ban on LTTE in India for a further period of five years. LTTE was banned in India after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a 6-member committee to review the existing state of mortgage securitisation in India and suggest measures to deepen it. The committee on the development of housing finance securitisation market, headed by Bain & Co Senior Advisor Harsh Vardhan, will review the regulations relating to Mortgage-Backed Securitization (MBS) currently in place, and make specific recommendations on suitably aligning the same with international norms. It will recommend specific measures for facilitating secondary market trading in mortgage securitisation instruments, such as broadening the investor base, and strengthening the market infrastructure.

Notes:
President Muhammadu Buhari has been sworn-in for his second term as President of Nigeria in a ceremony at the Eagle Square in Abuja. He won 56% of the votes to defeat his main rival Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 February election. Buhari will face a number of challenges during his second term as he tries to fulfil his election promises, including dealing with security threats and managing a sluggish economy and a high unemployment rate.

Notes:
On 30 May 2019, James Marape has been nominated, elected, and sworn-in as the 8th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG). He is a former finance minister and critic of a major global gas development deal. His appointment comes after the outgoing leader Peter O’Neill resigned recently. Papua New Guinea is a South Pacific nation of 7.3 million people. It has rich reserves of copper, gold, and oil, but development has been hampered by public order issues, rugged terrain and disputes over land.

Notes:
The scientists at the Stanford University in the US have developed a more stable prosthetic foot which they say could make challenging terrain more manageable for people who have lost a lower leg. The new design has a kind of tripod foot that responds to rough terrain by actively shifting pressure between three different contact points. Prosthetic emulators allow them to try lots of different designs without the overhead of new hardware. According to the study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, prosthetic limbs can better handle the rough ground. Outfitted with position sensors and motors, the foot could adjust its orientation to respond to varying terrain, much as someone with an intact foot could move their toes and flex their ankles to compensate while walking over rough ground.