Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
German payments company Wirecard has teamed up with India to simplify the process of issuing tax identity cards required to open bank accounts, transfer money or complete business transactions. The deal, with state company UTI Infrastructure Technology and Financial Services, seeks to widen the distribution of so-called PAN cards in the country of 1.3 billion where most people still live and work in the informal economy. Munich-based Wirecard, founded in 1999, runs a digital payments platform that handles payments for merchants and issues real and ‘virtual’ payment cards to consumers. It mainly operates under arrangements that allow their partners to rebrand their products. Wirecard is already has a presence in India and its network of 15,000 retail agents in 350 cities would help collect and scan in the documents that people need to apply for a PAN card.

Notes:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has unveiled a new strategy to dramatically cut deaths and injuries from snakebites, and also warned a lack of anti-venoms could soon spark a “public health emergency”. Each year, nearly three million people are bitten by poisonous snakes, with an estimated 81,000-138,000 deaths. The aim of the strategy is to cut snakebite-related deaths and disabilities in half by 2030. An important part of the strategy is to significantly boost production of quality anti-venoms. The strategy also called for integrating snakebite treatment and response into national health plans in affected countries, including better training of health personnel and educating communities. Snake venom can cause paralysis that stops breathing, bleeding disorders that can lead to fatal haemorrhage, irreversible kidney failure and tissue damage that can cause permanent disability and limb loss. Most snakebite victims live in the world’s tropical and poorest regions, and children are worse affected due to their smaller body size. In a new report, the UN health agency urged the international community to take steps to address the problem, which it warned had long been dangerously under-estimated and neglected.

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.

Notes:
Cardiologist Prof. Balram Bhargava has won the 2019 Dr Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health at the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva. He bagged the award for his achievements as a clinician, innovator, researcher and trainer. Prof. Bhargava is the Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). His passion to know how things work, and to make them work, has resulted in a long list of innovative medical devices – affordable, created and applied in India. In cooperation with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and a devoted follower group of more than 100 young innovators, his work on developing low-cost devices is already saving thousands of lives.

Notes:
The British-Sri Lankan human rights documentary maker- turned debut novelist, Guy Gunaratne has won the 2019 £30,000 Swansea University International Dylan Thomas prize for his debut novel ‘In Our Mad and Furious City’. It is the fictional account of 48 hours in a North London housing estate after the murder of a British soldier. Gunaratne is a human rights documentary maker-turned-debut novelist. The £30,000 Prize is awarded to the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under.

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:
Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company (AMC) has launched its WhatsApp transaction platform for new as well as existing investors. It is the first of its kind initiative by any fund house in India to do mutual fund transactions through the popular cross-platform messaging app. Investors can use WhatsApp to invest in any scheme from Motilal Oswal AMC. The investor through his/her registered number can initiate a transaction in Motilal Oswal MF schemes just by typing ‘Hi’. A customer can complete the entire process in less than two minutes and gets an instant transaction confirmation through the medium. The investor can make the investments either in a lump sum or through systematic investment plans (SIP).This feature is not a part of WhatsApp Pay and is different from using it as a payment channel.

Notes:
The IIT-Madras has recently launched an Integrated Database on Infrastructure Projects (IDIP) at the 15th World Conference on Transport Research conference held at IIT Bombay. The purpose of the data platform is to enhance the efficiency of infrastructure development and enable effective decision-making among different stakeholders involved in the sector. The initial focus of IDIP will be on the road sector, which has received the highest private investment among all infrastructure sectors. The PPP programme in the road sector in India is the largest in the world. The platform includes data coverage across the project life cycle comprising development, construction and operation phases. In addition to roads, other sectors such as railways, ports, and airports would also be included in the platform shortly.

Notes:
Indians Scientists has recently identified a new species of primate wasp from the genus Kudakrumia in Goa. The new species was collected in the forests of Western Ghats. The wasp, which is dubbed as Kudakrumia rangnekari, was named after Goa-based researcher Parag Rangnekar. Rangnekar is the author of a book “Butterflies of Goa”, which is perhaps a first field guide with photographs of the species found in this region. His quest to document the butterflies of this unique region resulted in a record of 220 species, of which 13 species had not been described before. He is the founder-president of the Goa Bird Conservation Network. The holotype is from Kotigao Wildlife Sanctuary of Goa of northern Western Ghats and the paratype is from Ranipuram hill of Kerala of southern Western Ghats. A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have recently signed a MoU for getting Indian astronauts trained for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission. The development formally involves IAF’s Bengaluru-based medical arm, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), in the programme as the nodal centre to train the first set of Indian astronauts. The Rs 10,000-crore Gaganyaan is planned for 2022, the 75th year of Indian independence. Gaganyaan (“Sky Craft”) is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.