Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Lewis Hamilton, a British racing driver who races in Formula One for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, has won the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix with a perfectly measured drive.

Notes:
Mumbai-based freelance writer, Annie Zaidi has been announced as the 2019 winner of the $100,000 Nine Dots Prize for her essay ‘Bread, Cement, Cactus’ Her essay is the combination of memoir and reportage to explore concepts of home and belonging rooted in her experience of contemporary life in India, where migration – within the country, especially from villages to cities – is high. The prestigious book prize is created to award innovative thinking that addresses contemporary issues around the world. The winner of the Nine Dots Prize is supported to develop their response into a full-length book, which is published by Cambridge University Press (CUP), and given the opportunity to spend a term at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), Cambridge University.

Notes:
The International Everest Day (IED) is observed every year on May 29 to mark the first successful climb to the world’s highest peak Mount Everest. On this day in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa reached the zenith of the mountain and became the first humans to achieve the feat in memory of the first summit of Mt. The day is celebrated with memorial events, processions, and special events in Kathmandu and the Everest region. Nepal decided to observe the day as International Everest Day (IED) since 2008, when the legendary climber Hillary passed away.

Notes:
Gian Chand (93), the veteran freedom fighter, has passed away at his native village in Mohalla Ramgarh of Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh on May 27, 2019. Born on 26th October 1926, Chand was a member of Azad Hind Fauj led by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Notes:
Conrad K Sangma, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, has launched Rs 18-crore Aroma Mission at Byrwa in Ri-Bhoi district with an aim to strengthen the livelihood condition of farmers and create employment opportunities in the state. The move will boost the cultivation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs). As part of the mission, a Memorandum of Agreement was also signed between the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) and Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) for a collaborative work on medicinal and aromatic plants. The CIMAP is a frontier plant research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The chief minister also called for preserving forest cover while announcing the government’s plan to plant one million trees on World Environment Day on June 5 in different parts of the state especially in catchment areas.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a six-member task force, headed by Canara Bank chairman T.N. Manoharan, on the development of secondary market for corporate loans. The terms of reference of the task force would include review of the existing state of the market for loan sale or transfer in India as well as the international experience in loan trading. Further the task force will be required to make recommendations on required policy or regulatory interventions for facilitating development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan transaction platform for stressed assets. The task force has been asked to submit its report by the end of August 2019. In India, banks sell their stressed loans to the Asset Reconstruction Companies, but have practically no other alternatives. However, globally, there is a healthy corporate loan market where banks can offload their stressed assets and those get traded.

Notes:
The World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed every year on May 31 to create awareness about the negative impacts of tobacco consumption on human health. The focus theme of 2019 edition of WNTD is on “tobacco and lung health”. The campaign will increase awareness on: the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease, the fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people. The campaign also serves as a call to action, advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption and engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors in the fight for tobacco control. On the occasion, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India organized a national consultation on tobacco and lung health in New Delhi. The consultation, organized in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO), was aimed at raising awareness about the negative impacts of any form of tobacco consumption on the health of lung and cancer causing micro-elements in it. Theme of the event was “Don’t Let Tobacco Take Your Breath Away – Choose Health Not Tobacco”.

Notes:
In Madhya Pradesh, Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport of Indore has been declared as International Airport. It was given the International status as per sub-rule (b) of rule 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Rules, 1950 by the Central Government. The airport, named after Maharani Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore, is considered the busiest airport in the region. The Indore airport facilitates round the clock operations and was given its World Standardization Certificate by the UK. An international airport has customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. Such airports are usually larger than domestic airports and often feature longer runways.

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.