Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
The architectural heritage of Orchha town in Madhya Pradesh has been included in UNESCO’s tentative list of world heritage sites following a proposal sent by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the U.N. body. According to the rules, to be a part of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, the heritage or any historical site first has to be on the tentative list. After it makes to the tentative list, another proposal is sent to the UNESCO. Orchha town is situated on the banks of the Betwa river in Niwari district of MP’s Bundelkhand region. The town was built by King Rudra Pratap Singh of Bundela dynasty in the 16th century. The ancient town is famous for its Chaturbhuj Temple, Orchha fort complex, Raja Mahal among others. The Bundela architecture has Mughal influence since the two dynasties were very close. The famous King of Bundela dynasty Veer Singh Dev was a close friend of Mughal emperor Jahangir and fought wars as Akbar’s aid.

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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.

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On 2019 World Meterology Day, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) has recently introduced redefined International System of Units for the country. The redefined systems are Kilogram (SI unit of weight), Kelvin (SI unit of temperature), Mole (SI unit of amount of substance), and Ampere (SI unit of current). The purpose of a system of units is to enable world-wide coherence of measurements. CSIR- NPL has also sent the new definitions to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) for the engineering course syllabus and to National Council of Educational Research and Training for adoption in schools. It must be noted that the world’s scientific community adopted the resolution to redefine four of the 7 base units during the open session of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) at BIPM in November 2018. Therefore, there is no change in the definition of three other SI units—second, metre and candela — which were defined based on natural constants.

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Ivo Karlovic (40) of Croatia has become the oldest man to win a match at the French Open since 1973, after he defeated the 37-year-old Feliciano Lopez of Spain in a first-round duel of the 2019 French Open Tennis Tournament at Roland Garros. This was the oldest men’s match in combined age at Roland Garros during the Open Era, and the 7th-oldest match at a Grand Slam. Karlovic is also the oldest to win a Grand Slam match since 1978. The record for women is held by Elizabeth Ryan, who was 42 when she won the 1934 women’s doubles with Simone Mathieu.

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The Telangana government has decided to set up the India’s first ‘Blockchain district’ in Hyderabad to create an ecosystem for all the start-ups and institutes working in the space. Though the Blockchain technology encompasses all domains, the district would focus on banking, financial services and insurance; pharma and healthcare; logistics and supply chain; and the government sectors. The district would have a co-working space, an international liasioning office, a T-Hub-like incubator to mentor early-stage start-ups in the Blockchain space and a supporting R&D institute to promote innovation.

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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.

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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.

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The Gujarat government has decided to equip the traffic police with ‘laser guns’ for detection of over-speeding by vehicles. The state traffic police has purchased 39 such high-tech guns at a cost of Rs.3.9 crore. The gun uses laser technology to detect the speed of a vehicle. It can record speed of three vehicles simultaneously in a second, even if the vehicles are a km away. The speed gun is an online device which can send an e-memo to the owner with a photo of the vehicle. If required, the speed gun can also generate and print the challan offline on the spot. It is also capable of recording videos of the over- speeding vehicles which will serve as a proof if the vehicle owner confronts the police.

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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.

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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.