Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
Satyapriya Mohathero (89) was the 2nd highest Buddhist leader of Bangladesh and head of Sima Bihar of Ramu in Cox’s Bazar. He was  passed away in Dhaka on 5th October 2019. He was awarded the second-highest civilian award of Bangladesh Ekushey Padak in 2015 for social work. The Ramu monastery had provided shelter to a large number of people during the Liberation War of Bangladesh 1971 in the face of Pakistani atrocities. However, in September 2012, it suffered massive damage as mobs attacked it, angered by an alleged post on Social Media derogatory to Islam.

Notes:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has launched the YSR Vahana Mitra welfare scheme under which the owner-driver of an auto-rickshaw (or taxicab) gets Rs 10,000 grant per annum. The amount is meant to meet maintenance expenses, and for obtaining insurance and fitness certificates among other documents.

Notes:
Bahrain sprinter  Salwa Eid Naser has become the first woman athlete from Asia to win the 400m gold in the ongoing IAAF World Athletics Championships (WAC) Doha 2019.  She clocked 48.14 seconds i.e., the third-fastest lap in history and the fastest in 34 years.

Notes:
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India have jointly launched Youth Co:Lab that aims to accelerate youth-led social entrepreneurship, innovation in India. Through Youth Co:Lab, young entrepreneurs and innovators will get a chance to connect with governments, mentors, incubators and investors, who will help equip them with entrepreneurial skills. It will invite young people in the age group of 18-29 years and start-ups to showcase their proposed ideas and solutions to tackle some of the region’s biggest social challenges.

Notes:
The “Spirit Of Kerala”, which is directed by Arun Joseph, has become the first Indian short film that bagged the People’s Choice Award at the recently concluded My Rode Reel film competition. It is a short film by a group of Malayali youngsters on Vallamkali (boat racing) that showed the celebration of the spirit of survival in the face of disaster. My Rode Reel film competition is touted as the ‘world’s largest short film competition’.

Notes:
NASA has recently launched its new Ionospheric Connection Explorer (Icon)  satellite  from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space. The refrigerator-size Icon satellite will study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the 360-mile-high (580-kilometer-high) spacecraft. Apart from this, a NASA satellite ‘Gold’ ( launched in 2018) is also studying the upper atmosphere, but from much higher up. 

Notes:
A research team led by Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) has discovered a unique species of miniature well-dwelling subterranean fish ‘Pangio bhujia’ from Kozhikode. It  is the first species of eel-loach in the world that has been discovered to be living in subterranean environments. Eel-loaches are generally found in fast-flowing streams in the south and the south-east Asia. The Pangio bhujia is approximately 3 centimetres long & pinkish-red in colour, and resides in the purest waters of deep subterranean aquifers. 

Notes:
National award winning director Atanu Ghosh’s upcoming Bengali film ‘Binisutoy’ (Without strings) has been selected for International Film Festival of Kerala. The movie tells the story of how two strangers meet at the audition of a game show, become friends and try to find out the meaning of their lives through some strange pattern of existence. Besides ‘Binisutoy’, the six other films selected in the ‘Indian Cinema Now’ section of the festival are Anandi Gopal (Marathi), Axone (Hindi/English), Mai Ghat: Crime No 103/2005) (Marathi), Hellaro (Gujarati), Market/Lewduh (Khasi), and The Funeral/Ram Prasad Ki Tehrvi (Hindi). Every year, Indian Cinema Now of prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala features only 7 noteworthy Indian films.

Notes:
Air India has become the first airline in the world to use a Taxibot on a A-320 aircraft with passengers on board. Taxibot is a robot-used aircraft tractor for taxiing an aircraft from parking bay to runway and vice-versa. Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani flagged off flight AI665 and it was carried to runway using Taxibot at Terminal 3 of the Delhi Airport – to Mumbai. It is a pilot controlled semi-robotic towbar-less aircraft tractor used as alternate taxiing equipment.

Notes:
K Satish Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy’s, has been appointed as President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) for 2019-2021. The IPA represents research-based National Pharmaceutical Companies.