GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 23, 2019

Notes:
India’s social media platform – Helo has become the official team sponsor of Indian Wheelchair Cricket Association for 2019 Asia Cup, which has started on May 15 in Nepal. This association makes Helo the first social media app to host and promote Indian Wheelchair Cricket on its platform. As part of the association, Helo will now be the official digital media partner for the team during the tournament. In preparation for the tournament, more than 200 Wheelchair Cricket players have joined Helo as part of this campaign to connect with their local communities across India. The Wheelchair Cricket Association is affiliated to the Disabled Sporting Society and has 16 state teams under it. The players are 70-90 per cent physically challenged and will do batting, bowling, fielding and running on wheelchairs only.

Notes:
An author from Oman, Jokha Alharthi has won the prestigious 2019 Man Booker International Prize for her novel “Celestial Bodies”, which reveals her Omani homeland’s post-colonial transformation. Her novel tells the story of three sisters of a desert country confronting its slave-owning past and a complex modern world. With this feat, Alharthi has become the first Arabic-language writer to take the prize. The prestigious 50,000-pound (Over 44 lakh rupees) prize, which celebrates translated fiction from around the world, is divided equally between the author and the translator. Alharthi’s translator was U.S. academic Marilyn Booth, who teaches Arabic literature at Oxford University. The prize is a counterpart to the Man Booker Prize for English-language novels and is open to books in any language that has been translated into English. This is the final year of the prize being sponsored by investment firm Man Group, which has backed the prizes for 18 years. From next year, the award will be known as the International Booker Prize.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched its newest microwave earth observation satellite RISAT-2B from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota through its trusted workhorse PSLV-C46. The 615-kg RISAT-2B meant for application in fields such as surveillance, agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. It will replace the RISAT-2, which was launched in 2009. The new satellite will enhance India’s all-weather (space-based) capabilities in agriculture, forestry and disaster management. Its X-band synthetic aperture radar can give added details such as size of objects on Earth, structures, movement and change. The information will complement data from the normal optical remote-sensing satellites. Such data are useful for agencies that need ground imageries during cloud, rain and in the dark.

Notes:
The 8th edition of Indo-Myanmar Coordinated Patrol (IMCOR-2019) has started at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Command on May 20. The CORPAT (coordinated patrol) initiative between Indian and Myanmar navies is meant to address issues of terrorism, illegal fishing, drug trafficking, human trafficking, poaching and other illegal activities inimical to interest of both nations. Myanmar ships – UMS King TabinShweHtee and UMS Inlay – would undertake a coordinated patrol with Indian Naval Ship Saryu from 20 – 28 May 19. The patrolling effort will be augmented by Maritime Patrol Aircraft from both the navies. The ships would patrol along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the two countries covering a distance of approximately 725 Kms over a period of four days. The ships will also undertake joint manoeuvres and drills during the sea phase of coordinated patrol (CORPAT) prior ‘Closing Ceremony’ of the CORPAT onboard Myanmar Naval Ship.

Notes:
Priyanka Mohite, the 26-year-old Satara based mountaineer, has become the first Indian woman to successfully scale Mount Makalu — the fifth-highest mountain in the world at 8,481 metres. Earlier, in May 2018, Priyanka managed to scale Mount Lhotse, which is the fourth highest mountain in the world. In 2013, Mohite had become the youngest girl from her state to have conquered the 8,848m Mount Everest — the highest peak in the world — becoming only the third-youngest Indian to do so. Mt Makalu is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas, 19 km south-east of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China. The first climb on Makalu was made by an American team led by Riley Keegan in 1954.