Current Affairs April 25, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of April 25, 2019 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.
1. The 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme of the West Bengal government has won the prestigious 2019 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations. The scheme aims to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready. Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, Utkarsh Bangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of WSIS. Earlier, in 2017, the West Bengal government had received another UN award for its ‘Kanyashree’ project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls. WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.
2. India has been nominated as the “Guest of Honour” country at the 29th edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF-2019) which begins on April 24. Here, India's selection as the guest of honour reflects the strong relations between the leadership and the people of the UAE and India. Around 30 publishing houses from India will take part in the fair.A three-member team from the Publications Division is also participating in the Fair. Books on the life and struggle of Mahatma Gandhi will be on display as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations. A special presentation will be made by the Publications Division on the 100 volume series of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in a bid to reach out to the international audience. An annual fair is a major event in the publishing sector in the Middle East and North Africa. It will conclude on the 30th of this month.
3. World No.1 Bajrang Punia made India proud once again by clinching the India’s first gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2019 in Xi'an, China. Punia logged 10 points in a row in the gold medal bout to reclaim his Asian Championship crown. He defeated Kazakhstan's Sayatbek Okassov 12-7 in a nail-biting 65kg men's freestyle final. It is Bajrang's second gold at this championship, having won one in 2017. Another Indian Parveen Rana, lost to Bahman Mohammad Teymouri of Iran in the final 0-3 in 79kg category securing a silver medal. In 97 Kg category, Satywart Kadian picked a bronze defeating Haobin Gao of China by 8-2.
4. The UN English Language Day is observed every year on 23rd of April to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. For the English language, 23 April was chosen because it is the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare.
5. Gomathi Marimuthu from Tamil Nadu has clinched India's first Gold in the women's 800m race at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. Gomathi clocked a personal best time of 2 minute 02.70 seconds in the half mile event to win a surprise gold for India. Then, Asian Games champion Tajinder Pal Toor added the 2nd gold medal to India’s tally by clinching the top spot in the podium in men’s shot put with a season’s best throw of 20.22 metres. While Shivpal Singh added a silver in men's javelin throw by sending the spear to a distance of 86.23m, his personal best. In the process, Shivpal also booked a berth for the World Championships to be held at the same venue in September-October as he crossed the qualifying mark of 83m.
6. Scientists have long been known that Mercury and the Earth have metallic cores. Like Earth, Mercury’s outer core is composed of liquid metal, but there have only been hints that Mercury’s innermost core is solid. Now, in a new study, scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland have found evidence that Mercury’s inner core is indeed solid and that it is very nearly the same size as Earth’s inner core. To explore what the core of Mercury is made of the science team used several observations from the NASA’s MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) mission looking at the planet's spin and gravity. The findings of Mercury’s solid inner core not only help scientists better understand Mercury but also offer clues about how the solar system formed and how rocky planets change over time. The study is published in Geophysical Research Letters.
7. The Government of Malawi has launched the pilot tests for the world’s first malaria vaccine - RTS,S (or Mosquirix) -to give partial protection to children up to 2 years of age. The other two African countries - Ghana and Kenya - will introduce the vaccine in the coming weeks. This move is part of World Health Organization (WHO)-coordinated three country pilot programme where the risk of malaria is high and there has been previous success with other childhood vaccines. It aims to reach 360,000 children per year across the three countries. The vaccine has been developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. According to WHO, Malaria kills some 435,000 people around the world each year, the majority of them children. Most of these deaths are in Africa, where more than 250,000 children die from the disease every year.
8. Dr. Benny Antony, co-founder of Kochi-based Arjuna Natural Ltd, has been conferred with the National Intellectual Property Award for 2019 in the category of Top Individual for Patents and Commercialization. Along with the National IP Award, the Intellectual Property Office India and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) have jointly conferred the ‘WIPO Medal for Inventors’ also to Antony. The Indian Intellectual Property Office bestows National Intellectual Property (IP) awards to outstanding innovators, organisations and companies in the field of patents, designs, trademarks and geographical indications on the occasion of World IP Day every year. Antony is the inventor of the world’s leading patented turmeric extract formulation “BCM-95” and also has over 80 international patents to his credit.
9. The National Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) is celebrated every year in India on April 24 by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It is also known as the National Local Self-Government day. On this day, in 1993, the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act of 1992 came into force that has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the village, Intermediate and District level Panchayats.
10. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released the 2019 Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP) in which India's overall rank is 19th out of 28 countries, with a score of 64.9. Australia topped the index, followed by the Netherlands and Germany. The ICP explores the issue of cancer preparedness through three broad domains: Policy and planning; Care delivery; and Health systems and governance. It was released as part of the report titled “Cancer preparedness around the world: National readiness for a global epidemic” prepared by EIU.