Current Affairs March 12, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of March 12, 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 traditional and handmade ‘Marayoor Jaggery’ from Idukki district of Kerala has finally got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag that makes it safe for consumption while rejuvenating the traditional way of production and ensuring a safe market in future. It has been a long-term demand of farmers in Marayur and Kanthallur grama panchayats, where jaggery is produced without adding any chemicals. Though the Marayur jaggery has always been known for its high quality, fake jaggery with a salty taste was being marketed as Marayur jaggery. Hence, The GI tag would aid in initiating legal action against fake jaggery being sold as Marayur jaggery. The dark brown Maryur jaggery is handmade at household units in Marayur and Kanthallur. It has high sweetness with less saltiness, high content of iron and less sodium. The produce is free of impurities and the sugar cane fields are free of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
2. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, a Deputy Director General of Programmes (DDP) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been named Chief Scientist of the WHO. The newly created division of chief scientist is being seen as the fifth pillar to strengthen the WHO’s core scientific work, ensure quality and consistency of norms and standards.
3. To reduce casualties in Pulwama type attacks & warefare, the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) has developed a range of 'combat casualty drugs' that can extend the golden hour till the trooper is shifted to hospital. INMAS is a medical laboratory of DRDO. The spectrum includes bleeding wound sealants, super absorptive dressings, and glycerated salines, all of which can save lives in the event of warfare in a jungle and high altitude areas as well as in terror attacks. According to developers of the drugs, chances of survival and minimum disability are highest when effective first aid care is given within the golden hour. Among the drugs developed is glycerated saline, a battlefield intravenous fluid that does not freeze till -18 degrees Celsius and is useful in handling trauma cases in high altitude areas. Glycerated saline has life saving capacities as it gives more time to the medical personnel to shift the wounded patient to a higher care facility. INMAS has also developed a special medicated dressing material which is 200 times more absorptive than normal dressings during bleeding wounds. They have also developed a chitosan gel which helps in preventing blood loss by forming a film over the wound.
4. Kavinder Singh Bisht has clinched gold in the 56kg-category at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament in Helsinki, Finland. In it, 3-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg) and three other Indian pugilists - Govind Sahani, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin and Dinesh Dagar - claimed silver medals to end a fine campaign in the tournament. Besides, Sumit Sangwan (91kg), former youth world champion Sachin Siwach (52kg) and Naveen Kumar (+91kg) got bronze in their categories.
5. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has officially named Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh as the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. The announcement comes six weeks after Rami al-Hamdallah tendered his resignation from the post and of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring the failure of Hamas and Fatah to implement a power-sharing deal. Shtayyeh is a member of the West Bank's dominant Fatah party.
6. The students from IIT Kharagpur have devised unique solutions ranging from detecting counterfeit currency to nuclear radiation tracking through wearable sensors at the recently concluded nationwide competition, Smart India Hackathon 2019. They developed a code for a smartphone application to address the problem of detecting fake Indian currency. For this, the 6-member team have developed an image processing application which can detect counterfeit currency. The application, which can be installed on smartphones, can be used by people at various touch points thus reducing chances of fraud. A user can upload a currency note image and the mobile app would verify its authenticity using 25 features extracted from the front and rear side of the currency note. In case of detection of a fake note, the user will also be notified of the failure checkpoints. The six students who developed the code are T.Y.S.S. Santosh, Satish Kumar Reddy, Vipul Tomar, Sai Krishna, Drishti Tulsi and D V Sai Surya.
7. The Union Ministry of Tourism has won the First Prize in the category of TV Cinema Spot at the prestigious international Golden City Gate Tourism Awards 2019. The awards were given for the following promotional films and TV commercials produced under the Incredible India 2.0 Campaign: Yogi of the Racetrack, The Reincarnation of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Sanctuary in Paris, Maharani of Manhattan and The Masala Master Chef. The Golden City Gate Tourism Multi-media Awards are given annually in various categories related to the Tourism and Hospitality sectors. The ‘Golden City Gate’ is a creative multi-media international competition for countries, cities, regions and hotels. The annual award ceremony takes place at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading tourism trade show. The Ministry of Tourism has launched the Incredible India 2.0 Campaign in September 2017. The 2.0 Campaign marks a shift from generic promotions across the world to market specific promotional plans and content creation.
8. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been named 2019 laureate of the Pritzker Prize, architecture's most prestigious award. He is the 46th recipient of the Pritzker Prize, and the 8th Japanese architect to receive the honour. The prize will be presented at a ceremony at the Palace of Versailles in May 2019, with a public lecture in Paris. Isozaki is credited with bringing together the East and West in his innovative designs. He is regarded as Japan's most influential postwar architect and is known for his visionary ideas including an inflatable concert hall. His first international commission was the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, which he worked on from 1981 through 1986. Isozaki said that he was inspired by the red sandstone buildings of India. Among Isozaki’s works are the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona for the 1992 Olympics, the Shenzen Cultural Center in China and the Allianz Tower in Milan. His buildings are also found all over Japan, including museums and community centers in Kyushu, Osaka and Tokyo.
9. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider and the largest machine in the world. It is in news because The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has approved the experiment designed to look for light and weakly interacting particles at the LHC. It is planning a new experiment to look for particles associated with the mysterious dark matter which makes up about 27% of the universe. This novel experiment will help diversify the physics programme of colliders such as the LHC, and will allow the researchers to address unanswered questions in particle physics from a different perspective. FASER (or the Forward Search Experiment) will complement CERN’s ongoing physics programme & extend its discovery potential to several new particles. The FASER detector's total length is under 5m and its core cylindrical structure has a radius of 10cm. It will be installed in a side tunnel along an unused transfer line which links the LHC to its injector, the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). A collaboration of 16 institutes is building the detector and will carry out the experiments which will start taking data from LHC between 2021 and 2023. LHC is a giant lab in a 27-kilometre tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border. India is an associate member in the LHC project.
10. The book titled "Tiger Woman" has been authored by Bengali novelist Sirsho Bandopadhyay. It is translated by Arunava Sinha from the Bengali version "Shardulsundori" is set in the Calcutta of the 1880s. It’s a historical novel that places a tragic love triangle in an era of patriotism and the Great Bengal Circus became a metaphor for a frustrated social revolution.