GK & Current Affairs Quiz: July 18, 2018

Notes:
The Union Government has constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Anil Swarup ( former Secretary of School Education) to suggest measures to strengthen National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Service Scheme (NSS). The Committee will deal with on issues like expansion, strengthening training infrastructure, rationalizing resources, reducing manpower deficiency affecting NCC and NSS. The Committee will also submit recommend for building synergies between these two institutions viz. NCC and NSS and further strengthen them for empowering the youth. At present, there are 13.5 lakh cadets in NCC in the age group of 12 to 26 years with pan India presence in about 703 out of 716 districts.

Notes:
The Conference of Heads of AYUSH National Institutes was organized by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) under the Ministry of AYUSH at India International Centre, New Delhi on 17th and 18th July 2018. The aim of the conference was to upgrade quality of education, research, hospital care facilities in the national AYUSH institutions throughout the country and develop them as light house institutions. The AIIA is a public Ayurveda medicine & research institution and is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
India’s first greenfield skill training centre will come up at Baranga near Bhubaneswar in Odisha. For this, the Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone of NSTI Bhubaneswar on July 16. The aim of the state-of-the-art institute will be to impart training to the trainers & create a skill-based ecosystem to meet expectations of the industry. The National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) would provide a variety of hybrid skill training programmes, both long and short term, along with advanced diploma programme. The institute would impart training in Systems Applications Products (SAP), Internet of Things (IoT), healthcare and agriculture, mobile repairing, solar technician and technician mechatronics, advanced Diploma in IT Networking and Cloud Computing, Training of Trainers (ToT) in Pedagogy for Sector Skill Councils, ToT for conventional courses including fitter, electrician, plumbing and welding. The Institute will be set up at a cost of Rs. 160 crore, on a 5 Acre land.

Notes:
On July 14, Classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, columnist Rakesh Sinha, Sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and farmer leader Ram Shakal have been nominated by the President Ram Nath Kovind to the Rajya Sabha. The new nominations have been made to fill the vacancies caused due to the retirement of nominated members Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha, Anu Aga and K Parasaran. Under Article 80 of the Constitution, the President can nominate 12 members to the Rajya Sabha “from amongst persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.” The nominated members have six-year term. The other sitting nominated members include boxer Mary Kom, columnist Swapan Dasgupta, advocate K.T.S. Tulsi, economist Narendra Jadhav and BJP members Subramanian Swamy, Roopa Ganguly, Suresh Gopi and Sambhaji Chhatrapati.

Notes:
The scientists from IIT Delhi have developed a silk-based hydrogel that emulates the process of hair growth, an advance that may help screen novel drugs for treating hair loss without using animal tests. The hydrogel is developed by combining a mixture of silk proteins, isolated from silkworm cocoons, and gelatin. Tyrosinase enzyme was used to develop a stable hydrogel system. The system provided an ideal environment to develop a complete 3D model of hair follicle regeneration. Hair loss is a common ailment, and can be stressful for the people experiencing it. A number of factors including genes, illness, trauma and surgeries can lead to temporary or permanent hair loss. However, as per researchers, alopecia – condition that occurs due to abnormal growth cycle or reduction in the size of hair follicles – is the major reason contributing to permanent hair loss. The study is published in the Journal of Cellular Physiology, which shows how the 3-dimensional mini organs can mimic the different stages of hair growth in humans.

Notes:
Aruna Sairam, the renowned Carnatic vocalist, has been selected for the 2018 Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy. She will preside over the 92nd annual conference to be held between December 15, 2018 and January 1, 2019. The award will be conferred to her on January 1, the day of Sadas. Beside her, Mridhangist Thanjavur R. Ramadoss and vocalist K. Oman Kutty will receive the Sangita Kala Acharya award. T.T.K. Awards will be given to veena player Kalyani Ganesan and nagaswaram player S.R.G. Rajanna. Dr. Premeela Gurumurthy, the Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu University for Fine Arts, will get the musicologist award and dancer Shanta Dhananjayan will get the Nritiya Kalanidhi award, which will be conferred on her January 3

Notes:
According to the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/ GM Crops in 2017 by International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), India has the world’s fifth largest cultivated area under genetically modified (GM) crops. However, this entire area is under single crop – cotton. Currently, the country with highest area under transgenic crops, at 75 mh, is the United States. US grows GM soyabean, maize (corn), cotton, alfalfa, canola, sugar-beet, potato, apples, squash and papaya.

Notes:
The French National Football team has clinched the 2018 FIFA World Cup by defeating Croatia 4-2 in a thrilling final match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15. Croatia were playing in their first World Cup final. They were the smallest country to reach the Final in the modern era. For France, it was a first World Cup crown since winning on home soil in 1998. England’s Harry Kane won the World Cup Golden Boot Award as top scorer with 6 goals. Croatia captain Luka Modric won the Golden Ball award for the World Cup’s best player despite being on the losing side. Kylian Mbappe of France won the Young Player of the Tournament Award after scoring his 4th goal of the competition in the final. Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois won the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper. Now, France joined Uruguay and Argentina in winning the World Cup for a second time, after their 1998 triumph over Brazil when Didier Deschamps — now the coach — was the captain.

Notes:
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with Google to monitor the impacts of human activity on global ecosystems by using sophisticated online tools. The purpose of the partnership is to develop a platform to enable governments, NGO’s and the public to track specific environment-related development targets with a user-friendly Google front-end. The partnership was launched during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the UN headquarters in New York. Initially, the focus will be on fresh-water ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes. These areas account for 0.01% of the world’s water but provide habitat for almost 10 per cent of the world’s known species and evidence suggests a rapid loss of freshwater biodiversity. Google will periodically produce geo-spatial maps and data on water-related ecosystems by employing massive parallel Cloud computing technology.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has inaugurated the state-run power giant National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC)’s 250 MW Solar Power Plant at Suwasra in district Mandsaur. This project has been set up mainly on non-agricultural land and generation of electricity has been achieved without affecting the natural eco-system with zero carbon emission at an investment of about Rs 1,500 crore. This is one of the biggest solar plant developed using domestically manufactured Solar cells and modules under the Make in India initiative. The Project has been commissioned in June 2017 and generated electricity is being supplied for consumption in Madhya Pradesh, the sole beneficiary.