Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
The World Vitiligo Day (WVD) is observed every year on June 25 to raise awareness about the condition. The 2019 theme ‘The Quality of Life of a Vitiligo Patient’ focuses on mental and medical journey of vitiligo. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder wherein the immune system of the body attacks the healthy cells and in turn starts affecting the body. The condition is characterized by white patches on the skin that develops as a result of melanocytes within the skin. These are the cells that are responsible for the skin pigment melanin that gives color to your skin. The white patches appear when the melanocytes die off. The condition is also termed as Vitiligo or Leucoderma or White Leprosy.

Notes:
The first-ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) will be held in New Delhi between 11th to 13th October. The initiative is a part of the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 which aims at doubling the agriculture export and integrating Indian farmers and agriculture products with global value chains. The Trade Fair is aimed at promoting cooperative to cooperative trade within the country and abroad leading to enhanced rural and farm prosperity. The fair offers a huge opportunity for the industry and business houses from India and abroad to build alliances, product sourcing and interact with the primary producers of a wide range of products and service providers.

Notes:
The book titled “A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief” has been authored by former Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar. The book is about the huge impact that the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had on the armed forces of India. The author called Kargil as the finest hour of Vajpayee . He credits Vajpayee for turning the strategic tactical loss into a massive victory and for which he gave full credit to the Armed Forces. Admiral Kumar was the Navy Chief between 1998 and 2001 and oversaw the Kargil conflict in 1999.

Notes:
NASA has selected Texas-based Southwest Research Institute to lead its PUNCH mission which will image the Sun. This is a landmark mission that will image regions beyond the Sun’s outer corona. Prof. Dipankar Banerjee, solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) is also a Co-Investigator of the PUNCH mission. The acronym ‘PUNCH’ stands for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere”. The PUNCH mission is focused on understanding the transition of particles from the Sun’s outer corona to the solar wind that fills interplanetary space. India is also planning to send up its own satellite Aditya-L1, a mission to study the Sun’s corona, and Prof. Banerjee is the co-Chair of the Science Working Group.

Notes:
A team of herpetologists from the Forest Department and two NGOs — Help Earth and Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) have discovered the Impressed Tortoise (Manouria impressa) in Yazali area of the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the first-ever recorded sighting in India of this tortoise which is on a red list of threatened species. Chelonian is an order of reptile that includes turtles, terrapins and tortoises. The male Impressed Tortoise is smaller than the female which is 30 cm in length. This Manouria species is one-third the size of the Asian Forest Tortoise. There are only two species of tortoises under the Manouria genus. India was known to be the home of only the Asian Forest Tortoise (Manouria emys) until the discovery of the Impressed Tortoise. The Asian Forest Tortoise, the largest in mainland Asia, is found only in the northeast, as are 20 of the other 28 species of chelonians.

Notes:
NASA has recently announced its New Frontiers program, called Dragonfly mission, to explore Saturn’s largest moon – Titan. It’s the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere.The rotorcraft will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for pre-biotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. The mission will launch in 2026 and will reach Titan by 2034. Titan is the 2nd-largest natural satellite in our Solar System, and is larger than the Moon and the planet Mercury. As it orbits Saturn, Titan is about 886 million miles (1.4 billion km) away from the Sun, about 10 times farther than Earth. Because it is so far from the Sun, its surface temperature is minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius). Its surface pressure is also 50% higher than Earth’s. Titan has a dense, nitrogen-based atmosphere like Earth. Unlike Earth, it has clouds and rain of methane. Other organics are formed in the atmosphere and fall like light snow.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has launched a toll-free Chief Minister helpline No. 1076 that will enable people from across the state to register their complaints and will ensure a time-bound action on the complaints also. The CM helpline number 1076 will work 24×7 and anyone from any part of the state can call on this number anytime. The 500-seater call centre has been established for the helpline and it has the capacity to handle 80,000 inbound and 55,000 outbound calls on a daily basis. When the complainant calls the helpline, he/she will get an SMS informing that the complaint has been sent to the department concerned.

Notes:
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) has selected Mastercard CEO and President Ajay Banga and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji for its 2019 Global Excellence Awards. The prestigious award will be presented to both the business leaders at its 2nd Annual Leadership Summit in Washington on July 11. The leadership summit will highlight areas of bilateral cooperation like trade and investment, strategic energy ties, manufacturing and innovation partnership.

Notes:
The ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Iraq has been lobbying since 1983 for the 4,000-year-old site to be added to the UN’s prestigious list. The seat of successive empires, under rulers such as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon represents the expression of the creativity of the Neo-Babylonian Empire at its height. The city’s association with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — the Hanging Gardens — has also inspired artistic, popular and religious culture on a global scale. It also warns that the site is in an “extremely vulnerable condition” and in need of urgent conservation. The city was famous for its Hanging Gardens, which were among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The site has suffered in recent years – first from the construction of a palace for Saddam Hussein, and later from being used as a base for US troops.

Notes:
The ‘WorldSkills India’s International Cloud Computing Challenge 2019’ will be organized by NASSCOM in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Ten countries including India are participating in the competition, along with New Zealand, Belgium, Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Oman and Ireland. The finalists would further compete in the 45th “WorldSkills International Competition 2019”, to be held in Kazan, Russia in August 2019. The “WorldSkills India” is an NSDC initiative launched in 2011 to provide a platform to the youth, along with industries and educators to compete, experience, learn and develop key professional skill sets required for Industry 4.0. The NSDC is headquarterd at New Delhi & Anil Manibhai Naik is its chief.