Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
P Venkata Ramesh Babu, a 1985 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as the director-general of the National Archives of India (NAI). Prior to this post, he was CMD of Rural Electrification Corporation Limited. The NAI is a repository of the non-current records of the Government of India (GoI) and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars. It functions as an Attached Office of the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Culture.

Notes:
‘The New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019’ has recently signed by the five rhino range nations – India, Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and Malaysia – for the conservation and protection of the species at the recently held 2nd Asian Rhino Range Countries meeting in New Delhi. The declaration was signed to conserve and review the population of the Greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran rhinos every four years to reassess the need for joint actions to secure their future. The declaration includes undertaking studies on health issues of the rhinos, their potential diseases and taking necessary steps; collaborating and strengthening wildlife forensics for the purpose of investigation and strengthening of transboundary collaboration among India, Nepal and Bhutan for the conservation and protection of the Greater one-horned rhino. The meet was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in collaboration with IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group, WWF- India and Aaranyak.

Notes:
The 3rd edition of the bilateral joint exercise “Al Nagah 2019” is scheduled to be held between India and Oman from 12th to 25th March at Jabel Al Akhdar Mountains in Oman. In the exercise, both the armies will exchange expertise and experience in tactics, weapon handling and firing. The aim of this exercise is to enhance interoperability in counter terrorist operations in semi urban mountainous terrain.

Notes:
Hewlett Packard India has recently signed a MoU with the Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (APIS) and Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) to build a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Additive Manufacturing (AM) powered by HP’s 3D printing technology. APIS would provide infrastructural support and enable necessary certifications and accreditations while APEDB will drive and encourage the usage of the CoE by government departments, defence and public sector enterprises. The CoE is part of the state government’s vision to accelerate adoption of 3D printing in various industry sectors such as automotive, aerospace, defence, consumer goods, healthcare, apparel and construction. It will be equipped with HP’s 3D printers that can handle short run production and functional prototyping. The 3D printing centre would give Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) and start-ups in Andhra Pradesh an opportunity to learn more about the benefits of Additive Manufacturing (AM).

Notes:
Subhash Chandra Garg , a 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, has been designated as the new Finance Secretary (FS) of India. He is also the current Union Economic Affairs Secretary. He succeeded Ajay Narayan Jha. As per the convention, the senior-most among the five secretaries in the Finance Ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary. Here, Ajay Bhushan Pandey is the Revenue Secretary, Rajiv Kumar is Secretary in Department of Financial Services, Atanu Chakraborty is Secretary in Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and Girish Chandra Murmu is the Expenditure Secretary. Pandey and Kumar are 1984 batch IAS officers of Maharshtra and Jharkhand cadre respectively. Chakraborty and Murmu are 1985 batch IAS officers of Gujarat cadre.

Notes:
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has recently launched the free milk scheme “Mukhyamantri Anchal Amrit Yojana” for anganwadi children . Under the Amrit Yojana, flavored, sweet, skimmed milk powder will be made available to the 20,000 Anganwadi kendras across the state. Nearly 2.5 lakh children at 20,000 Anganwadi kendras in the state will be given 100 ml milk twice a week for free. This scheme has been launched as part of state government drive to fight against malnutrition in the state. Approx 18,000 children suffer from malnutrition in Uttarakhand.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
On March 11, the indigenously developed Pinaka guided weapon rocket system successfully test fired at Pokhran desert in Rajasthan to boost artillery capability of the Indian Army. The short range guided Pinaka weapon system is equipped with a state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising an advanced navigation and control system. The weapon system, which is developed by DRDO, impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies in all the missions. The unique feature of the Pinaka versions tested is the integrated avionics system; it consists of an on-board mission computer, miniaturised navigation system and telemetry. The existing Pinaka systems held in the inventory of the Indian defence runs into thousands of numbers. The new guidance system will benefit them.