Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
India’s deepest shaft cave has been discovered at Krem Um Ladaw in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya during the 28th edition of the annual ‘Caving in the Abode of the Clouds Expedition’. The cave has a 105 m deep shaft entrance passage. The cave has a 105 m deep shaft entrance passage. This comes a year after the discovery of the world’s longest sandstone cave – Krem Puri – near the village of Laitsohum in Mawsynram region of East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. With a length of 24,583 metres, Krem Puri was discovered back in 2016 but the actual length of the cave was obtained by the Meghalaya Adventurers’ Association (MAA) during one of its expeditions. The cave system has fossils of dinosaurs, especially the Mosasaurus, a giant reptile that lived 66-76 million years ago. With all these discoveries , Meghalaya has become one of the top caving regions of the world.

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Jimmy Carter — the 39th president of the United States — has reached a new milestone and become the longest-living President in U.S. history at the age of 94 years and 172 days. It exceeds by one day the lifespan of former President George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and 171 days. Both men were born in 1924: Bush on June 12, Carter on Oct. 1. Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.

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Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has recently released the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC). These guidelines urge businesses to actualize the principles in letter and spirit. For this purpose, the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business, 2011 (NVGS) have also been revised. According to the guidelines, businesses should conduct and govern themselves with integrity in a manner that is ethical, transparent and accountable. Businesses should provide goods and services in a manner that is sustainable and safe. It should also respect and promote the well-being of all employees, including those in their value chains.

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India has moved up two places to rank 76th on a global energy transition index 2019. This annual list, compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), has ranked 115 economies on how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability. Sweden remains on the top on this annual list and is followed by Switzerland and Norway in the top three. Among major economies, the UK is ranked 7th, Singapore 13th, Germany 17th, Japan 18th and the US 27th. Within Asia, Malaysia is ranked highest at 31st, Sri Lanka is 60th, Bangladesh 90th and Nepal 93rd. The report said that India is amongst the countries with high pollution levels and has a relatively high CO2 intensity in its energy system. Despite this, India has made significant strides to improve energy access in recent years, and currently scores well in the area of regulation and political commitment towards energy transition. The report suggested there was a ground for optimism regarding India despite the current outdated energy system not being ready for the transition because an enabling environment is being built to support the future transition.

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Australian researchers, at the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, have developed a new automated non-invasive technique for diagnosing eye surface cancer. The novel technique involves custom-building of an advanced imaging microscope linked with computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations. It results in an automated system that is able to successfully identify between diseased and non-diseased eye tissue, in real-time, through a simple scanning process. The new technique scans natural light given off by specific eye cells — diseased cells — that have their own unique ‘light-wave signature’. This new technique offers the potential to reduce the need for biopsies, prevent therapy delays, and make treatment far more effective for patients. Eye surface cancer, also known as Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia (OSSN), is a common malignancy of the cornea and conjunctiva parts of the eye.

Notes:
Indian paddler Archana Kamath clinched a silver in the under-21 women’s singles section of the Seamaster ITTF Challenge Plus 2019 Oman Open table tennis tournament at Muscat. Archana started playing table tennis at the age of 9 years. She won her first U-12 and also a U -18 State title in 2011, and retained her Karnataka State No 1 Sub-Junior ranking throughout 2012 with some consistent performances. Since 2013 her career graph has seen a very steep rise. As a player, she describes herself as a fierce attacker.

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On 21st March, Italy’s PRISMA Earth observation satellite launched into orbit by the European Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. PRISMA (or Precursore Iperspettrale della Missione Applicativa) is a small hyperspectral imaging satellite i.e. designed to provide information about environmental monitoring, resources management, pollution and crop health. The satellite includes a medium resolution camera that can view across all visual wavelengths, as well as a hyperspectral imager that can capture a wider range of wavelengths between 400 and 2500 nanometers. The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning that it circles the Earth in such a way that the sun is always in the same position as the satellite takes pictures of the planet below. PRISMA has been constructed by OHB Italia and will be operated by the Italian Space Agency “Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)”.

Notes:
The Financial Technology (Fintech) Conclave has been organized by NITI Aayog in New Delhi and was inaugurated by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das. The objective of the conclave is to shape India’s continued ascendancy in FinTech, build the narrative for future strategy and policy efforts, and to deliberate steps for comprehensive financial inclusion. Nearly 300 Representatives from across the financial space – central ministries, regulators, bankers, startups, service providers and entrepreneurs are participating in the conclave. India is one of the fastest growing FinTech markets globally and industry research has projected that USD 1 Trillion or 60% of retail and SME credit, will be digitally disbursed by 2029. The Indian FinTech ecosystem is the third largest in the globe, attracting nearly USD 6 billion in investments since 2014.

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The Langkawi International Maritime Aero Expo (LIMA-2019) has started in Langkawi, Malaysia from 26 March 2019 to 30 March 2019. Indian Air Force (IAF) is participating in the Maritime Aero Expo for the first time, during which it will showcase its indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Tejas. The participation of IAF in LIMA-2019 will provide an opportunity to air-warriors to interact with their Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) counterparts and foster close relationship between the two services. This will serve as a foundation for any future interaction with the Malaysian Air Force. It will also provide an opportunity to RMAF to assess the capabilities of LCA.

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Peter Tabichi, a science teacher from rural Kenya who donates most of his salary to help poorer students, has been crowned the world’s best teacher and awarded a $1m prize in Dubai. He is the maths and physics teacher at Keriko secondary school in Pwani Village, in a remote part of Kenya’s Rift Valley, has won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019. Tabichi gives away 80% of his income to help the poorest students who live in poverty and are either orphans or from single-parent families. He changed the lives of his students in many ways, including the introduction of science clubs and the promotion of peace between different ethnic groups and religions. He has also helped to address food insecurity among the wider community in the famine-prone Rift Valley. Drug abuse, teen pregnancies, drop-outs, and suicide are common, and the school has one computer, poor internet access, and a student-teacher ratio of 58:1. In spite of those circumstances, Tabichi’s science students have won various national science competitions, and qualified to participate at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2019 in the US.