Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
B.N. Mohapatra, an officer of Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) of 1980 batch, has been appointed the new Financial Commissioner (FC) of Indian Railways. Prior to this posting, he served as Additional Member (Finance) since November 2016,

Notes:
Tianwen-1 is China’s first independent interplanetary mission to Mars. The mission was launched on July 23, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mission consists of six spacecraft:

• An orbiter
• Two deployable cameras
• A lander
• A remote camera
• The Zhurong rover

Tianwen-1 reached Mars in February 2021. The Zhurong rover landed on May 14, 2021. China became the third country to land on Mars, after the US and the Soviet Union.

The mission has attracted the participation of institutions and organizations from around the world, including the European Space Agency, the French National Center for Space Studies, and Argentina’s National Space Activities Commission.

Notes:
Difference in per cent cost of ‘binding and cutting charges’ and ‘rotalty’ = (18-15)%= 3%
Now, 4% of total cost = Rs. 6000
∴ 3% of total cost = latex Rs. (6000× 3)/(4)= Rs. 4500

Notes:
The Unified Commanders’ Conference (UCC) for the year 2018 has started at New Delhi on July 30 to review external security challenges as well as the country’s preparedness. The 2-day annual conference will provide a platform for discussions at the Apex Level on all ‘Joint Issues’ among the three Services & Ministry of Defence. The scope of this conference is to enable the forum to facilitate joint stock taking of the previous year’s performance of all Services & Departments of Ministry of Defence and jointly chart the course for the next year. The conference will be attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force among others.

Notes:
The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989. It is also known as Green Nobel Prize. The prize is awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of US$175,000 per recipient. Prafulla Samantara is an environmentalist from Odisha. He is known for Lok Shakti Abhiyan, a civil rights organisation, which was at the forefront of the protests in Niyamgiri in Lanjigarh district where Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of Vedanta Alumina, was planning to set up mining operations in a joint venture with state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC).

Notes:
Till now, only Highways, ports, inland waterways and railways were part of the planned multi-modal logistics hubs in India. But recently Aviation sector has been also included as the part of multi-modal logistics hubs in India. With this step the government will integrate all kinds of logistics hubs. It has been included as a part of India Integrated Transport and Logistic policy. The integrated policy would include construction of 50 Economic Corridors and upgrading key feeder and inter corridor routes to improve overall efficiency of freight movement. It also includes developing 35 multimodal logistics parks to serve as centres for freight aggregation and distribution, multimodal transportation, storage and warehousing and value added services.

Notes:
India transformed from a low-income country in 1960 to lower-middle income country in 2008, and now is thriving to achieve the status of upper-middle income country. The category is decided based on criteria set by the World Bank. The current criteria by the World Bank are- 1006 – 3955 of per capita income for lower-middle income country and 3956 – 12235 per capita income for upper-middle income countries. The Per Capita Income of India as per the World Bank’s 2016 estimate is $ 1670.

Notes:
Pepper is being billed as the first “emotionally intelligent” robot. Miko is India’s first emotionally intelligent” robot.

Notes:
The Hubble space telescope has captured a new image showcasing an incredibly massive galaxy located under 400 million light-years away from the Earth. The galaxy UGC 12591 sits somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral, according to NASA.