Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Anita Kundu, a Haryana police sub-inspector from Hisar, has made history by becoming the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest from the China side on May 2017. Earlier, she had scaled the Mt. Everest from Nepal side in May 2013.

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The Indian Railways has recently launched a virtual server “RailCloud” with an inbuilt security system to optimise server usage and faster connectivity. The technology is developed by rail PSU RailTel at an estimated cost of approx Rs 53 crore. The RailCloud technology enables maximising the usage of available server and storage resulting in accommodation of bigger data and more applications within same server space. It will cover all management related to various services like human resources, health and hospital, signal assets, freight and logistics and energy among others. Beside this, the first IT application on RailCloud “Nivaran-Grievance Portal” was also launched. Nivaran is a platform for resolution of service-related grievances of serving and former railway employees.

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The World Water Day (WWD) is observed every year on 22 March to raise awareness about the importance of water. The 2018 theme ‘Nature for Water’ is exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges the world faces in the 21st century. The day is about focusing on the importance of water and the need to preserve it. The day encourages people not to waste one of the most important elements that sustain life on the planet. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

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To strengthen the aviation sector in Gujarat, the state government has planned to set up the country’s first-ever aviation park in the state. Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Ltd (GUJSAIL) has been tasked with the project. It would include facilities including an airstrip, training school, helipad and space for setting up small manufacturing units. The company has recently identified a piece of land near Bagodara village for this park. “This will be a first ever Aviation Park in India.

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Generally, diabetes patients are advised to avoid eating rice. But recently, researchers in India have identified a high-yielding variety of white rice with low Glycemic Index (GI) that is not harmful for diabetic patients and hence can be consumed by them. The newly identified variety of white rice has low Glycemic Index (GI), a measurement that indicates a particular type of carbohydrate-containing food’s impact on a person’s blood glucose (also called blood sugar) level. This white rice variety was found on the “Chapati Gurmatiya” race of rice, which is a traditional cultivated variety of paddy in Chhattisgarh.

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Recently, Government has planned to organise an international bird festival in this Dudhwa tiger reserve. The bird festival is being organized jointly by the state forest department and Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). This region is home to 450 bird species, including the endangered Bengal florican and vulnerable bird species like swamp partridge, also called swamp francolin, sarus crane and herons.

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The highest tree cover is shown by Maharashtra (9831 sq km) followed by Rajasthan (8266 sq km), Madhya Pradesh (8073 sq km) and Gujarat (8024 sq km).

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Venezuela and Libya were recently suspended from voting in the UN General Assembly for the third time in three years because of millions of dollars in unpaid dues to the world body. Venezuela is required to pay a minimum of $25,200,296 to restore its voting rights and Libya needs to pay at least $6,594,842.

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Recently, the AYUSH Ministry has inaugurated India’s first advanced Homoeopathy Virology lab in Kolkata. The cost of laboratory is Rs. 8 crore. Currently, it is the only one in India for conducting basic and fundamental research in homeopathy for viral diseases such as influenza, Japanese encephalitis, dengue, chikungunya and swine flu.

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Team Indus comprises about 100 people mostly engineers is led by Rahul Narayan. It is the only Indian team participating to win the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize. The team has tied up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the aim of hoisting India’s flag through an unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface on January 26, 2018, the 69th Republic Day.