Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Aleksandar Vucic, the chairman of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), has been sworn-in as the new President of Serbia on May 31, 2017 and succeeded Tomislav Nikolic. He won the 2017 Serbian Presidential election by 55% of votes on April 2017. Prior to this post, Vucic was the Prime Minister of Serbia.

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The above given information is for Tiwa tribe of Assam which has been frequently in news for practising Jhum cultivation.

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ISRO has recently established the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer system at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

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Recently, Switzerland and India have inked a pact to extend the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) by five years till 2021 based on successes achieved by the project in the first phase. 

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Gujarat’s Dahej is all set to get India’s first roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) vessel passenger ferry services around April 2017. The Rs 550 crore projects being executed by the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), and is expected to bring down travel time between Saurashtra regions in Gujarat with its Southern parts significantly. From Ghoga in Saurashtra to Dahej in South Gujarat takes around 10-12 hours for trucks and buses, and even by cars it is not less than 6-8 hours. Once the Ro-Ro ferry service commences, this time would be dramatically shortened to one and a half hours. Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle, such as a self-propelled modular transporter. This is in contrast to lift-on/lift-off (Lolo) vessels, which use a crane to load and unload cargo. Roll-on/Roll-off or ‘Ro-Ro’ services for freight transport have being proposed to be introduced at five places – Kolkata, Sahibganj, Varanasi, Patna and Bhagalpur besides setting up small terminals at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

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Recently, Scientists have discovered a new planet called Ross 128b that could possibly sustain life. This planet is located just 11 light-years away. It is a temperate planet that orbits a “quiet star”. It gets its name from the fact that it doesn’t spew out life-threatening bursts of radiation. The planet was discovered using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument.

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In Budget 2018, the finance minister announced for two defence industrial corridors. Recently, the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the path for first of the two. The first defence industrial corridor will connect Chennai and Bengaluru and will pass through Coimbatore and several other industrial clusters.

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Recently, Strand Life Sciences has launched a Liquid Biopsy test portfolio, called STRAND LB that provides highly sensitive detection of tumour traces from a simple blood draw. The test is helpful in detecting the wide variety of cancer types – including lung, colorectal, breast, and bladder cancer.

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Bandar Laddu, a sweet dish from Andhra Pradesh, has been recently registered in the Geographical Indication Registry in food category. Gowra Venkateswara Rao of Mallayya Sweets has been credited in earning the GI tag for the “Bandar Laddu”. The origin of the sweet could be traced from the Rajputs of Rajasthan, who had migrated to Machilipatnam from Bundelkhand in Rajasthan after the 1857 Sepoy mutiny.

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The central government proposed setting up of Food Legumes Research Platform (FLRP) at Sehore in Madhya Pradesh with Satellite Hubs in West Bengal (for pulses) and Rajasthan (for Natural Resource Management).