Current Affairs - 2019-20

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PfKelch13 C580Y is a mutant of P. falciparum Kelch13. It was recently making news as a potential Malaria superbug spreading in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. 

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Miroslav Lajcak, the Slovak foreign minister, has been elected as the new President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at UN Headquarters in New York for the upcoming 72nd session. He will succeed Peter Thomson on September 12, 2017. The UNGA is the powerful body of 193 Member States that provides a forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the UN Charter. It meets in regular session intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as required. The 72nd session of the UNGA will commence from September 12, 2017.

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Currently (June, 2018), Apollo Global Management LLC tops the list of the world’s top 10 private equity firms, with just under $150 billion in total private equity assets under management(AUM) for 2015. Blackstone is the world’s second biggest private equity firm. 

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After 2018 amendment, the salaries of judges of higher judiciary in India are:

Chief Justice of India	Rs. 2,80,000
Supreme Court Judge	Rs.2,50,000
Chief Justice of High Court	Rs. 2,50,000
Judge of High Court	Rs. 2,25,000

Notes:
Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a voluntary initiative that helps countries manage chemicals to reduce their harmful impact on human health and the environment. The goal of SAICM is to ensure that by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.
SAICM is administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The development of SAICM was endorsed by Heads of State and Government at their summits in Johannesburg in 2002 and in New York in 2005.

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Buddha Poornima or Vesak is recognized as the thrice sacred day that marks the birth, enlightenment and parinirvana of Lord Buddha. While Buddha was born in Lumbini in present day Nepal, he attained sambodhiprapti in Bodhgaya in Bihar. In Sarnath, he set in motion the wheel of the Dharma, and finally attained mahaparinirvana in Kushinagar.

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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).

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NTPC Ltd. is on course to implementing the country's largest 1 GW solar park at Kadiri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Phase-I of the project has been completed by Tata Solar (100 MW), Sterling and Wilson (50 MW), BHEL (50MW) and Lanco (50 MW) and is generating power upto 250 MW. The balance 750 MW is expected to be completed over the course next fiscal by year 2018.

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Recently, the central government announced a National Mission on advanced ultra supercritical technologies for cleaner coal utilisation at a total cost of US $ 238 million. Under the mission, the government plans to set-up two Centres of Excellence on Clean Coal Technologies at US $5 million each. What is Advanced Ultra-Supercritical (AUSC) Technology? The pulverised coal power plants are divided into four categories based on operating temperature, pressure and efficiency of steam cycle. First is subcritical pulverised coal power plant that operates with critical temperature and critical pressure of water below 540 degree and 170-220 bars and has operating efficiency below 38%. Second is supercritical pulverised coal plant that operates with critical temperature and critical pressure above 615 degree and 250 bars and reaches efficiency upto 42%. Third is ultra-supercritical pulverised coal plant that operates with critical temperature and critical pressure of water above 620 degree and 330 bars and reaches efficiency in the range of 42% to 46 %. Fourth is advanced ultra-supercritical pulverised coal technology that operates with critical temperature and critical pressure of water in range of 700-760 degrees and 350 bars and targets operating efficiency greater than 50%.