April 07 & 08 – Current Affairs Quick Gyan

In Current Affairs 2017
April 8, 2016

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.

Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.

Always Keep Yourself Updated!!!

APPOINTMENTS

Sharad Agarwal appointed as head of Lamborghini India Pvt Ltd

Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd, the Indian arm of Italy-based super luxury sports car maker, has appointed Sharad Agarwal, as its head with immediate effect. He was previously the head of Field Force for Audi India. In his new role, Agarwal will oversee the functions of sales, marketing, after sales and network development.

Prior to his appointment, Agarwal has been associated with Audi India since May 2012 as Head of Corporate Sales, Fleet and Leasing and Financial Services and moved as Head of Field Forces in 2013. He has been associated with Zuari Industries, TVS Motor Company and Mahindra First Choice. As the Head of Lamborghini India, his role is to drive the entire spectrum of activities for Lamborghini in India, overseeing the functions of sales, marketing, after sales and network development.

Quick Link – Sharad Agarwal as head of Lamborghini

AWARDS AND HONORS

Vishwanathan Anand to be honoured with Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award

Chess legend Viswanathan Anand will be honoured with the Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award. Maharashtra Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao will present the award in Mumbai on April 12. The previous recipients of the award include eminent personalities like Lata Mangeshkar, Babasaheb Purandare, Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and A R Rahman.

Born on December 11, 1969, Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former world champion.
He became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002 and became the undisputed world champion in 2007.
Other sports personalities like D Prasad, Praveen Thipsay along with his wife Bhagyashree Thipsay, Padmashree Anupama Gokhale, Raghunandan Gokhale, Dhanraj Pullay, Devendra Joshi, Kamesh Mehta and Parnali

Quick Link – Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Odisha Government launches Adarsh Vidyalaya Project

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya (OAV) project at Sasan Ambagaon village in his home constituency Hinjli in Ganjam district. The aim of the project is to provide modern schools on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas in the underdeveloped rural pockets of the State.

The government aims at opening one Adarsh Vidyalaya in each of the 314 revenue blocks of the State.
Adarsh Vidyalayas are expected to have hostel facility in future and will be affiliated to the CBSE.
They would have English as the first language and Odia as the second language as medium of teaching.
These schools will have teacher-pupil ratio of 1:25 and classroom-student ratio of 1:40. Around 50 per cent of total seats would be reserved for the scheduled categories and girls.
The State government has appointed special teachers and principals and these schools are to be managed by the Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya Sangathan, formed by the State like the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

Quick Link – Adarsh Vidyalaya Project

Uma Bharti inaugurates Water Films Festival

The Water Film Festival, a part of the India Water Week celebrations, was inaugurated by Uma Bharti, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in New Delhi. The film festival is organized by the Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), a PSU under Ministry of Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that Water Resources are the prime input to the growth and prosperity of a nation and Films can prove to be an effective tool of communication to spread the message of water conservation. Sushri Bharti said such films should be shown in every nook and corner of the country for the benefit of the masses.

Quick Link – Water Films Festival

Establishment of First Horticulture University in Haryana

Union Agriculture and farmers Welfare Minister, Radha Mohan Singh laid the Foundation stone of Haryana State University of Horticultural Sciences at Karnal, Haryana. A full fledged horticultural university will cater the needs to support the gap between teaching, research and extension activities in the state and will establish the convergence and synergy to disseminate latest technology and horticulture education to our young generation, besides identifying strategies for further development.

Haryana has made a vision to make Modern Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation State and to give a boost to the growth of horticulture and also creation of market and post harvest infrastructure.
This university is expected to help in improving productivity levels and to adopt appropriate crop diversification to suit the agro climatic conditions of the region.
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister said that Haryana is leader in adopting Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture programme and giving priority for protected cultivation and post Harvest management.
Singh said that this University will also act as a skill development centre to cater the larger demand for trained manpower in the production, post harvest and processing industries.

Quick Link – Horticulture University

Union HRD Minister Smriti Zubin Irani Launches ISBN Portal

The Union Minster of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani launched a portal for registration and allotment of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) at a function held in New Delhi. The Union Minister said that the ISBN portal has been created in a short period of time, to facilitate publishers as well as the authors to register for ISBN online. This interactive automated system would provide fast and efficient services in a stipulated time frame to the Publishers and Authors as well.

To address the problem of free download of works of authors from the internet, she assured the book writing fraternity that the issue will be discussed with the concerned ministries including DeitY which will be shared with the states.

Amish Tripathi, well-known author was the Chief Guest on the occasion. He said that, “ISBN gives an identity to a book. If you do not have it, the bookshops will not sell it.” He observed that ISBN is free in India unlike other countries like US and UK where publishers need to pay huge money for its registration.

Quick Link – ISBN Portal

Madhukar Gupta committee to suggest ways to tighten security along Indo-Pak border

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted high-level committee to suggest ways to tighten security along India-Pakistan border. The committee will be headed by former Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta. It will suggest ways

To strengthen the security along the India-Pakistan Border.
Address the issue of gaps and vulnerability in border fencing.

MHA decision to constitute to this committee comes after two terrorist attacks in Punjab. First was in July 2015 on Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district and second was in January 2016 on strategic Pathankot airbase. In both attacks terrorists from Pakistan had infiltrated into India after beaching the India-Pakistan border in Punjab especially from the riverine stretch.

Quick Link – Indo-Pak border

CSIR Features in the Thomson Reuters Top 50 Indian Innovator Companies

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) features in the Thomson Reuters top 50 Indian Innovator companies and research organizations for the year 2015. The Top 50 Indian Innovators lead the country in innovation output. They are a group of businesses and research institutions that develop, recognize and protect great ideas and use it to their full potential.

Thomson Reuters India Innovation Awards honors the most innovative academic institutions and commercial enterprises headquartered in India for their spirit of innovation in R&D as it relates to Indian patent publications.
Thomson Reuters 2015 India Innovation Awards is based on research and analysis done using the Derwent World Patents Index, the world’s most trusted and authoritative value-added patent database.
Data from 2010-2014 was used for the analysis.
The metrics used are patent volume, grant success rate, globalization, and citation influence.

Quick Link – CSIR

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson named as new PM of Iceland

Iceland’s government named a new prime minister and called for early elections in the autumn, a day after Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson quit to become the first global politician brought down by the “Panama Papers” leaks. It was unclear whether the naming of Fisheries Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson to head the government or the call for early elections would satisfy the thousands of Icelanders who in street protests this week demanded the government resign immediately for early elections. Gunnlaugsson quit as prime minister after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm showed his wife owned an offshore company that held millions of dollars in debt from failed Iceland ic banks.

Gunnlaugsson had led the island nation of 330,000 people since 2013. The accusations involving him are especially painful for many Icelanders who remember the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted in the collapse of Iceland’s currency, stock market and several major banks.
The government said the decision to hold elections in autumn would give it time to follow through on one of the biggest economic policy changes in decades—the ending of capital controls introduced to rescue the economy from the 2008 financial crisis.
Johannsson, who had served also as agriculture minister in the government, told reporters the government would further pursue its big projects of the last three years, the largest being the abolition of capital controls.

Quick Link – Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson

Armenia and Azerbaijan declare ceasefire

Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh have said they are halting hostilities after four days of intense fighting between them, which had prompted warnings the conflict could spiral into all-out war. The ceasefire announcement came as several European countries urged an end to the fighting, worried that an escalation could cause instability in a region that serves as a corridor for pipelines taking oil and gas to world markets. The fighting has been the bloodiest in years, and has claimed at least 64 lives in total since it erupted.

Ex-Soviet states Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over the mountainous territory in the early 1990s in which thousands were killed on both sides and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The war ended with a fragile truce in 1994, followed since by sporadic bouts of violence.
The truce was shattered over the weekend, with the two sides exchanging heavy fire using artillery, tanks, rocket systems and helicopters.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous enclave with a large ethnic Armenian population that lies inside the territory of Azerbaijan.

Quick Link – Armenia and Azerbaijan

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Bronze bust of Aryabhatta unveiled at UNESCO Headquarters

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani unveiled a bronze bust of the ancient Indian mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata, which is a gift from India, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Smriti Irani was attending the high-level segment of the ‘International Conference on the Zero‘. The event was held at UNESCO headquarters to celebrate the rich and remarkable history of mathematics in collaboration with India.

Irani participated in the high level segment, the Leaders’ Forum, held at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris on November 16-17, 2015 as a part of the 38th session of the UNESCO General Conference.
During this visit, the Minister also held a meeting with the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, to discuss the full range of India’s cooperation with the organization.
As a follow up to the discussions held during the bilateral meeting, for the first time, both the leaders issued Joint Statement on the occasion of the National Mathematics Day, i.e. 22nd December, which is the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian intellectual and mathematician. Both the leaders agreed to organize in 2016 a Conference on ‘Zero’ at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Quick Link – UNESCO Headquarters

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

China launches SJ-10 retrievable space science probe

China has put a retrievable scientific research satellite into the space in a fresh bid to aid scientists back on Earth in studying microgravity and space life science. In a cloud of brown smoke, the satellite, SJ-10, roared into the air on the back of a Long March 2-D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s gobi desert.

While in space, the bullet-shaped probe will house 19 experiments involving microgravity fluid physics, microgravity combustion, space material, space radiation effect, microgravity biological effect and space bio-technology, before coming back to Earth with results.
On-board experiments were selected from a pool of over 200 applicants.
They include one that will study early-stage development of mouse embryos in microgravity to shed light on human reproduction in space, and another studying space radiation effects on genetic stability of fruit flies and rat cells.
The former test is aimed to improve scientists’ understanding of oil reservoirs buried kilometers underground, while the latter is expected to help enhance energy efficiency and cut emissions.

Quick Link – SJ-10

SPORTS

India wins 2016 Asian Nations Cup Chess tournament

Indian men won the Asian Nations Cup Chess tournament with a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in the final round as they pushed formidable China down to second place. India collected 17 points, two more than World and Olympiad champions China, to clinch the title. Top seed China beat UAE 4-0 in their final round match. Kazakhstan and Iran took the third and fourth places respectively.

India drew Mongolia and beat the rest of the teams in a 22-team nine round Swiss on four boards with one reserve. In the final round match against Vietnam, Grandmasters S P Sethuraman and K Sasikiran won on the second and fourth boards while GMs B Adhiban and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi drew their respective matches on top and third boards.

This was the third time that Indian men won the event. They won at Esfahan, Iran in 2005 and Kolkata 2009 previously when China did not participate on both occasions. Therefore, this victory over China was something which will be remembered for long.

Quick Link – Asian Nations Cup Chess tournament

Kento Momota and Ratchanok Intanon won 2016 Yonex Sunrise India Open badminton titles

Kento Momota of Japan won men’s singles title at the 2016 Yonex-Sunrise India Open badminton championship. In the final match held at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi, he defended the title by defeating Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen 21-15 21-18. Earlier, in an another match, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon won the women’s singles title by defeating Xuerui Li of China.

Winners of other titles

Men’s Doubles: Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia

Women’s Doubles: Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan

Mixed Doubles: Kai Lu and Huang Yaqiong of China

Quick Link – Yonex Sunrise India Open badminton titles

OBITUARY

Architect of Madras Atomic Power Station MHP Rao passes away

Myneni Hari Prasad Rao, considered the architect of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) and its first project director died here in a private hospital due to old age ailments at the age of 88. Rao was specially appointed by the then Nuclear Power Board to oversee the construction and commissioning of the MAP).

Celebrating the silver jubilee of the unit 1 of MAPS at Kalpakkam, 70 km from Chennai, in 2008, Rao had recalled: “We had to lift the generator weighing 186 tonnes. There were budgetary constraints for hiring a crane. So we bought 380,000 railway sleepers and pulled and pushed the generator inch by inch the generator up for 33 ft.”

The wooden sleepers were later sold at a profit of Rs.800,000 (about $20,000), he added.

However, the day the unit was synchronised was marked by a fire accident. The incident happened at the turbine generator and it was Rao who took the fire hydrant to douse the flames.

Quick Link – MHP Rao passes away

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