Latest Current Affairs – July 04 & 05 2018
1. US defeat Belgium to win Quidditch World Cup for third time
The US defeated Belgium in the fourth Quidditch World Cup’s final to clinch their third title. As many as 29 countries competed in the 2018 Quidditch World Cup, which is based on the game mentioned in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Two teams of seven players run around with broomsticks between their legs and engage in a full-contact contest.
2. Google aims to add 40 million WiFi users in India by 2019
Google’s public WiFi project aims to capture 40 million new users in India by 2019, a company executive has said. It will result in around $20 billion being added to India’s GDP, according to Google and research firm Analysys Mason’s study. They also revealed over 100 million users will spend an extra $3 billion annually on mobile broadband and handsets.
3. Russia to build two nuclear power units in China
Russia will build two nuclear power units in China which are expected to be operational by 2026 and 2027 respectively. Russia’s state nuclear power corporation Rosatom and China’s National Energy Administration signed a deal to build the two 1,200-megawatt units at the Tianwan nuclear power plant. Russia has built 35 nuclear power units around the world under intergovernmental agreements.
4. World’s first digital art museum opens in Tokyo
The world’s first all-digital art museum has opened at the MORI Building Digital Art Museum in Japan’s Tokyo. It features around 50 kaleidoscopic installations triggered by motion sensors, which are projected across every surface of the 100,000-square-foot exhibit space with the help of lights. The museum appears to be a set of halls with black walls without the lights.
5. Indian-American appointed head of US drug enforcement agency
Uttam Dhillon, an Indian-American lawyer has been appointed the Acting Administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Dhillon, who holds a law degree from the University of California, became the first Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement in 2006. Dhillon last served as the Deputy Counsel and Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump.
6. Sports Authority of India to be renamed Sports India: Rathore
Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has revealed the name of Sports Authority of India will be changed to Sports India. Rathore added the body will be made leaner as “some posts won’t be retained after officers on them retire”. He further said that daily expenses of food for athletes will be raised and a committee for it is being formed.
7. WhatsApp announces ?34L research awards to fight fake news
WhatsApp has announced Research Awards of up to ?34 lakh per research proposal on fake news spreading on the platform. It will provide funding for proposals designed to be shared with WhatsApp, Facebook, and other policy communities. It comes a day after the Indian government warned WhatsApp over spreading of fake news that led to mob lynchings in the country.
8. ‘Gaumutra’ better cure for cancer than chemo: Guj university
A team of researchers at Gujarat’s Junagadh Agriculture University claimed that ‘gaumutra’ or cow urine is more effective in treating cancer than chemotherapy. The researchers conducted experiments for a year, researching on cancer cells procured in a bottle, with their attempt to kill cells using cow urine emerging successful. They will now conduct experiments on rats.
9. Maharashtra fisherman who saved 12 lives at sea wins national award
A fisherman from Maharashtra will receive National Maritime Search and Rescue Award for saving 12 fishermen whose boat had capsized. Milan Shankar Tare was fishing off Satpati coast at night when he heard cries for help and noticed that the navigational lights visible from a boat earlier were missing. He immediately started moving in that direction and raised an alarm.
10. RBI issues licence to Bank of China for operations in India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reportedly issued a licence to Bank of China to operate in India. The decision was reportedly based on the commitment made by PM Narendra Modi to Chinese leadership during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. Bank of China is one of China’s four major state-owned banks and has a market capitalisation of $153 billion.
11. Govt approves hike in Minimum Support Price for kharif crops
The GOI has approved the raise in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for kharif crops in line with its budget announcement to ensure that farmers get at least 1.5 times of the production cost. The MSP for paddy has been hiked to around ?1,750 per quintal from previous year’s ?1,550 and corn increased to ?1,700 from ?1,131.
12. Indian scientists discover exoplanet 600 light years away
Indian scientists at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, found a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size planet about 600 light years away from the Earth. The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed “PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search” (PARAS) spectrograph integrated with 1.2 m Telescope at PRL’s Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu.
The discovery is important for understanding the formation mechanism of sub-Saturn and super-Neptune like planets that are too close to host star.
13. Govt asks states to check mob violence over WhatsApp rumours
The Home Affairs Ministry has asked states and union territories to check mob violence incidents triggered by child-lifiting rumours on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. States have been asked to “identify vulnerable areas and conduct community outreach programmes for creating awareness”. The ministry further stressed that kidnappings should be properly investigated to instill confidence.
14. Rhino embryo created for 1st time to save nearly extinct species
Researchers have created the world’s first rhino embryos in a test tube to save near-extinct northern white rhinos, which has only two females alive globally. For this, the team fertilised southern white rhinos’ eggs with dead northern white rhinos’ sperm. Researchers also plan to use this process on last two northern white females to produce pure northern white rhino embryos.
15. Mukesh Ambani launches JioGigaFiber broadband services
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has launched JioGigaFiber fixed-line broadband services at the company’s 41st Annual General Meeting. JioGigaFiber will be extended to homes, merchants, and small and medium enterprises across 1,100 cities. Ambani said the service would provide Ultra HD entertainment on TV, voice-activated assistance, VR gaming as well as smart home solutions.
16. Baidu to launch fully self-driving buses in Japan in 2019
Chinese technology giant Baidu has partnered with Softbank’s public-transportation subsidiary SB Drive to launch a self-driving bus service in Japan next year. Baidu is also working with Chinese automaker King Long to build the buses and has made 100 of them so far. The buses, which can seat 14 passengers, will come without a driver’s seat or a steering wheel.
17. India’s 1st taxi ambulance service flagged off in Delhi
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari flagged off India’s first taxi ambulance services in Delhi, a service by a Gurugram-based startup Wagon Cab. The cabs are equipped with medical supplies and medically trained drivers. The drivers will approach accident victims as soon as they are notified and will get an additional ₹500 for every victim that they tend to.
18. NBWL adds 4 species in Recovery Programme for Critically Endangered Species
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has given its nod to include four diverse species — Northern River Terrapin (riverine turtle), Red Panda, Clouded Leopard and Arabian Sea Humpback Whale — in the recovery programme for critically endangered species. This decision will lead to targeted conservation of these species whose population is on the decline. They fall in the critically endangered to vulnerable categories as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The species recovery programme of the Union Environment Ministry is implemented under Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats — a centrally sponsored umbrella scheme for management and conservation of parks, wildlife habitats and conservation.
19. NITI Aayog to organise India’s First Global Mobility Summit
Government think tank Niti Aayog will hold on September 7-8 here the India’s first ‘Global Mobility Summit’, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit will help drive government’s goal for vehicle electrification, renewable energy integration and job growth and also speed up India’s transition to a clean energy economy.
‘MOVE: Global Mobility Summit’ will be organised in collaboration with various ministries and industry partners.
Over 1,200 participants from across the world including government leadership, industry leaders, think tank and civil society organisations are likely to attend the summit.
20. cVigil: Election Commission launches app to report model code violations
The Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat, along with the Election Commissioners Sunil Arora and Ashok Lavasa launched a mobile app, called ‘Cvigil’, for citizens to report any violation of the model code of conduct during elections. “cVIGIL” is a user-friendly and easy to operate Android application. It will be operational only where elections are announced. However, the beta version of the app will be made available for the public and election staff to download so that they can acquaint themselves with its features and also try sending dummy data. Upon successful completion of the trial that is underway, the application will be made available for general use by all, right from the forthcoming Assembly elections in the States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.
The app requires an Android smartphone equipped with a camera, good internet connection and GPS access. The operating system should be Android Jellybean and above. The application supports all the latest Android smartphones.
“cVIGIL” will allow anyone in the election-bound state to report violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that comes into effect from the date of announcement of elections and goes on till a day after the polls. By using this app, citizens can immediately report on incidents of misconduct within minutes of having witnessed them and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer to lodge a complaint.
