Latest Current Affairs – November 04 & 05 2018
1. India is nuclear capable at sea, land, air with INS Arihant test
India’s first nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant has completed its first deterrence patrol. The submarine completes India’s nuclear triad by adding sea-based strike capability to land and air-based delivery platforms. “INS Arihant will protect the 130 crore Indians… and its success gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail,” PM added.
2. Govt approves Pune-Mumbai hyperloop to cut travel time to 25 mins
The Maharashtra government has approved the hyperloop project between Pune and Mumbai as a public infrastructure project, aiming to cut the travel time between the two destinations to 25 minutes. The government will invite global firms to challenge the original bid placed by Virgin Hyperloop One for the project. Virgin Hyperloop plans to build a 15-km-long test route in 2019.
3. NASA building robots to create rocket fuel from Martian soil
NASA is building robots to create rocket fuel using soil on Mars so that astronauts can get home after a mission. The robots, nicknamed ‘dust-to-thrust factories’ would remove water from the soil, splitting it into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen. It would then combine the hydrogen with carbon from Mars’s atmosphere to produce methane, which can be used as fuel.
4. Anupam honoured with Distinguished Fellow Award in Boston
Actor Anupam Kher has been honoured with Distinguished Fellow Award at the 3rd India Global Summit held at MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston. “It’s with great honour and pride, I accept the Distinguished Fellow Award…I’m grateful to India Global for recognising my work. I will continue to represent our great nation through my good work,” said Anupam.
5. India enters final in the FIBA U 18 womens Asian championship
India marched into the Division B final of the FIBA U-18 women’s Asian championship held at Bengaluru, India. India won an 83-38 victory over Hong Kong at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru. India is to face Kazakhstan for its promotion to Division A.
6. Indian Navy to recruit women sailors for the first time
For the first time ever, the Indian Navy is looking at recruiting women in the rank of sailors. The matter was discussed at the three-day Naval Commanders Conference that concluded on 2nd November 2018.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the conference urged the Navy to give impetus to the enrolment of women. To this, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba confirmed that enrolment of women in the sailor rank was one of the agendas of the conference.
7. Little India Gate inaugurated in Indonesia’s Medan city
‘Little India Gate’, the first-of-its-kind structure in Indonesia recognises the contribution of Indian community in the development of Medan city. Kampung Madras area is one of the city’s significant ethnic enclaves comprising a large population of people of Indian descent whose ancestors had settled down in Medan in mid-nineteenth century.
8. NASA’s Dawn mission to asteroid belt comes to end
NASA, the U.S space agency, said that its pioneering Dawn spacecraft ran out of fuel, ending an 11-year mission that unravelled many mysteries of our solar system. The Dawn spacecraft orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt. The mission was launched in 2007.
The $467 million Dawn mission was initiated to study the protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network on October 31 and November 1. The mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine. It was an expected end to the mission, although the spacecraft lasted two years longer than originally planned.
9. Atul Goel appointed as MD, CEO of UCO Bank
Atul Kumar Goel assumed charge as Managing Director and CEO of UCO Bank by replacing R K Takkar. Earlier, Goel was executive director of Union Bank of India.
10. Mary Kom named brand ambassador of 2018 Women’s World Boxing Championships
Five-time World Champion Mary Kom leads the 10th edition of AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, which is to be held at the IG Stadium’s K.D. Jhadav Hall, New Delhi between November 15 and 24. Over 300 women boxers from 70 countries will participate in this edition.
11. Indian Railways rolls out All-India Unreserved Mobile Ticketing facility
Railway tickets can be booked online as the Ministry has introduced Unreserved Mobile Ticketing with a view to promoting three C’s- Cashless transactions (Digital payment), Contactless ticketing (no need to physically visit the point of sale) and Customer convenience and experience.
Benefits of the App:
1. Mobile Ticketing shall promote 3C’s- Cashless transactions, Contactless ticketing, and Customer convenience.
2. Seamless booking of unreserved tickets all over Indian Railways.
3. Obviate the need for passengers to wait in queues for purchasing the tickets and enhance the experience for booking unreserved tickets – journey, season tickets, platform tickets.
12. India’s first nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol
The submarine completes India’s nuclear triad — which means that the country now has the capability of firing nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. INS Arihant was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2016. Another nuclear submarine — the Argihat — will be commissioned in the next few years.
HIGHLIGHTS:
♦ INS Arihant can fire nuclear weapons from underwater.
♦ Arihant is an important part of India’s no-first-use nuclear policy.
♦ Arihant is part of a top-secret project.
13. India to extend $310 mn loan for Zimbabwe power plant
India announced that it would extend a $310 million loan to Zimbabwe to finance a rehabilitation project for a thermal power plant that would entail upgrading the station and extending its lifespan. A fund of $2.9 million will also be extended to upgrade the Indo-Zim Technology Centre, which India had gifted to the African country.
14. Plans for Antarctic sanctuary was shot down
The plan to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in Antarctic waters was shot down as the environmentalists denounced a lack of scientific foresight and hence the key conservation summit failed to reach a consensus.
Member states of the organisation tasked with overseeing the sustainable exploitation of the Southern Ocean failed at an annual meeting to agree over the 1.8 million sq km maritime protection zone. The proposed sanctuary is around five times the size of Germany.
The proposed sanctuary would ban fishing in a vast area in the Weddell sea, protecting key species including seals, penguins and whales. A consensus is needed from all 24 members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the European Union.
15. World Tsunami Awareness Day being observed on November 05
In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day. Over the past 100 years, 58 tsunamis have claimed more than 260,000 lives, which is the highest number of deaths than in any other natural hazard.
16. World’s largest supercomputer ‘SpiNNaker’ switched on for the first time
The world’s largest neuromorphic supercomputer SpiNNaker (‘Spiking Neural Network Architecture’ machine), which was designed and built to work like a human brain, has been switched on for the first time.
Made up of one million processors, SpiNNaker can complete over 200 million-million actions per second. The supercomputer will help scientists better understand how neurological diseases like Parkinson’s impact the brain.
17. U.K. unveiled sculpture to honour Indian soldiers
A sculpture in honour of Indian soldiers who fought during World War I was unveiled in the town of Smethwick in the West Midlands region of England. Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick had commissioned the Lions of the Great War monument, which depicts a turbaned Sikh soldier, to honour the sacrifices made by millions of South Asian service personnel of all faiths who fought for Britain in the world wars and other conflicts as part of the British Indian Army.
The 10-foot bronze statue was unveiled in Smethwick High Street to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the World War I in November 1918, also referred to as the Great War. The monument was part of a collaboration between the gurdwara and the local Sandwell Council.
18. Dinkar Asthana appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Lao Peoples Democratic Republic
Dinkar Asthana is an Indian Foreign Service Officer (IFS) of the 1990 batch. Currently, he is Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
19. India ranked 12th globally in web-borne threats Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab products detected 48,093,743 Internet-borne malware incidents on computers of KSN participants in India. Regarding vulnerabilities in browsers and their plugins (drive-by download), infection happened when visiting an infected website, without any intervention from the user and without their knowledge. This is the most used method by cybercriminals for this kind of attacks.
20. Singapore is Asia most sustainable city: Arcadis
Singapore maintained its rank as number one Asian city in the Sustainability Index by engineering firm Arcadis. The Sustainability Index assessed cities based on 3 pillars: profit pillar, people pillar and planet pillar. Singapore secured fourth place in global rankings.
As per the study, Singapore ranked first for the profit pillar that assesses the business environment and economic performance of cities. Singapore ranked 31st out of 100 cities, for the people pillar that tests social mobility and quality of opportunity and life. Singapore secured the 41st spot for the planet pillar that assesses the management of energy use, pollution, and emissions.
