Current Affairs - July 9, 2018 Current Affairs

Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, NALCO, received Knowledge Excellence Award from Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Anil Gopishankar Mukim, for Outstanding Contribution in Aluminium Knowledge domain, at the 22nd International Conference on Non-Ferrous Minerals and Metals 2018 at Ranchi, Jharkhand. The Conference was organized by Corporate Monitor. It was inaugurated by Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Anil Gopishankar Mukim. A special NALCO (National Aluminium Company Limited) booklet on Sustainable Mining named 'Mine with Mind' was released.

The 6th edition of biennial World Cities Summit was held in Singapore from July 8 to 12, 2018. Its theme was "Liveable & Sustainable Cities: Embracing the Future through Innovation and Collaboration". ". The summit was held together with Singapore International Water Week and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore. The summit was jointly organised by Singapore's Centre for Liveable Cities and Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The MoU has signed between British Council in India Director Alan Gemmell OBE and state Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharya to promoting cultural, educational and skill development exchanges between UK and West Bengal in presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It is focused on English language training in the school system and higher education, Research collaboration and capacity building in higher education and cultural collaboration between the UK and the state.

World Chocolate Day was celebrated all over the world on 7th July since 2009. Cocoa is obtained from the fruit of cocoa trees that are native to Central and South America. World Chocolate Day is celebrated by consuming chocolate and performing other fun activities.

This announcement was made by Telangana Industries and IT Minister K T Rama Rao at an event in which the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation offered allotment letters to 18 women entrepreneurs of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) at the FLO TSIIC Industrial Park, Sultanpur near Hyderabad. 50 acres has been allotted to FLO at Sultanpur. 30 acres has been allotted to Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE) at Toopran. 120 acres has been allotted to the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India (ALEAP). Also 10 % of land in all the 140 industrial parks in Telangana were earmarked for women entrepreneurs.

The UK has launched new visas that will be open to overseas scientists and researchers, including Indians. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Science, Research, and Academia scheme is being added to the already existing Tier 5 visa route. UKRI along and other organisations such as the Natural History Museum will now be able to directly sponsor highly skilled individuals. The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will monitor the activity of the scheme on a regular basis along with UKRI.

Dipa Karmakar clinched the gold medal at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Mersin, Turkey. She scored 14.150 to win the top prize. She had topped the qualification with a score of 13.400. Dipa has created a history and she is now the first Indian gymnast to win a gold in a world level event.

The train has been built in record time of 16 months which usually takes about 2 to 3 years . Train 18 doesn't require an engine to run as it will be self-propelled on electric traction like the metro trains. It will replace existing intercity express trains including Shatabdis. ICF will make six such train sets, out of which two will have sleeper coaches.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) launched a Centre of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CoE - DSAI) in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka, in Bengaluru. NASSCOM also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NITI Aayog to collaborate in areas of applied research, accelerating adoption and ethics, privacy and security. It aims to strengthen the country's AI ecosystem and will serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the 3rd Indian after Sachin Tendulkar (664) and Rahul Dravid (509) to reach this milestone of playing 500 international cricket matches. This T20 International match against England was Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 92nd T20 match. He has played 90 Test matches and 318 One Day International matches.

This improved sorghum variety has been developed by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT). It was released for cultivation by Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth (VNMKV), Maharashtra. The improved variety ICSR 14001 has been released as 'Parbhani Shakti' by VNMKV. Parbhani Shakti is cost-effective. It has been introduced as a sustainable solution to rectify micronutrient deficiency.

The Muthoot Pappachan Group has named actress Vidya Balan as its brand ambassador. Vidya Balan has been appointed the brand ambassador for 2 years. The Muthoot Pappachan group will launch a new ad campaign, including TV commercials.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe will be launched in August 2018. The probe's heat shield is called the Thermal Protection System or TPS. It was reinstalled on the spacecraft on 27th June 2018. The reinstallation of the heat shield was attached to the spacecraft during testing in 2017. This mission has been in the making for 60 years. Parker Solar Probe will travel to the Sun's corona, a region of the solar atmosphere. The spacecraft's orbit will carry it to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface with the help of its heat shield. There the spacecraft will collect data about the inner workings of the corona.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be upgrading National Information Security Policy and Guidelines (NISPG) to secure government data and control access to it inorder to prevent sensitive information making its way to internet. The upgraded and updated policy will cover issues pertaining to the Official Secrets Act. MHA has been designated as the lead agency for the protection of the "Information" in Cyberspace.

Michael Ondaatje's best selling novel 'The English Patient' has been crowned as the winner of the Golden Man Booker Prize at the Southbank Centre in London. The prize was instituted as part of celebrations to mark the Booker's having completed 50 years. The novel move between large themes of war, loyalty, love. It is set, during World War II, about Hana, a nurse, who tends to a horribly burned man who finds himself in an Italian villa with three other unlikely characters. It was picked as the winner by a public poll from a shortlist of five books.