Current Affairs - May 18, 2019 Current Affairs

The Indian Coast Guard ship (ICGS) Vigraha was decommissioned at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is a frontline offshore patrol vessel (OPV). It was commissioned into service on April 12, 1990. It has played an instrumental role in protecting the east coast of India for 29 years of service from 1990 to 2019.

Jeffrey Rosen was confirmed as the United States' latest deputy attorney general by the US Senate after his predecessor, Rod Rosenstein, left the department. Rosenstein oversaw Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigations into Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential elections, before stepping down from his post in April.

BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) notified that it has launched an app named 'BSE StAR MF' in order to enable more participation and aid mutual fund distributors to accelerate transactions process. 'BSE StAR MF' is BSE's mutual fund platform which helps distributors in purchasing and redeeming the mutual fund units on behalf of their clients. The 'BSE StAR MF' app that is downloaded from Google Play Store supports dynamic (real-time) client registration, digital transactions, creates and uploads mandate for SIPs (Systematic Investment Plans), generates multiple orders, tracks and permits the distributor in evaluating his business instantly.

The 11th Joint Consular Committee Meeting between India and Iran took place in New Delhi. Mr. Amit Narang, Joint Secretary (CPV) led the Indian side, while the Iran delegation was led by H.E. Mr. Ali Asghar Mohammadi, Director General for Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran. The meeting provided an opportunity to review the status of ongoing cooperation in consular and visa related issues and to discuss ways and means to further expand people to people contacts and promote friendly exchanges between India and Iran.

India is playing a key role in the design and development of the world's largest optical telescope-the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, to be built at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.Construction of the telescope is expected to begin this year.Once commissioned in 2029-30, it will provide a bigger picture of the universe.

Researchers in Germany have unearthed a new bird-like Dinosaur in Bavaria, Germany and named it as "Alcmonavis Poeschli". The lead author of the study is Oliver Rauhut from Ludwig-Maximilians University's (LMU) Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. This new study is published in the journal called eLife Sciences which described Alcmonavis Poeschli as "the most bird-like bird discovered from the Jurassic". For the first time, it was discovered in 1861 as Archaeopteryx which was a small feathered dinosaur around the size of a crow. It lived in marshland around 150 million years ago and was the named as the oldest flying bird. The scrutiny of the rock formations in the German region of Bavaria was conducted by the Paleontologists from Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich and the University of Fribourg.

The 6th Session of the biennial Global Platform for (DDR) Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2019) has started in Geneva, Switzerland from 13th May to 17 May 2019 and is co-chaired by Switzerland and UNISDR. The session is summoned under the theme, 'Resilience Dividend: Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Societies'.The agenda of the session is to represent the next key opportunity for the international community to enhance the implementation of the Sendai Framework, related Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, and commitments of the Paris Climate Agreement.The session has been hosted by Switzerland's Government and has been summoned and organized by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

India's Shahrukh Khan has collaborated with the veteran American talk show host David Letterman for a Netflix stand-alone special. The show will be all about in-depth conversations.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) in its report revealed that about 35 % of India's total Graphite reserves are found in Arunachal Pradesh. This is the highest found in the country. GSI has been suggested to move the survey and drilling activities towards the India-China border considering that China is reportedly undertaking huge mining activities in Tibet.

CTBTO (The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation) offered India an 'Observer' status and an access to International Monitoring System (IMS) data. CTBT is a global treaty that runs IMS which constantly monitors the Earth for nuclear explosions and shares evaluative findings with its member states. CTBTO's headquarters is in Vienna, Austria. Currently, IMS has 337 facilities, located in 89 nations. India wants CTBT to have a clause on complete nuclear disarmament and didn't yet sign the treaty as CTBT favours 5 nuclear weapon states, namely, China, US, Russia, France and UK.

IT services firm Tech Mahindra and French digital content publishing firm Rakuten Aquafadas signed an MoU to collaborate on building enhanced customer experience offerings. Rakuten Aquafadas and Tech Mahindra aim to build a Customer Experience Offering leveraging the suite of software that Rakuten Aquafadas provides for digital publishing.

Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer Yamaha Motor has achieved 10 million production milestone in the country. The company has three manufacturing facilities at Surajpur (Chhattisgarh), Faridabad (Haryana) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). It also achieved a milestone of producing five million units between 2012 and 2019.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction honoured Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the 'Sasakawa Award 2019 for Disaster Risk Reduction'.

A multilateral maritime security field exercise has concluded in Singapore on May 13 after the completion of its sea phase. Singapore's Ministry of Defence announced the conclusion of the sea phase of the exercise conducted under the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) grouping. The ADMM-Plus comprises the 10 Asean countries as well as Australia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

South Asian Games Gold medalist, 50m backstroke swimmer MB Balakrishnan passed away in a road accident in Chennai. He was 29. He hailed from Tamil Nadu. He is an alumnus of the Guindy Engineering College and pursued MS in the US. He was a gold medalist in the National Games in Guwahati, 2007. He held a national record in 50m backstroke at the Senior National Championships, 2010 in New Delhi and won the 100m and 200m backstroke events at the South Asian Games.

Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited has appointed Nitin Chugh as its next Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from December 1, 2019. Bank's current MD and CEO, Samit Ghosh is retiring on November 30, 2019. The bank has received the approval of its application for Chugh's appointment, from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The opening ceremony of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations was held in the China National Convention Center, Beijing, where Xi Jinping, Chinese President delivered a keynote speech. The representatives from 47 Asian and other invited countries attended the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations event. The theme of the forum was "Asian Values for the World" where the speakers discussed the rich and contemporary values of Asian civilizations. A supporting activity termed as the "Dialogue on Asian Internet Audio-Visual Broadcasting Policy and Release of Cooperation Results," will be held in line with the forum.

IBM India has tied-up with HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, India's third-largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, to co-create new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solutions. Leveraging IBM Garage that uses data-driven insights to develop end-to-end strategies and solutions for business transformation, teams from HDFC ERGO and IBM Services will work together to develop and test new solutions.

Major General AK Dhingra has appointed as the first chief of Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) which comprised of commandos from all the three service. The government has set up AFSOD which comprised of Special Forces commandos from Army's Parachute Regiments, Navy's Marine Commandos (MARCOS) and Air Force's Garud commandos. The aim of this division is to undertake joint operations by three services. Major Dhingra is from elite 1 Para Special Forces Regiment. He was also the part of Indian Peacekeeping Force Operations in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.This new division will work under the tri-services Integrated Defence Staff and headquarter of the division will be either in Agra or Bengaluru as per the ongoing discussion in the Defence Ministry.

May 16 is celebrated as International Day of Light. This the 2nd edition of the International Day of Light. UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) officially observes the International Day of Light so as to continuously appreciate light and for the exemplary role it plays in science, culture and art, education, sustainable development, medicine, communications, and energy. special focus of celebrations on this day is the 'Illuminating Education conference' that was held at the UNESCO Category 1 Institute ICTP in Trieste where presentations have covered a wide range of topics, namely, science education, challenges on diversity and gender equality, and practical career advice. The overall program was titled "Illuminating Education".