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Current Affairs: 08 May 2020
1. President wishes on Buddha Purnima eve
- President Ram Nath Kovind said in his message on the eve of Buddha Purnima: – “On the auspicious occasion of Buddha Purnima, I wish all my companions, citizens and followers of Lord Buddha all over the world.
- The message of Lord Buddha inspires us to serve humanity with love, truth, compassion, and non-violence. Their life and ideals reinforce our belief in eternal values like equality, harmony, and justice.
On Buddha Purnima
- Buddha Purnima is a major festival for those who believe in Buddhism and Sanatan culture. It is celebrated on the full moon of Baisakh month. On the day of Buddha Purnima, Gautama Buddha was born, on this day he attained enlightenment and on this day he also attained great glory.
Gautam Buddha
- He was born in Lumbini in 563 BC in the house of King Shuddhodhana of the Ikshvaku dynasty Kshatriya Shakya clan. His mother’s name was Mahamaya, who was of Koliya dynasty, who died seven days after his birth, he was followed by Mahaprajapati Gautami, the queen’s younger sister.
- After marriage, Siddharth abandoned the only firstborn baby Rahul and his wife Yashodhara and went towards the forest in the night in search of true divine knowledge and the path of liberating the world from the slightest, death, suffering. After years of rigorous practice, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya (Bihar) and became Lord Gautama Buddha from Siddhartha.
- The first guru of the Buddha was Alar Kalam, from whom he was educated during his retirement.
- 483 BC on the full moon day of Baisakh month. I attained nirvana at the age of 80 in Kushinagar. At present, Kushinagar is a town in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh. The history of Kushinagar is mentioned in the name Kushanara.
2. Telephone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Republic of Ethiopia
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a telephonic conversation with the Honorable Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
- The two politicians discussed the domestic, regional, and global challenges posed by the Kovid-19 epidemic and expressed solidarity with each other during this health crisis.
- The Prime Minister has assured Dr. Abia Ahmed Ali of India’s support in ensuring the supply of essential medicines to Ethiopia and reducing the economic impact of the epidemic.
Dr. Abiyah Ahmed Ali
- The Nobel for Peace of 2019 was given to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiyah Ahmed Ali. Because Abiyy Ahmad Ali took steps to settle the border dispute with the neighboring country Eritrea.
- The dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea lasted for nearly 20 years, with Ali contributing a great deal to it. When Ahmad raised his hand for the purpose of peace, President Isaias Afwerki (Eritrea) understood him well and came forward to restore peace between the two countries.
- During his first 100 days as Prime Minister, Ali removed the Emergency in the country, pardoned hundreds of thousands of political detainees, withdrew censorship on the media, drove military officials and leaders involved in corruption out of the system and Ethiopian political and social Worked to increase the influence of women in life. This is the reason why 43-year-old Ali is also called as Nelson Mandela of Ethiopia.
- All those striving for peace in Ethiopia and East and North-East African region have also been recognized through this honor given to Abia.
- The award for the year 2018 was given jointly to Denis Mukabe of Congo and Nadia Murad of Iraq.
3. Scientists discovered black hole closest to Earth
European astronomers have discovered a black hole close to the Earth. This black hole is so close that one can see two stars located near it. This black hole is about 1000 light-years away.
- Earlier, a black hole was found close to the Earth, which was three times more distant i.e. 3200 light-years away. The discovery of black holes has indicated that there are more such black holes.
- The study related to this astronomical discovery has been published in the journal ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics’.
Blackhole
- The term black holes were first used by American physicist John Wheeler in the mid-1960s.
- Black holes are formed by the disintegration of a large star automatically. In their name, it appears that there are pits/holes but it is not usually so, rather they are objects made of very dense materials, whose gravitational pull is so high that no object, even light, can cross it.
- When a black hole devours matter (then an accretion disk is formed around it). ‘The accretion cycle is a group of the brightest substances in the universe orbiting very rapidly around a large astronomical object. A halo around a black hole appears in a photograph taken by the Event Horizon Telescope in April 2019. This is called the cycle.
4. Saurabh Lodha gets Young Career Award in Nano Science and Technology 2020
Saurabh Lodha, Professor of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, has received the Younger Career Award in Nano Science and Technology for 2020 from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
- The award recognizes his pioneering contributions to the development of transistor technologies beyond silicon and nanoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional van der Waals materials. Professor Lodha’s recent work in the field of advanced transistors has been appreciated in the industry partnership.
- Professor Lodha’s work has not only been presented at large conferences around the world but has also been incorporated into semiconductor devices for advanced transistor technologies. Working closely with industry, collaborators have helped their research group present solutions to cutting-edge problems of practical importance with a broad scale of short-term market innovations and impact.
- An alumnus of IIT Bombay and Purdue University in the US, Professor Lodha plans to leverage the capabilities and expertise to develop power electronic transistors based on broad bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium hydride in his group.
- These transistors can reduce efficiency and reliability constraints in various applications ranging from high voltage power grids, electric trains, renewable power conversion, and storage to strategic defense, medical and industrial instrumentation.
- Wide bandgap power electronics have seen tremendous progress worldwide, but national efforts are lacking. Professor Lodha hopes to gain momentum in the field of power transistor research in the country.
5. ‘Arogya Setu IVRS’ services implemented
The ‘Arogya Setu Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)’ has been implemented to include people with feature phones and landline phones under the protection of Arogya Setu. This service is available nationwide.
- It is a toll-free service, under which citizens are asked to make a missed call on the number 1921 and after that they are requested to give necessary information about their health in the call back received. .
- The questions asked are related to the Arogya Setu app and based on the answers it gets, the concerned citizen will get an SMS indicating the current status of their health and further along with alerts about their health. .
- The service is implemented in 11 regional languages, similar to mobile applications. The information provided by the concerned citizens will be made a part of the Arogya Setu database and these information will be processed so that they can be alerted on the necessary steps to be taken to ensure their safety.
Arogya Setu app is doing this work for smart phones
- Keeping in mind the fight against Kovid-19, the Government of India has launched an application called ‘Arogya Setu’. The Arogya Setu Mobile App has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
- With this help, people can themselves assess the risk of getting corona virus infection by themselves. This app calculates this potential risk arising from the person’s interaction with other people using state-of-the-art Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.
- This app actually informs the user about the risk of infection when it passes by someone who is corona positive.
- When installing Arogya Setu on your mobile phone, the user is asked to answer many questions. If there are some answers that indicate the user has symptoms of Kovid-19, then this information is sent to a ‘government server’.
- This data helps the government to take concrete steps at the right time and initiate the isolation process if necessary and at the same time, it also alerts when a person approaches a corona positive patient.
6. Mustafa al-Qadimi sworn in as Iraq’s Prime Minister
The former head of the intelligence agency Mustafa al-Qadimi has been sworn in as the country’s next prime minister amid a severe economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus global epidemic in Iraq.
- The parliament session was attended by 255 MPs and approved the proposal of Mustafa al-Qadimi as Prime Minister of Iraq, ending the five-month leadership crisis in the country.
- Addressing the MPs during the session, Kadimi said, “This government has come to deal with the social, economic and political crisis facing our country.” This government will solve problems, not increase the crisis.
- When Kadimi was nominated for the post of Prime Minister, he resigned from the post of Intelligence Chief. He has taken over as Prime Minister at a time when Iraq is facing an unprecedented crisis amid falling oil revenues.
7. Bill introduced in US to protect domestic companies from aggressive takeover of China
The bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives of the US Parliament to prevent the aggressive takeover of American companies by Chinese companies during the Corona virus crisis. MP Bill Banks introduced the bill in Parliament.
- Banks, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced the ‘Restriction on Aggressive Acquisition Act during Kovid-19’. This will increase the scope of the American Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS).
- This will help the American Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS) review the investments in American companies of companies with ties to the Communist Party of China during the Corona virus crisis.
- The bill will also allow the acquisition to be sent to the President before the final transaction. Also, the bill would prevent China-linked companies from purchasing more than 51 percent stake in American companies linked to sensitive infrastructure classified by the Defense Production Act 1950.
- Banks said in a statement, “Our job is to ensure that the Chinese government does not take advantage of this epidemic to its advantage.” US President Donald Trump won the election on the promise of stopping China from taking advantage of Americans. In such a situation, I am happy to work with China to stop this action. ”
To avoid such a situation, the Government of India has also amended the FDI policy.
- The Government of India has also reviewed the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to prevent the opportunistic takeover / control of Indian companies due to the current Kovid-19 epidemic.
- Any non-resident body or company can invest in India under FDI policy. NRIs are prohibited from investing only in sectors / activities that are prohibited.
- However any body or company of a country with which the land boundary of India is connected or merged, or where the beneficial owner of an investment in India is located or is a citizen of any such country, is a government route only. India can invest here only, so if the Chinese company wants to invest in the Indian company, then it will have to take the approval of the government, earlier it was only for Pakistan and Bangladesh.
8. Styrene gas leaks in Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh At least 11 people have died after leaking chemical gas stearin from a plant in RR Venkatapuram village. After this incident, more than a thousand people have declared themselves unwell and many are hospitalized in critical condition.
- Gas leaks started around 2.30 pm on May 07 from a plant of Hindustan Polymer Company located in Visakhapatnam district of the state. The company was also shut down after a nationwide lockdown was announced to prevent the spread of the Corona epidemic.
- On May 07, after 40 days, preparations for the company’s operations were underway. Meanwhile, this big accident happened. The reasons for the gas leakage from the plant are not yet known. He said that at the moment, all operations at the plant have been postponed.
- Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced a grant of Rs 1 crore to the families of those killed in the incident. 10 lakh rupees will be given to all those who are being treated on ventilator due to gas scandal. Also, other people who have been admitted to the hospital but are not on ventilator will be given Rs 1 lakh each.
Styrene (C6H5CH = CH2) gas
- Styrene combines with air and turns it into toxic gas. It affects the brain and spine. The affected person can also die within 10 minutes due to bad effects on the lungs. People have been asked to wear wet masks to avoid the toxic effects of gas.
- Styrene affects the brain and spine of a person exposed to gas. Stearin mixes easily with oxygen once it is outside the environment. As a result, the amount of carbon mono oxide in the air starts increasing. After coming in contact with it, the lungs of people are affected and the person starts feeling suffocated.
9. Ministry of Tourism launches its Apna Desh logo design competition
The Ministry of Tourism has launched the ‘Desh Dekho Apna’ logo design competition on the Mygo plate form. The purpose of this competition is to get the logo prepared for the ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ campaign, which originates from the creative ideas of the citizens of the country.
- It is important to note that during the lockdown period, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India together with the industry is organizing a webinar on the overall theme of Desh Dekho Apna for its visitors.
- The purpose of this webinar series is to create and promote awareness about various tourist destinations in India — including telling the lesser-known destination and lesser-known aspect of popular destinations.
Watch your country initiative
- Dekho Apna Desh is an initiative of the Ministry of Tourism that was launched on 24 January 2020 in Konark, Odisha by Union Tourism Minister (Independent Charge) Prahlad Singh Patel during a function on the MyGo platform.
- This initiative of the Ministry of Tourism is in line with the Honorable Prime Minister’s appeal from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15 August 2019, asking every citizen to visit at least 15 destinations by the year 2022 to promote domestic tourism. is. In India, it aims to increase tourist interest and the pace of tourism to help develop the local economy.
- It is known that focusing on domestic tourism potential, encouraging all the people to visit their country is included in the strategy of the Ministry of Tourism of India.
10. Vande Bharat Mission started to bring back stranded Indians abroad
The Government of India has started the largest campaign of the Vande Bharat Mission from May 7 to bring back the stranded Indians abroad. In the wake of this campaign, arrangements have been made at several airports including Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi and Mumbai to comply with logistic management and health regulations.
- Under this, more than fourteen thousand eight hundred Indians would be brought back from twelve countries. During this time, 64 flights will be operated to bring back stranded Indians abroad.
- Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that these flights will be operated from 7 to 13 May. He said that these include 10 flights from United Arab Emirates, two from Qatar, five from Saudi Arabia, seven from Britain, five from Singapore, seven from USA and two from Oman.
- It is being compared to the airlift of 1990. Talking about the operation of three decades ago, Air India led a group of airlines, bringing back about 111,711 Indians. The Indian Air Force was involved in this work. It was at that time that Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and trapped Indians had to be brought back. There were 488 flights involved in that 59-day operation.
- Such an operation is also being carried out by the Indian Navy, so it is limited to the surroundings. The Indian Navy has named this operation “Samudra Setu” – meaning “sea bridge”.