Current Affairs This Week (12-08-2018)

• Gaganjeet Bhullar: European Tour title at Fiji International
  It was Ganganjeet Bhullar’s first win on the European Tour, ninth Asian Tour and 10th crown overall. He thus became the most successful Indian player on Asian Tour and the first Indian to win on Australasia Tour.

 

• Chinese scientists create first single-chromosome yeast
  Chinese scientists claimed to have created the first single-chromosome yeast while not affecting the majority of its functions, a breakthrough that could help in furthering research related to aging and diseases in humans.

 

• Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station
  Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station (station code DDU), previously known as Mughalsarai Jn., is a famous railway station in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the fourth busiest railway junction in India. The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia.

 

• ECI has conducted the first-ever Orientation Workshop
  Orientation Workshop on Election Management for IAS Asstt Secretaries in New Delhi. The aim of the workshop is to familiarize the Assistant Secretaries with all facets of Electoral Management before they are required to handle crucial assignments in conducting Elections in their field postings soon.

 

• Humanoid robot Rashmi, Indian version of ‘Sophia’
  Ranchi man Ranjit Srivastava, has developed Indian version of ‘Sophia,’ a social humanoid robot developed by a Hong Kong based company, named Rashmi which can speak Hindi, Bhojpuri and Marathi along with English. World’s first Hindi speaking realistic humanoid robot and India’s first lip-synching robot.

 

• India elected president of Asia-Pacific Institute
  India elected president of Asia-Pacific Institute for broadcasting development.Servicing tries of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in the field of electronic media development, for the first time by defeating Iran in the election that took place in Sri Lanka, Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials said.

 

• Telangana to set up hub for biotech, pharma sector
  The Telangana govt will setup a state of the art “B-Hub” for biotech & biopharma sector in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. It’s a 1st-of-its-kind initiative in the country, aimed at providing much-needed support to the biopharma research & development activities, featuring a scale-up manufacturing facility along with a turnkey incubator, etc., at GLP.

 

• August 07: National Handloom Day
  National Handloom Day: flaunt the warp and weft. On National Handloom Day, we talk to young fashion influencers on how to wear handlooms trendily. Smriti Rao, a sociologist who works with local weavers, “If we don’t educate our children and inculcate in them a love for home grown textiles, nobody else will.

 

• Thirty years after the 8888 uprising
  Myanmar’s stability and development depend on how the issues of equality and federalism are addressed. August 8 marks the 30th anniversary of the people’s uprising in Myanmar. The ‘8888’ uprising is one of Myanmar’s most important historic days in the context of the pro-democracy movement

 

• IIT-Madras powers up a desi chip fabricated by Intel
  Computer scientists and a student team from the IIT- Madras have developed the first of a family of six industry-standard microprocessors. RISECREEK different is the open source nature of the designs. “This is made in India, but even if it were made in the U.S., it would be contemporary.”

 

• Dilip Sardesai
  Dilip Narayan Sardesai was an Indian Test cricketer. He was the only Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as India’s best batsman against spin bowling.

 

• Karunanidhi, Tamil Nadu’s longest serving Chief Minister
  Veteran politician and Dravidian movement stalwart ‘Kalaignar’ M Karunanidhi (1924-2018) achieved several firsts and only-s in Tamil Nadu. The five-time Chief Minister contested 13 consecutive elections since 1957, and to top it all, he won all of them.

 

• Indian telescope spots distant radio galaxy
  Astronomers have used an Indian telescope to discover the most distant radio galaxy ever known, located at a distance of 12 billion light-years.
  The galaxy, from a time when the universe was only 7% of its current age was found using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in Pune.

 

• World’s largest furniture retailer
  IKEA opens country’s first store in Hyderabad. Swedish home furnishings major IKEA sounded the bugle of its retail foray in the country by opening the first store in Hyderabad. World’s largest furniture retailer since at least 2008.

 

• Forty-five new exoplanets discovered
  Scientists have discovered a trove of forty-four planets in solar systems beyond our own in one go, dwarfing the usual number of confirmations from extrasolar surveys.

 

• Andra Pradesh: World’s first thermal battery plant
  Thermal batteries being manufactured by Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST). These batteries are based on alternative sources of energy production, and their presence is expected to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

 

• 123rd Constitutional Amendment Bill
  Which grants constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The bill was passed after the House repealed the NCBC Act, 1993. It will contribute to the empowerment of the OBC communities across India.

 

• Indian women blitz to gold in Asian Nations Cup
  It’s India’s first gold-medal finish at the event since 2014. The Indian team comprising Harika Dronavalli, Eesha Karavade, Padmini Rout, Vaishali R and Aakanksha Haga left the teams from Vietnam and China behind to clinch gold.

 

• Carolina Marin: 1st woman to win singles WBC
  Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain has become the first woman shuttler to win the women’s singles World Badminton Championships thrice with an emphatic victory over P.V. Sindhu. Kento Momota became the first Japanese man to win the Championships.