Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Oct 9, 2017

ANSWER: It uses 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed

Explanation:
Smart bandage using 5G technology to detect wound healing

Scientists in the UK have designed a new “intelligent” bandage which can detect how well a wound is healing and send a progress report to the doctor.

The bandage, which could be trialled within the next 12 months, uses real-time 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed and also keep track of a patient’s activity levels.

The intelligent dressing uses nano-technology to sense the state of the wound at any one specific time.

It would connect that wound to a 5G infrastructure and that infrastructure through your telephone will also know things about you - where you are, how active you are at any one time.

The plaster would help clinicians know the performance of the specific wound at any specific time, who can then tailor the treatment protocol for the individual.

3D printers would be used to produce the bandages which would bring down the cost.

ANSWER: Soil

Explanation:
Antibiotic resistance can be passed between bacteria found in the soil, researchers, including one of Indian origin, have found.

Researchers from North Carolina State University in the US studied antibiotic resistance and how it can persist and spread among food animals, humans and the environment they all share.

The study found that spreading manure on the ground as fertiliser can also spread antibiotic resistance to bacteria in the soil.

Bacteria contain small DNA molecules known as plasmids.

These plasmids are separate from the bacterias actual DNA, and can pick up and exchange genes between bacteria.

The researchers took soil samples from a swine farm prior to and for three weeks after a manure spread.

They had previously tested the manure for antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella, a pathogen responsible for causing the highest number of bacterial food borne illnesses in the US every year.

After sampling the soil, researchers found that antibiotic-resistant salmonella bacteria were still present in the manure up to 21 days after it had been spread.

They also discovered that a particular plasmid associated with the antibiotic-resistant salmonella from the manure, which weighed around 95 kilo-base (kb), was now turning up in different salmonella serotypes from the soil samples and every serotype with plasmid 95 kb was now resistant to antibiotics.

This tells us that this particular plasmid is shuttling across different serotypes.

It could explain why we find antibiotic resistant salmonella strains even on farms that do not use antibiotics.

It seems that once antibiotic resistance takes hold, it doesn’t go away.

These bacteria are simply better equipped to survive and so they prosper.

ANSWER: ICAN

Explanation:
Nuclear disarmament campaign group the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct 6, 2017 for its efforts to rid the world of the atomic bomb.

ICAN is also known for warning that Donald Trump’s presidency showed how dangerous the weapons of mass destruction truly are.

More than 70 years since atomic bombs were used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nobel committee sought to highlight ICAN’s tireless non-proliferation efforts as nuclear-related crises swirl around North Korea and Iran.

The decision sent a strong message at a time when Mr. Trump has threatened to tear up a 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear abilities.

The U.S. President alarmed delegates at the UN General Assembly by warning he may be forced to “totally destroy” North Korea because of its atomic weapons programme.

Founded in Vienna in 2007, ICAN comprises more than 400 NGOs and has mobilised supporters and celebrities alike in its cause.

It was a key player in the adoption of a historic nuclear weapons ban treaty, signed at the UN by 122 countries in July.

However, the accord was largely symbolic as none of the nine known world nuclear powers put their names down. It still needs to be ratified before entering into force.

The U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are all thought to possess weapons of mass destruction.

Although global atomic weapons stockpiles have plummeted - from around 64,000 warheads in 1986 at the height of the Cold War to more than 9,000 in 2017 according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) - the number of nuclear-armed nations has grown.

Friday’s award - the climax to a week of prize-giving honouring global luminaries in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and literature - comes as a global nuclear deal with Iran is under increasing pressure from Mr. Trump.

The agreement struck in 2015 between Iran and world powers drastically curbed Tehran’s nuclear enrichment capability in return for a lifting of punishing economic sanctions.

Iran denies ever pursuing a bomb, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy production only.

Tensions have also soared between the U.S. and North Korea, which has test-fired two missiles over Japan and conducted a string of apparent underground nuclear tests this year.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini also congratulated ICAN.

But Russia, which according to BAS has the world’s largest atomic stockpile, said there was no alternative to “nuclear parity” to guarantee world peace.

Nobel peace prize: Know More

• The Nobel committee has rewarded anti-nuclear weapons drives on several previous occasions, handing out the prestigious prize to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, the international non-proliferation IPPNW group in 1985, and the IAEA’s then head Mohamed El-Baradei 20 years later.
• More than 300 people and organisations were thought to have been nominated for this year’s Peace Prize, including the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR, Syria’s White Helmets rescue service and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege.
• The Peace Prize, which comes with a gold medal and a cheque for nine million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million) will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of its founder, Swedish philanthropist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.

ANSWER: Kazuo Ishiguro

Explanation:
British author Kazuo Ishiguro is Nobel prize literature laureate for 2017

British author Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for his novel The Remains of the Day, has won the Nobel Literature Prize on October 5.

The 62-year-old writer, “in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world,” the Academy wrote in its citation.

Born in Nagasaki, he moved to Britain with his family when he was five years old, only returning to visit Japan as an adult.

Both his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, from 1982 and the subsequent one, An Artist of the Floating World, from 1986, take place in Nagasaki a few years after World War II.

The themes Ishiguro is most associated with are already present here: memory, time, and self-delusion.

“This is particularly notable in his most renowned novel, The Remains of the Day,” which was turned into a film with Anthony Hopkins acting as the duty-obsessed butler Stevens.

Ishiguro’s writings are marked by a carefully restrained mode of expression, independent of whatever events are taking place.

Apart from his eight books, Mr. Ishiguro has also written scripts for film and television.

The 2016 literature prize went to American songwriter Bob Dylan, and the previous year’s to Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich.

Ms. Danius said the choice of Mr. Ishiguro did not show intention to avoid the controversy sparked by last year’s pick of Mr. Dylan.

The first singer-songwriter to win the prestigious prize, the rock legend didn’t comment on his Nobel for several weeks and then snubbed the formal prize ceremony in Stockholm.

The Academy is known for its cloak-and-dagger methods to prevent any leaks, resorting to code names for authors and fake book covers when reading in public.

Of the 114 laureates honoured since the prize was first awarded to France's Sully Prudhomme in 1901, only 14 are women.

But the Academy insists it doesn't take gender into consideration, nor nationality, language or genre for that matter.

ANSWER: Gauri Lankesh

Explanation:
Gauri Lankesh posthumously wins Anna Politkovskaya award

Journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead by unknown assailants on September 5, has been posthumously accorded with the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award.

This award is instituted by Reach All Women (RAW) in War.

RAW, in a statement, said that it was honoured to award the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award for women human rights defenders from war and conflict zones jointly to Gauri Lankesh posthumously, and to a brave Pakistani activist Gulalai Ismaial, who similarly is fighting against Islamic extremism.

Ms. Ismail has faced the death threats for speaking out against the Taliban in north-west Pakistan.

Gauri is the 12th woman to receive this prestigious award. Nominations Committee members have observed that they were deeply moved by Gauri and Gulalai's bravery and dedication to peace and human rights.

The announcement of the award was an emotional one, as Gauri's brother Indrajit Lankesh, mother Indira Lankesh and close friend M.S. Ashadevi struggled to find words to express their feelings on RAW honouring Gauri with this international award.

Gauri was awarded with Periyar Award posthumously by the Thinkers Forum on September 17 in Bengaluru.

Anna Politkovskaya: Know More

• Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist was killed in 2006 in Moscow for her courage to speak out on behalf of the suffering of the civilians in the war in Chechnya.
• It is not by coincidence that Gauri's work, her personality and the way she was killed for her work reminded us so much of the way Anna lived and died for the truth.
• To mark the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder on October 7, 2006 and to honour Anna and the women like in the world, RAW in War annually presents the award to a female human rights defender from conflict zone.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The 14^th annual Summit between India and the European Union (EU) was held in New Delhi on 6 October 2017.

The Republic of India was represented by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The EU was represented by Mr. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Mr. Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission.

The leaders reviewed the wide-ranging cooperation under the India-EU Strategic Partnership.

Recognising that India and the EU are natural partners, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen and strengthen the India-EU Strategic Partnership based on shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights and territorial integrity of States.

The leaders expressed satisfaction at the progress made towards implementing the India-EU Agenda for Action 2020-the roadmap for bilateral cooperation endorsed during the 13^th India-EU Summit.

The leaders committed to work in a result-oriented and mutually beneficial manner to further strengthen the India-EU Strategic Partnership by deepening their trade cooperation among other bilateral ties.

The leaders commended the strong engagement of the European Investment Bank in India in a wide range of key sectors, in particular in the field of climate action and renewable energy.

List of Agreements signed during 14th India-EU Summit in New Delhi (October 06, 2017)

S. No.	Name of Agreement	Indian Signatory	EU Signatory
1.	Implementing Arrangement between the European Commission and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) for Indian Researchers hosted by the European Research Council grantees in Europe	Dr R. Sharma (SERB Secretary)	Mr. Tomasz Kozlowski (EU Ambassador)
2.	Finance Contract of Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase-2-Line R6 for Euro 300 million out of total loan of Euro 500 million	Mr. Subhash Chandra Garg (Secretary, DEA)	Mr. Andrew McDowell (Vice President, EIB)
3.	Joint Declaration between the Interim Secretariat of the International Solar Alliance and the European Investment Bank	Mr. Upendra Tripathy (Secretary General, ISA Secretariat)	Mr. Andrew McDowell (Vice President, EIB)

ANSWER: Kundan Shah

Explanation:
National award winning director Kundan Shah dies

National Award-winning director Kundan Shah, best known for his dark satire Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and coming-of-age comedy Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, passed away at his residence.

He was 69. Shah died of a heart attack.

His last rites were performed at Shivaji Park crematorium here by his daughter Shilpa with close family members and friends from the film fraternity in attendance.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro actors Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah and writer Sudhir Mishra came to pay tributes to Shah at his residence and were also present at the crematorium.

Born on October 19, 1947, Shah studied direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune and made his directorial debut with Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro in 1983.

The movie, featuring Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Bhakti Barve and Neena Gupta, went on to achieve cult status despite a poor box office showing.

More than three decades later, the film - revolving around two bumbling photographers, a canny newspaper editor and corrupt civic officials - continues to be relevant as a scathing commentary on contemporary India.

He received the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director.

ANSWER: New species of balsam

Explanation:
In August 2017, a research paper describing Impatiens walongensis, a new species of balsam, was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Phytotaxa.

The species was discovered from Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district, one of India’s easternmost.

About a meter tall with ovate elliptical leaves and light pink flowers, the plant was named after Walong, the locality where it was found.

Impatiens walongensis is the latest but not the only new discovery of balsam in Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2017 alone, scientists discovered and published their findings on five other new species of balsam, taking the total number of balsam species discovered this year to six.

Impatiens arunachalensis, which bears purple flowers and a pink throat, was discovered from the Upper Siang district.

Since only 50 plants of the species were found at a particular location, scientists described the conservation status of the plant as critically endangered.

Another species, Impatiens zironiana, with lanceolate pale yellow floral buds flowering and fruiting in the rainy season from July to September, was discovered from the Lower Subansiri district.

Two more species of balsam, Impatiens rugosipetala from the State’s Lower Dibang valley, and Impatiens tatoensis from the West Siang district, were also discovered and described earlier this year.

Three new species of balsam were discovered from Arunachal Pradesh in 2016, and five [were discovered] in 2015.

Since 2013, at least 16 new species of plants under the genus Impatiens, commonly referred to as balsam, have been discovered from Arunachal Pradesh.

Botanists have found 55 species of balsam from the northeastern State, 16 of which are new discoveries to science.

Balsam: Know More

• Known for their starkly differing flower shapes, which are produced along the stem with vivid colours like pink, red, white, purple and yellow, balsams grow in rich moist soil.
• Across the world, about 1,000 species of these angiosperms or closed seeded plants are known to occur.
• In India, about 210 balsam species were known till these new discoveries from Arunachal Pradesh emerged. Now, the number of balsam species has increased to 230.
• What makes the Impatiens interesting is the high endemism among these plants.
• In most cases, while collecting the specimens, only a handful of plants are spotted.
• Since these plants have a very small habitat, they face a threat from the fast-changing landscape of the region.
• Balsams have immense horticultural importance.
• Studies on hybrids of the plants have been undertaken in parts of the country to produce flowers that can sustain in different environmental conditions.
• Different hybrids can be created from wild balsam species, so it is important to know the actual number of balsam species in the wild.

ANSWER: Mission Indradhanush

Explanation:
PM Modi launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) at Vadnagar in Gujarat.

Through this programme, Government of India aims to reach each and every child under two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme.

The special drive will focus on improving immunization coverage in select districts and cities to ensure full immunization to more than 90% by December 2018.

The achievement of full immunisation under Mission Indradhanush to at least 90% coverage was to be achieved by 2020 earlier.

With the launch of IMI, achievement of the target has now been advanced.

The Prime Minister also highlighted other achievements of the Government including the new National Health Policy 2017 which has been unveiled after fifteen years, and is people-centred.

Regulating of the prices of stents has immensely helped a large section of the country by reducing the cost of healthcare on the middle income group and poor families.

The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction at the success of the Pradhan Mantri Matritva Suraksha Abhiyaan where private doctors have volunteered to provide free ANC services to pregnant women on the 9th of every month along with government doctors.

Mission Indradhanush

• The four phases of Mission Indradhanush have reached to more than 2.53 crore children and 68 lakh pregnant women with life-saving vaccines including 5.21 lakh children & 1.27 lakh pregnant women in Gujarat.
• Through this mission, we have accelerated our progress towards our target of 90% full immunization coverage.
• Earlier the increase in full immunization coverage was 1% per year which has increased to 6.7% per year through the first two phases of ‘Mission Indradhanush’.
• With a sharpened focus on high priority districts and urban areas, under IMI, four consecutive immunization rounds will be conducted for 7 days in 173 districts-121 districts and 17 cities in 16 states and 52 districts in 8 north eastern states-every month between October 2017 and January 2018.
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush will cover low performing areas in the selected districts and urban areas.
• These areas have been selected through triangulation of data available under national surveys, Health Management Information System data and World Health Organization concurrent monitoring data. Special attention will be given to unserved/low coverage pockets in sub-centre and urban slums with migratory population.
• The focus is also on the urban settlements and cities identified under National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush will have inter-ministerial and inter-departmental coordination, action-based review mechanism and intensified monitoring and accountability framework for effective implementation of targeted rapid interventions to improve the routine immunization coverage.
• IMI is supported by 11 other ministries and departments, such as Ministry of Women and Child Development, Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Youth Affairs among others. The convergence of ground level workers of various departments like ASHA, ANMs, Anganwadi workers, Zila preraks under National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), self-help groups will be ensured for better coordination and effective implementation of the programme.
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush would be closely monitored at the district, state and central level at regular intervals.
• Further, it would be reviewed by the Cabinet Secretary at the National level and will continue to be monitored at the highest level under a special initiative ‘Proactive Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI)’.

Intensified Mission

• This Intensified Mission is driven based on the information received from gap assessment, supervision through government, concurrent monitoring by partners, and end-line surveys.
• Under IMI, special strategies are devised for rigorous monitoring of the programme. States and districts have developed coverage improvement plans based on gap self-assessment.
• These plans are reviewed from state to central level with an aim to reach 90% coverage by December 2018.
• An appreciation and awards mechanism is also conceived to recognize the districts reaching more than 90% coverage.
• The criteria includes best practices and media management during crisis. To acknowledge the contribution of the partners/Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and others, Certificate of Appreciation will be given.