2016 Current Affairs
Former India wicketkeeper M.S.K. Prasad (41-year) has been appointed as the new chairman of selectors while Ajay Shirke has retained unopposed as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary at its 87th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai.
Prasad will replace Sandeep Patil as Chairman of the selectors.
Other members include Jatin Paranjpae, Devan Gandhi, Gagan Khoda and Sarandeep Singh.
Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad has been retained as chairman of the junior selection committee.
Oxford University (UK) topped the list as the world’s leading university in the latest Times Higher Education world rankings index.
§ The United States had 63 institutions in the top 200, while the UK had 32 and Australia had 8.
§ Asian region’s top institution, National University of Singapore was ranked 24th.
§ Indian Institute of Science of Bengaluru has been placed in the rank segment of 201 to 250 while IIT Bombay is in the 301 to 350 segment.
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Caption of the Indian National Cricket team in limited-overs formats Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been named the caption of the all- time India Test XI chosen by cricket magazine Widen.
§ The openers in the side are Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag, Followed by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulker, VVS Laxman, all-rounder Kapil dev and Dhoni (Wicket- Keeper batsman).
§ The celebrated team has been picked ahead of India’s 500th Test which will be played against New Zealand in Kanpur
The eighth edition of joint military exercise ‘Indra-2016’ between India and Russia has begun in Russian city of Vladivostok. The main focus of this edition of bilateral military exercise is on Counter-Terrorism Operations in semi mountainous and jungle terrain under United Nations Mandate.
Key Facts
· The eleven days bilateral military exercise seeks to achieve interoperability in joint operations.
· Troops from both sides would acquaint themselves with the respective approach to such counter-Terrorism operations.
· Indian army contingent is represented by 250 soldiers from the Kumaon Regiment. It is led by Brigadier Sukrit Chadah.
· Russian army is being represented by 250 soldiers from the 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade.
The Incredible India Tourism Investors Summit (IITIS) 2016 has begun in New Delhi after it was inaugurated by Union Finance Minster Arun Jaitley. The three day summit has been organized by the Union Ministry of Tourism in association with Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
· IITIS will provide a common platform for domestic and international investors to meet project owners from across Indian states and the private sector.
· It will host presentations of investible properties, session on why invest in India, Micro of Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) in tourism sector.
· Besides, it will also host panel discussions on core infrastructure for tourism, session on start-ups, digital India, Swadesh Darshan, PRASAD and niche tourism products, B2B meetings.
· The summit will also have dedicated space for seminars, business to business (B2B) meetings and roundtables around focus themes.
· There will be participation from major stakeholders including states/UTs with their ready investible projects, banks and financial Institutions, business developers.
· It will also see domestic investors, entertainment companies, global investors, helicopter services, infrastructure-developers, hoteliers, international associations, restaurateurs, tour and travel operators, venture capitalists, urban developers and civic amenity providers.
The world’s largest solar power plant with an installed capacity of 648MW was commissioned at Kamudhi in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. The plant was set up on an area of around 5,000 acres by Adani Group at a total cost of Rs 4,550Cr. . It was connected to the grid through a sub-station.
· The plant was set up the plant in eight months. For this purpose, Adani Group had sourced equipment and machinery from various parts of the world.
· The plant comprises 25 lakh solar modules, 3.8 lakh foundations, 27,000m of structure, 154 transformers, 576 inverters and 6,000km length of cables.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on 19 September 2016 inaugurated the super computer PARAM ISHAN at IIT Guwahati campus.
Students and faculty members of IIT Guwahati are expected to derive huge benefit from the facility.
PARAM ISHAN
• It is the fastest and most powerful computer in North East, Eastern and Southern region.
• It has been jointly developed by IIT Guwahati and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, C -DAC.
• PARAM ISHAN has the power of 250 Teraflops and 300 terabyte capacity and can be used in the application areas like computational chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, computational electromagnetic, civil engineering structures, nana-block self assemble, optimization and others.
• It can also be used for weather, climate modeling and seismic data processing.
A team of researchers from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) created a three-dimensional lung, called as organoids, to study diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The organoids resemble sections of human lungs instead of just cells.
The study was published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
How the researchers grew lungs?
• The researchers used stem cells taken from actual adult human lungs to coat tiny sticky hydrogel beads.
• The beads eventually grew and self-assembled to envelope the hydrogel beads, which were all placed inside linked wells.
• The resulting structure produced evenly distributed three-dimensional patterns consistent with actual air sacs like those in human lungs.
• Inside each well, the lung cells grew around the beads, which linked them and formed an evenly distributed three-dimensional pattern.
• To show that these tiny organoids mimicked the structure of actual lungs, the researchers compared the lab-grown tissues with real sections of human lung.
• Moreover, when the researchers added certain molecular factors to the 3D cultures, the lungs developed scars similar to those seen in the lungs of people who have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
• The scientists were not able build a fully functional lung. However, they have been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung.
What is Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis?
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disease characterised by scarring of the lungs.
• The scarring makes the lungs thick and stiff, which over time results in progressively worsening shortness of breath and lack of oxygen to the brain and vital organs.
• The term 'idiopathic' is used because the cause of pulmonary fibrosis is still unknown.
• To study the effect of genetic mutations or drugs on lung cells, researchers have previously relied on two-dimensional cultures of the cells. But when they take cells from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and grow them on these flat cultures, the cells appear healthy.
Indian Railways on 19 September 2016 launched Yatri Mitra Sewa to facilitate access to wheelchairs, battery operated cars and porter services. The service was launched to make rail travel comfortable for elderly, differently-abled and ailing travelers. Highlights of the Yatri Mitra Sewa • Yatri Mitra or Passenger Friend service can be an assistant or any other person nominated for the purpose. • The service will be available at major railway stations across the country. • It can be availed at the time of online booking of tickets by calling or messaging 139 or by simply dialling a dedicated mobile phone number to be activated for the purpose. • Passengers can also access the Mobile app to avail the service in the future. The App will be developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). • Once the service is booked, the IRCTC will ensure the Yatri Mitra receive the passenger at the entrance of the station and help in boarding the train safely. • The assistant will also be available at the coach when the passenger arrives at the designated railway station. Background The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was mandated to implement the service which may provide Yatri Mitra Sewa free of cost by involving some NGO, charitable trust, PSUs under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) category. But, if the service cannot be provided free of cost due to lack of response, then the IRCTC may arrange this service on reasonable and affordable charges through a service provider or on its own.