6th UN Global Road Safety Week: 17-23 May 2021
The 6th UN Global Traffic Safety Week, which this year is celebrated between 17 and 23 May, call for 30 km/h (20 mph) speed limits to be the norm for cities, towns and villages worldwide. UN Global Road Safety Week (UNGRSW) is a biennial global road safety campaign hosted by WHO.
Each UNGRSW has an advocacy theme. The theme for the 6th UNGRSW is Streets for Life, under the tagline #Love30. It brings together individuals, governments, NGOs, corporations, and other organizations from around the world to raise awareness of road safety and make changes that will reduce the number of road deaths.
WHO was established on 7 April 1948.
WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health.
WHO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
WHO current President is Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Rafael Nadal wins 10th Italian Open title
Rafael Nadal beat world number one Novak Djokovic to win a 10th Italian Open title. Second seed Nadal won through 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in 2hr 49min against the defending champion in the 57th career showdown between the pair. The victory also earned Nadal a 36th ATP Masters 1000 crown, equalling Djokovic’s record since the series was established in 1990.
In the women's category, Polish teenager Iga Swiatek crushed Czech ninth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 to win the Italian Open title. Swiatek, ranked 15, claimed her third WTA title.
World AIDS Vaccine Day 18 May
World AIDS Vaccine Day, (also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day), is observed annually on May 18 to promote the continued urgent need for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. The first World AIDS Vaccine Day was thus observed on May 18, 1998, to commemorate the anniversary of Clinton’s speech.
The concept of World AIDS Vaccine Day was proposed on May 18, 1997, during a commencement speech at Morgan State University made by then-President Bill Clinton, which underlined the need for a vaccine to curb the spread of HIV.
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank receives ‘International Invincible Gold Medal’
International Invincible Gold Medal of this year has been conferred on Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. He has been recognised for his extraordinary commitment and outstanding service to humanity through his writings, social and illustrious public life.
The decision was made after due deliberations by a high-powered committee duly constituted under the leadership of Dr Tony Nader who is the global head of the Maharshi organisation. This honour will be given by the worldwide Maharishi Organization & its universities.
International Museum Day 18 May
The International Museum Day is celebrated on 18 May, since 1977, to raise awareness about the fact that “Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples". The theme of International Museum Day 2021: “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”. It is coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
President of International Council Of Museums: Suay Aksoy;
International Council Of Museums Headquarters: Paris, France;
International Council Of Museums Founder: Chauncey J. Hamlin;
International Council Of Museums Founded: 1946.
Kobe Bryant Inducted Posthumously Into Basketball Hall Of Fame
Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant has been posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was presented at the ceremony in Connecticut by NBA great Michael Jordan and his widow, Vanessa, accepted his induction on his behaf.
Los Angeles Lakers great Bryant retired in 2016; he was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2008. The five-time NBA champion died, aged 41, in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
Haryana Declares Black Fungus A Notified Disease
Black Fungus has been categorised as a notified disease in Haryana, making it imperative that government authorities be informed about each case. This will allow in the tracking and management of an outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic in India has catalysed the spread of black fungus or mucormycosis, which can disfigure people even when it is not fatal. Declaring a disease notifiable helps collate information and lets authorities monitor the disease and set off early warnings.
About the Black fungus:
"Black fungus" mainly affects people on medication for other health problems that reduce their ability to fight environmental pathogens, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research. The COVID-19 pandemic in India has catalysed the fungal infection into a dangerous disease disfiguring scores and even killing some.
Haryana Capital: Chandigarh.
Haryana Governor: Satyadev Narayan Arya.
Haryana Chief Minister: Manohar Lal Khattar.
Google Cloud partnered with SpaceX for providing satellite internet service
Google Cloud and SpaceX signed a deal for providing internet service through Starlink satellite. Google will provide the Cloud infrastructure for this connectivity Project, while Space X will install ground terminals in Google’s cloud data centres for connecting Starlink satellites. It will help in providing fast internet service to the rural areas. This service will be available to customers before the end of 2021.
The first Starlink terminal will be established in a Google data centre in Ohio, United States. Earlier, Microsoft has also signed a similar agreement with SpaceX to connect its Azure cloud to Starlink. Starlink is a project under which SpaceX aims to send 12,000 satellites to provide space-based internet.
SpaceX founder & CEO: Elon Musk.
SpaceX Founded: 2002.
SpaceX Headquarters: California, United States of America.
Google CEO: Sundar Pichai.
Google Founded: 4 September 1998, California, United States.
Google Founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin.
India loses ONGC-discovered Farzad-B gas field in Iran
India lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran awarded a contract for developing the giant gas field to a local company. The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth USD 1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.
The field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable. It also holds gas condensates of about 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had in 2008 discovered a giant gas field in the Farsi offshore exploration block. OVL and its partners had offered to invest up to USD 11 billion for the development of the discovery, which was later named Farzad-B.
Iran Capital: Tehran;
Iran Currency: Iranian rial;
Iran President: Hassan Rouhani.
Manipur CM launches 'MOMA Market' for vegetable
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has launched a smartphone application "Manipur Organic Mission Agency (MOMA) Market" for home delivery of fresh vegetables to ensure that people get fresh vegetables at their doorsteps during the COVID-19 induced curfew. MOMA a unit of the state horticulture and soil conservation department launched the app under the CM’s supervision to make fresh vegetables available for day-to-day consumption and to reduce the distress sales of farm produce during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
MOMA has been assigned to work in the area and channel farm produces to consumers via home delivery in order to prevent vegetable losses and COVID-19 spread. Farmers Producer Companies (FPCs) working with MOMA will harvest vegetables from various farms. It will then be transported to cold storage and warehouses at the department’s complex in Sanjenthong and other locations. Finally, the consumer’s MOMA Market order will be shipped to their doorstep.
Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh; Governor: Najma Heptulla.
Iran Develops Its Most Powerful Supercomputer “Simorgh”
Iran has unveiled a new supercomputer named ‘Simorgh’, which is 100 times more powerful than the previous supercomputer of the country to date. The supercomputer has been developed indigenously by Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT). It has been named after a mythical Phoenix-like bird ‘Simurgh’.
Key highlights
Currently, Simorgh has a performance capacity of 0.56 petaflops,
However, the country claims this capacity to reach one petaflop in two months.The supercomputer will be used for artificial intelligence workloads, traffic and weather data, and image processing.
Former President of Indian Medical Association Dr. KK Aggarwal Passes Away
Renowned cardiologist and former national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr KK Aggarwal, has passed away battling with Covid. He was an eminent physician and cardiologist, who also has served as the head of the Heart Care Foundation of India. He was honoured with the Dr BC Roy Award in 2005 and the Padma Shri in 2010, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, for his contributions to the field of medicine.
Arjan Bhullar becomes first Indian-origin fighter to win MMA title
Arjan Bhullar became the first Indian-origin fighter to win a world title in a top-level MMA promotion when he beat Brandon Vera to become the heavyweight world champion at the Singapore-based One Championship.
By defeating Vera, Bhullar ended the Filipino-American’s five-year championship-winning run. Bhullar had won the commonwealth games gold medals in 2010 and 2012. He became the first Indian-origin freestyle wrestler to represent Canada at the Olympics.
India-Microsoft MoU on Digital Transformation of Tribal Schools
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the joint initiative for Digital Transformation of Tribal Schools. This includes the introduction of Ashram Schools and Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in tribal areas.
About the project:
Microsoft will make an Artificial Intelligence curriculum available for the tribal students in Hindi and English.
In the first phase of the programme, 250 EMRS are to be established. Out of these 250 schools, 50 schools will be given intensive training. And five hundred master trainers will be trained in the first phase.
The teachers are to be trained in a phased manner to use Artificial Intelligence application and production technologies such as Office 365. This will introduce the teachers to the world of collaboration and help them understand how teaching shall be increased with virtual field trips.
The teachers will also be provided with E-Certificates and E-badges from the Microsoft Education centres at the end of the programme.
Minister of Tribal Affairs: Arjun Munda;
Microsoft CEO: Satya Nadella;
Microsoft Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States.
The Telangana government has selected 16 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) spread around Vikarabad area hospital for pilot testing the ambitious ‘Medicine from the sky’, the first-of-its-kind project involving delivery of medicines through multiple drones. The area hospital has been selected as the central point owing to the presence of cold chain facilities and the selected PHCs are both within the Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) range.
About the project:
A consortium of seven operators headed by Blue Dart Med-Express had been selected for the project to be launched in the VLOS range of 500 metres initially and will be scaled up gradually to a 9 km range.
The project would be launched in three waves starting with a pilot followed by mapping the route network for the operation of drones for delivering vaccine/medicine in the desired community health centres and PHCs.
The project is being launched following the approval granted by the Civil Aviation Ministry to the request made by the State to grant conditional exemption from the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules 2021 for conducting experimental BVLOS drone flights for delivery of vaccines.
Telangana Capital: Hyderabad.
Telangana Governor: Tamilisai Soundararajan.
Telangana Chief minister: K. Chandrashekar Rao.
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