Current General Knowledge --- For preparation of written test - PA/SA

ABBREVIATIONS

AFNET: (The) Air Force Network.
SGAI: Students Global Aptitude Index.

AWARDS
Jnanpith Award, 2007 and 2008
Eminent Malayalam litterateur O.N.V. Kurup has been chosen for the 2007 Jnanpith award. Noted Urdu poet Akhlaq Khan Shahryar has been chosen for the 2008 award.

Born in 1931 in Kerala’s Kollam district, Kurup is a leading voice among the contemporary Malayalam poets. He has reinvented the narrative transition of Malayalam poetry through his long poems like ‘Ujjayini’ and ‘Swayamvaram’.

Born in 1936 in a Muslim Rajput family in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, Shahryar shaped himself as an “intellectual poet”, whose poetry strongly expresses an “ideological non-commitment”. His roots lie in his desire for self-realisation and his attempt to understand modern problems. Among his famous compositions is: “Seene Mein Jalan, Akhon Mein Toofan Sa Kyon Hai”.

57th National Film Awards
Best feature film: Kutty Srank (Malayalam).
Best Director: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman (Bengali).
Best Actor: Amitabh Bachchan for Paa (Hindi).
Best Actress: Ananya Chatterjee for Lahore (Hindi).
Best supporting actor: Farooque Sheikh for Lahore (Hindi).
Best supporting actress: Arundhati Naag for Paa (Hindi).
Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director: Lahore (Hindi) by Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan.
Best popular film providing wholesome entertainment: 3 Idiots (Hindi).
Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integration: Delhi 6 (Hindi).
Best film on social issues: Well Done Abba (Hindi).
Best Music Director: Amit Trivedi for Anurag Kashyap's “Dev-D”.
Best Lyrics: ‘Behti hawa sa tha woh’ from “3 Idiots”, written by Swanand Kirkere.
Best playback singer (male): Rupam Islam, for his rendering of ‘Kolakata’ in the Bengali film “Mahanagar”.
Best playback singer (female): Nilanjana Sarkar, for Bengali movie “Houseful”.
Best children’s film: Shared by “Putaani Party” in Kannada and “Keshu” in Malayalam.
Best child actor: Jeeva and Anba Karaus share the award.

Dada Saheb Phalke Award, 2009
Telugu film actor-producer D. Ramanaidu has been selected for the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2009 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.

The award comprises of a Swarn Kamal, a cash prize of Rs one million and a shawl.

The industry veteran, who entered the film world in 1963 with "Anuragam", is listed as the most prolific producer with 110 films by the Guinness Book of Records. He has the distinction of producing movies in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi and Bhojpuri.

Some of his well-known films are “Premanagar”, “Dildar” and “Bandish” in Hindi, “Srikrishna Tulabharam”, “Preminchu” and “Ramudu Bheemudu” in Telugu and “Asukh” and “Sudhu Ekbar Bolo” in Bengali.

DEFENCE

GE Engines for Tejas
GE Aviation of USA has bagged the contract for supplying engines for the Light Combat Aircraft MK-2 (LCA MK-2 or Tejas MK-2). The aircraft is being developed by the DRDO with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) being the implementing agency for the project.

Installation of the new engine will pave the way for acquisition of the indigenous multi-role fighter jet by the IAF.

The necessity for a new engine arose after the LCA’s present engine, also supplied by GE (GE F404 IN20), failed to meet the IAF requirements.

Installation of the new engine will necessitate major modifications to the LCA, especially the fuselage. The ADA expects the Tejas MK2 to fly in 2014.

IAF launches AFNET for better communications
The Indian Air Force, in a significant development, launched on September 14, 2010, its state-of-the-art digital information system that will provide real time data, voice and images to commanders on the ground, as well as to pilots in the air.

It will connect all IAF’s, fighters, choppers, transport planes, satellites and UAV’s with ground and command stations which will in turn have the position of the ground-based air defence guns deployed at airbases. The new system will make the IAF network centric force.

The Air Force Network (AFNET) has replaced the IAF’s old communication

network set-up using the “tropo-scatter” technology that was first devised in the 1950s.

DISCOVERY
New series of horned dinosaurs found in Utah
Fossil hunters have uncovered the remains of an ancient beast that can lay claim to the dubious title of the horniest animal ever to walk the Earth. The creature lived 76 million years ago in the warm, wet swamps of southern Utah and was remarkable in bearing 15 full-sized horns on its head. The animal, named Kosmoceratops, had one horn over its nose, one over each eye, one protruding from each cheek bone and a row of ten across the frill at the back of its head. As opposed to earlier belief, many palaeontologists now believe that dinosaurs’ horns were often more for sexual display.

PLACES
Tembhali
This remote village in tribal-dominated Nandurbar district of Maharashtra is the first place in India whose residents have been issues the Unique Identification Number (UID) or Aadhaar.

RESEARCH
Scientists develop ‘e-skin’
Biotech wizards have engineered electronic skin that can sense touch, in a major step towards next-generation robotics and prosthetic limbs. The lab-tested material responds to almost the same pressures as human skin and with the same speed. Important hurdles remain but the exploit is an advance towards replacing today’s clumsy robots and artificial arms with smarter, touch-sensitive upgrades.

The “e-skin” comprises a matrix of nano-wires made of germanium and silicon rolled onto a sticky polyimide film. The researchers then laid nano-scale transistors on top, followed by a flexible, pressure-sensitive rubber. The prototype, measuring 49 square centimetres, can detect pressure ranging from 0 to 15 kilopascals, comparable to the force used for such daily activities as typing on a keyboard or holding an object.

The achievements are “important milestones” in artificial intelligence. In the search to substitute the human senses with electronics, good substitutes now exist for sight and sound, but lag for smell and taste. Touch, though, is widely acknowledged to be the biggest obstacle. Even routine daily actions, such as brushing one’s teeth, turning the pages of a newspaper or dressing a small child would easily defeat today’s robots.

Artificial kidney to be a reality soon
An artificial kidney implant that would work as well as a natural organ is in the offing. The first prototype of the device unveiled by the US researchers

could do away with the need for dialysis or donor organs.

The device comprises thousands of microscopic filters to remove toxins from the blood and a bio-reactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney.

The implant is being developed jointly by engineers, biologists and physicians led by Shuvo Roy at the University of California, San Francisco.

The treatment has already been proven to work for the sickest patients, using a room-sized external model.

The process relies on the body's blood pressure to perform filtration, without needing pumps or an external electrical power supply.

Tissue engineering will be used to grow renal tubule cells to provide other biological functions of a healthy kidney. This would remove the need for immune suppressant medications after it was implanted, allowing the patient to live a more normal life.

Mind reading machine on its way
Scientists who claim to have discovered a way of translating people’s thoughts into words are soon coming out with a mind reading machine. An international team, led by Prof Bradley Greger of Utah University, has been able to translate, for the first time, brain signals into speech using sensors attached to the brain.

The experimental breakthrough, which is up to 90 per cent accurate, offers a way to communicate for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could eventually lead to being able to read anyone thoughts.

The team achieved the experimental breakthrough when it attached two button sized grids of 16 tiny electrodes to the speech centres of the brain of an epileptic patient who had part of his skull removed for another operation.

Using the electrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralysed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less. Then they got him to repeat the words to the computer and it was able to match the brain signals for each word 76 per cent to 90 per cent of the time.

MISCELLANEOUS
CBSE to introduce aptitude test
In order to assess the ability of students, the CBSE will introduce a psychological aptitude test for class X on the lines of similar exams held in other parts of the world. The test will be known as Students Global Aptitude

Index (SGAI). The main aim of holding the exam is to know about the students' interest, their psychology and their skill levels. This exam is based on a scientific index.

South Asian University becomes operational
With the visa issue concerning Pakistani students having been settled, the South Asian University (SAU), a dream project of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has finally taken off. The university launched its first academic session on August 26, 2010, starting two courses—MA in Development Economics and Masters of Computer Applications.

There are 25 students in each course. Of the total 50 students, 36 were from India and 14 from five other SAARC countries—Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. As of now, there is no student from the rest of the two SAARC nations, the war-affected Afghanistan and the Maldives.

The present faculty includes Bangladeshi nationals as well as Australian nationals of Indian origin. The faculty would be gradually increased when courses in other disciplines are launched from the next academic year beginning in July 2011.

Though the university, the first of its kind in the region, has been allotted land in the capital for its campus, classes for the first session are being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The concept of a world-class university in South Asia was initiated by the Indian Prime Minister during the 13th SAARC Summit at Dhaka in 2005, while a formal agreement for establishing the institute was signed in April 2007 during the 14th Summit in New Delhi.