Current Affairs NTSE

  A 13-year-old Dubai-based Indian girl Sucheta Satish has won the 100 Global Child Prodigy Award in Delhi. She was awarded for singing in most languages during one concert and the longest live singing concert by a child. Global Child Prodigy Award is a platform to showcase the talent of children in dance, music, art, writing, acting, modelling, science, sports etc. The award is supported by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Oscar Award-winning music producer AR Rahman among others.
Source: The News18

  Aayushi Dholakia has bagged the title of Miss Teen International 2019. She also bagged the titles of Best in National Costume Award and Best in Speech Award. Girls from 22 countries participated in the event to win the coveted title. Yessenia Garcia from Paraguay and Anicia Gaothusi from Botswana became the First and second Runners-Up respectively. Miss Teen International is the world’s oldest running teen pageant. Thu Phan from Vietnam was adjudged Miss Teen Asia, Maria Luisa Piras from Italy bagged the title of Miss Teen Europe, Anicia Gaothusi from Botswana won Miss Teen Africa and Alessandra Santos from Brazil became Miss Teen America at the event.
Source: The Indian Express

 The Women Science Congress was inaugurated at the ongoing Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru. DRDO Aeronautical Systems Director-General Dr Tessy Thomas who is known as Missile Woman of India graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. The women’s science congress aims to provide a single platform for women working in different arena of science and technology to showcase their achievements and experiences. It will also prepare a vision document or a road map for women in science and technology and recommend policies to enhance the role and utilize the full potential of women in science and technology. In this session, women are invited to share ideas and experiences to motivate younger women to actively participate in science to identify and find simpler solutions through Science and Technology.
Source: The News on AIR

  India’s leading Digital lending startup, RevFin has joined hands with PNB MetLife India Insurance Company to offer protection to the RevFin’s customers by bundling life insurance cover on their loans. This insurance covers loans up to ?3 lakh for a period of 3 years. The collaboration will help PNB MetLife to reach out to unbanked areas & drive greater financial inclusion in the country by securing the families of the borrowers against loan repayment in case of unfortunate death of the borrower.
Source: The Hindu

  Common Service Centres (CSC) e-Governance Services India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) for sale of FASTags. The agreement will facilitate the sale of PPBL FASTags through the last mile network of 3.6 lakh CSCs, helping realise the government’s vision of cashless and smooth transit at all toll plazas across the country. FASTags which work on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology have been made mandatory at toll gates on national highways. The FASTag process allows toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it, thus doing away with the need for waiting in queues, saving time and fuel.
Source: The Business Standard

  Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), India’s largest private sector port operator, has agreed to buy a 75% stake in Krishnapatnam Port Co. Ltd (KPCL) at an enterprise value of Rs 13,572 crores. The Krishnapatnam Port is located in southern Andhra Pradesh and is a multi-cargo facility. It handled 54 million tonnes (mt) of cargo in the year ended 31 March 2019. The purchase will accelerate Adani Ports’ plan to expand its cargo-handling capacity to 400mt by 2025.
Source: The Business Standard

  Kolkata Police has started the 3rd edition of ‘Sukanya‘ project. The project aims to provide self-defence training to girls studying in schools and colleges in the city. The third batch of ‘Sukanya’ started at 100 city-based schools and colleges situated in Kolkata Police jurisdiction. Sukanya project is an initiative of the Kolkata Police’s Community Policing Wing to provide self-defence training to girl students of city-based schools, colleges and universities. The initiative is funded by Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department of the state government.
Source: The News On AIR

  Former Governor of Karnataka T N Chaturvedi passed away. He was the 14th Governor of Karnataka from 2002–2007. He also served as of Comptroller and Auditor General of India from 1984 to 1989. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.
Source: The News on AIR

  An international team of astronomers funded in part by NASA has found the farthest galaxy group identified as “EGS77“. EGS77, the trio of galaxies dates to a time when the universe was only 680 million years old, or less than 5% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. EGS77 is the farthest group of galaxies to have ever been sighted. EGS77 was discovered as part of the Cosmic Deep And Wide Narrowband (Cosmic DAWN) survey. The team of astronomers was led by an Indian-origin Goa-born scientist, Vithal Tilvi. Vithal Tilvi is currently a visiting researcher at the School of Earth & Space Exploration, at the Arizona State University, US.
Source: The Economic Times

 On January 6, 2020, the fifth Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference was held at Pune. It was organized by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. The conference is held twice a year.
  • Highlights
The conference is to be held between January 6, 2020 and January 10, 2020. It aims at promoting interaction between the Drosophila researchers in the region of Asia-Pacific. The conference acts as a common platform to link the Asia-Pacific researchers with other parts of the world. The event is the largest meet of Drosophila researchers in the whole world.
  • The Research
Drosophila is the small fruit fly. Scientists and Researchers for the past 100 years have been using the fly as a model organism in researches.
  • Drosophila
The small fruit flies are extensively used as model organisms in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and developmental biology. The main reason for the fly being used as model in genome researches is that the relationship between fruit fly and humans are undeniably similar. Both the genres pass on the traits to successive generations in similar way! The density of genes per chromosomes is higher in Drosophila than that of humans. The flies have 15,500 genes on four chromosomes. On the other hand, humans have 22,000 genes in 23 chromosomes. Hence, the passage of traits throughout generations are much more higher in these flies and ideal for genetic studies.


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