Current Affairs 12th April 2019

Current Affairs 12th April 2019 - Important Points

• First phase voting started in 91 constituencies including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra on - 11th April 2019
• Benjamin Netanyahu set to win record fifth term on - 10th April 2019
• First ever image of Black Hole released on - 10th April 2019
• UNICEF Report on Bangladesh Children 
• Election Commission orders pre-certification of NaMo TV contents on - 9th April 2019
• Vice admiral Bimal Verma Withdraws Plea Challenging Appointment as -  Navy Chief
• Kohli, Mandhana tops Wisden Cricketers list on - 10th April 2019
• FTII announces course in Film Criticism on - 10th April 2019
• New Zealand bans semi-automatic weapons on - 10th April 2019

Current Affairs 12th April 2019 - Details

First phase voting started in 91 constituencies including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra on - 11th April 2019

The General Elections 2019 has started on 11th April 2019 as the first phase of voting for 91 Parliamentary constituencies, out of the total 543 constituencies, spreading to 18 States and 2 Union Territories.   The voting for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 is being held in all parliamentary constituencies of Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh,Telangana, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and Uttarakhand. 

Other than this the Polling is being held for some parliamentary constituencies of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Benjamin Netanyahu set to win record fifth term on - 10th April 2019

Incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to win a record fifth term in the country's most closely-fought general election in  years after conceding the defeat of his main rival.

With over 99 percent of votes counted, Netanyahu's Likud party is set to lead a right-wing bloc with 65 out of the 120 seats in parliament.  Netanyahu's key rival, Blue and White Party’s Benny Gantz, accepted the result on 10th April and  acknowledged the failure to unseat the prime minister.

First ever image of Black Hole released on - 10th April 2019

First ever image of a black hole is located in a distant galaxy on  10th April  2019 by Astronomers. The image was captured by the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope), a network of eight linked telescopes. So far, every image of a black hole has been an artist's impression only.

The ‘Event Horizon Telescope’  project started  to observe the immediate environment of a black hole using a global network of telescopes in 2012. The project targeted two supermassive black holes which were residing in the center of different galaxies.

UNICEF Report on Bangladesh Children 

UNICEF has freshly published a report on situation of Children of Bangladesh that they are facing due to climate change. The report titled, ‘A Gathering Storm: Climate Change Clouds the Future of Children in Bangladesh’ notifies that in sum, an approximated 19.4 million children, spread across 20 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, are visible to the most detrimental and hazardous values of short- or longer-
term climate change.
Major Findings

• Drowning is by far the foremost cause of death among Bangladeshi children, causing more than
  1/3rd of all child injury deaths. As per to the Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey, an assessed
  14438 boys and girls aged 0-17 years passed away by drowning in 2016.
• While it is not clear how many of these mortalities can be attributed to climate change-related
  factors, the high rate of drowning, equivalent to nearly 40 deaths daily, is a cause of great
  concern.
• As part of its effort to decrease the number of child drownings, UNICEF backs the provision of
  swimming lessons via the Swim Safe program for children from 5-10 years of age.
• The floods of 2017 did massive damage. By late September that year, the floods had exaggerated
  about 8 million people, including the families of Fulchari, and left above 2.5 million children in
  necessity of humanitarian help.
• Nearly 3.45 million Bangladeshi children are part of the labour force and the report explains that
  climate change could be one of the reasons for it.

Election Commission orders pre-certification of NaMo TV contents on - 9th April 2019

The Election Commission of India on April 9th, 2019 allegedly instructed the Chief Electoral Officer of
Delhi to make sure that the contents of NaMo TV are pre-certified by the local media certification and
monitoring committee.
The local media certification committees are designed at district and state levels during polls and their
important role is to clear political campaign and advertisements.
Important Highlights

• The Election Commission had released a notice last week, pursuing a report from the Information and  Broadcast Ministry on NaMo TV, following opposition parties, asked the poll body to instruct the ministry to suspend the channel in violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
• The Election Commission has also asked the CEO to notify whether the political contents were at any time approved by the certification committee.
• The Information and Broadcasting Ministry reportedly replied that the NaMo TV is an ad based platform released by DTH service providers, which does not need government nod.
• The ministry also reportedly informed that NaMo TV is not a regular channel and it does not symbol in the official list of sanctioned channels of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Ministry.
• It also explained that according to the current standards, no endorsement is needed from the ministry to run such publicity platforms.

FTII announces course in Film Criticism on - 10th April 2019

The Film and Television Institute of India- FTII, on April 10th, 2019 publicized a course in Film Criticism and  the Art of Review for the 1st time. This 20 days Course would be directed from May 28th to June 19th, 2019 in Delhi in connotation with Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi.
Highlights of the course

• The course sees a long-standing mandate of cinema critics, film reviewers, film bloggers, research
  scholars, film academics and anyone who has above ordinary interest in cinema. 
• During the course, one will be issued with the paraphernalia to know how to read a film in order to
  review it.
• It will deliver a basic grounding in the discipline of Film Criticism and train the contestants into becoming serious viewers of Cinema. 
• The course consists of the study of important films in the history of cinema through the prism of
  critical thinking.
• The Course is open to all with no age bar and it would be headed by Bhopal-based filmmaker, Rajula
  Shah, a Film and Television Institute of India alumnus.
• She learnt film direction at Film and Television Institute of India from 1997-2000. 
• The Course is being directed under Film and Television Institute of India's countrywide film education initiative ‘Skilling India in Film and Television’.

Vice admiral Bimal Verma Withdraws Plea Challenging Appointment as -  Navy Chief

Vice Admiral Bimal Verma has quiet his petition from the  Armed Forces Tribunal  which confronted the  appointment of Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the upcoming navy chief  replacing Admiral Sunil Lanba. He was superseded in the nomination.
The Tribunal asked them to reconnoitre the idea of approaching the Defence Ministry and permitted them to withdraw their petition.
Reason for withdrawing plea
As per to the guidelines, Vice Admiral Bimal Verma had the choice of filing a statutory complaint with the Defence Minister before taking the permissible recourse.

Vice Admiral Bimal Verma contacted the tribunal if he is not gratified with the way his complaint is
addressed by the Defence Ministry.
The tribunal has asked the requester why the choice of contacting the Defence Ministry was not availed.

New Zealand bans semi-automatic weapons on - 10th April 2019

The Parliament of New Zealand on April 10th, 2019 voted to restrict all types of semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles after the Christchurch attacks. The bill was sanctioned in the House of
Representatives with the consent of 119 members, with just single member opposing it. 
The bill will now be forwarded to the Governor General for his royal assent and is supposed to become a
law by April 12th.
Important Highlights

• An exoneration has been forced so the owners of the weapons can hand them back, trailed by a buy-
  back scheme which could cost up to 200 million New Zealand dollar.
• PM Jacinda Ardern declared changes to the law following 50 people were killed past month by a
  alleged lone gunman at 2 mosques in Christchurch.
• Australia’s Brenton Harrison Tarrant, aged 28, was charged with the mass murder and 39 counts of
  attempted killing.
• The royal commission formed to investigate matters surrounding the massacre is investigating  how he got a gun license in New Zealand and bought weapons and ammunition.
• Ardern was able to secure rare bipartisan support for a bill that makes it prohibited to own a military-style semi-automatic rifle. The only opposition was from the libertarian ACT Party's lone lawmaker in Parliament.
• The law comprises a buy-back scheme under which owners of banned weapons can surrender them
  to police in return for reimbursement based on the weapon's age and condition.

Kohli, Mandhana tops Wisden Cricketers list on - 10th April 2019

Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli on April 10th, 2019 was termed The Wisden Almanack’s Leading Cricketer of the Year for 2018. At the same level Smriti Mandhana secured the Women’s Leading Cricketer award. Now Kohli has secured the title three times, is 3ird only to Sir Don Bradman and Jack Hobbs who have secured it 10 and 8 times respectively.
Virat Kohli has been so-called among England’s Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran and Tammy Beaumont in receiving the honour Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.
Important Highlights

• Kohli scored 2735 runs at 68.37 across all cricket formats in 2018, while Mandhana, scored 1291
  runs across limited overs cricket format, including 13 50s. As per to the Wisden record, Kohli topped the run charts in India’s 4-1 Test series defeat to England last summer on the naming of the batsman as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.
• Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan has been named as Wisden’s Leading T20 Cricketer in the World for
  the 2nd year in a row. He took 22 wickets at an average of 8.68 for Afghanistan in Twenty20Is,
  besides scalping 21 wickets in the IPL 2018.
• The 5 Cricketers of the Year are chosen by Lawrence Booth, the editor of the Wisden Cricketers’
  Almanack, with the 2019 version working as the 156th edition.