Current Affairs 3rd February 2017

Current Affairs 3rd February 2017 - Important Points

• India inked MoU to construct a multi-ethnic secondary school with - Sri Lanka
• Name of two toxins discovered in Lychee fruit which are harmful for children - Hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG)
• 53rd SAARC programming committee meeting held in - Kathmandu, Nepal
• 3-day VisakhaUtsav in Visakhapatnamon was inaugurated by - Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu
• Where was existence of lost continent confirmed by the Scientists/Researchers – Under the Indian Ocean

Current Affairs 3rd February 2017 - Details

India inked MoU to construct a multi-ethnic secondary school with - Sri Lanka

India and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to construct a multi-ethnic secondary school in Lanka’s Polonnaruwa District on 2nd Feb 2017.

• The High Commissioner of India, Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the Secretary to the Sri Lanka , Sunil Hettiarachchi signed this MoU.
• Polonnaruwa District, where MoU is signed to build a school is, Sri Lanka’s President MaithripalaSirisena’s home District.
• This project aims to create a fully-furnished school with all necessary facilities including furnished classrooms, a library and laboratories.  
• Equal opportunities will be provided to study in a multi-ethnic, tri-lingual and multi-cultural environment to Muslims, Sinhala, and Tamil students.
• Government of India is giving a grant of Rs 30 crore for the construction of School.

Name of two toxins discovered in Lychee fruit which are harmful for children - Hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG)

These toxins can result in very low blood glucose level and acute encephalopathy, if consumed in empty stomach. These are proven fatal to children, also can lead to seizures and coma. This has recently been discovered by a group of scientists from US and India, and these findings were published in journal Lancet Global Health.

Do You know :

Lychee is a tropical fruit originally came from China provinces, However now it is grown all over the world.

China is the biggest producer of Lychee followed by India.

In 1990s, unexplained outbreaks of encephalopathy due to lychee consumption affected children of India and northern Vietnam during the lychee harvest season from May to June.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated that cases were related to lychee consumption fruit, as low blood sugar of less than 70 mg/dLin the undernourished children because of hypoglycemic encephalopathy was identified common in most of the admitted patients.

53rd SAARC programming committee meeting held in - Kathmandu, Nepal

53rd South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) two-days programming committee meeting started in Kathmandu, Nepal on 1st February 2017.

Important Facts :

• It aims to discuss budget allocation among five SAARC regional centers and special bodies and their annual programs.
• Initially, it was scheduled in Pakistan in November 2016, but India boycotted it due to increasing tensions with Pakistan that time. Later on Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh also did same.
• Afterwards, it was postponed to 1st Feb by the hosting country. According to the officials, Programming committee was held with the expectation to reduce tension between India and Pakistan. 
• As per the resources, the first day of summit went well as both Indian and Pakistani officials showed accommodative and flexible attitude.

3-day VisakhaUtsav in Visakhapatnamon was inaugurated by - Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu

The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Urban Development,M. Venkaiah Naidu

Important Highlights –

• VisakhaUtsav is a state function, celebrated at port city’s Rama Krishna Beach with the objective to promote brand image of Vishakhapatnam.
• It’s an annual festival that aims to show rich culture and tradition of Andhra Pradesh.
• Acultural event called ‘UtsavVedika’ aims to revive the state’s art forms.
• The inauguration of the festival was followed by a folk dance by “Lambadi women” from Warangal.

Where was existence of lost continent confirmed by the Scientists/Researchers – Under the Indian Ocean

Scientists recently have confirmed the existence of a "lost continent" under the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius that was left-over by the break-up of the supercontinent, Gondwana, which started about 200 million years ago. 

The piece of crust, which was gradually covered by young lava during volcanic eruptions on the island, seems to be a tiny piece of that ancient continent, which broke off from the island of Madagascar, when Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica split up forming the Indian Ocean.

By studying the mineral, zircon, found in rocks spewed up by lava during volcanic eruptions Professor Lewis Ashwal stated thatEarth is made up of two parts - continents, which are old, and oceans, which are "young". On the continents you find rocks that are over four billion years old, but you find nothing like that in the oceans.

Researchers have foundzircons that are as old as 3 billion years while there is no other rock of the Mauritius Island is older than 9 million years.

Interesting things about Zircon

Zircon is a mineral that is found in granites from the continents.

These contain trace amounts of uranium, thorium and lead, and due to the fact that they survive geological process very well, they contain a rich record of geological processes and can be dated extremely accurately.