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April 11, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Woman SP tops performance test
• In a first of its kind exercise conducted to judge the performance of senior supervisory police officers, Anoosh Masood Chaudhry, a policewoman heading the Model Town investigation wing, has secured 1st position among the SPs of all six divisions of the provincial capital by scoring 346marks.
• The Cantonment Division Investigation SP Shahnawaz Khan secured 2nd position with 323 marks, followed by the City Division SP Naveed Irshad who bagged the third position scoring 299 marks.
• The positions were announced on the basis of the marks awarded by the Lahore`s Investigation Headquarters after analysing the crime data of the six police divisions of the city.
• Elaborating, the official said, out of thetotal346marksobtained by Dr Anoosh, 318 were awarded for arresting 117 (POs) of `A` category and 240 of `B` category.
• Similarly, she was awarded 17 and 10 marks, respectively, for submitting maximum number of challans of cases including of robbery, dacoity and property disputes, reported in the division.
2. Alvi confers Nishan-i-Imtiaz upon Turkish general
• The president conferred Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Military) upon the visiting dignitary. President Dr Arif Alvi has said that Pakistan and Turkey enjoy an unparalleled fraternal relationship embedded in a shared cultural and religious heritage.
• He stated this while talking to Commander Turkish Air Force General Hasan Kucukakayuz, who called on him. On the occasion. The president added that Pakistan and Turkey have supported each other in difficult times and appreciated the Turkish support during the recent tensions with India.
3. PM approves two-tier LB system for Punjab
• Prime Minister Imran Khan April 10, 2019 approved draft law on the new local bodies system for Punjab featuring a two-tier administrative structure for both urban and rural areas.
• Elections to elect first tier of local councils would be held on party basis within one year after the passage of the local government bill. However, elections to elect the Panchayats and Neighbourhood councils will be non-party based.
• The prime minister, chairing a meeting at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, was briefed about the salient features of the new local government system.
• The premier was informed that provisions had been made in the new local government system to ensure transparency in utilisation of public funds and to enhance capacity of local governments.
• Chairing another meeting, the prime minister ordered reversal of medicine prices to their previous level within 72 hours. Khan directed the Punjab chief minister to order
4. Balochistan minister disqualified for possessing fake degree
• The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on April 10, 2019 disqualified Balochistan Minister for Industries Mohammad Khan Toor Utmankhail for possessing a fake degree.
• Mr Utmankhail was elected a member of the Balochistan Assembly from PB-4 Loralai in the 2018 general elections on a ticket of the Balochistan Awami Party.
• The ECP de-seated the minister after the allegation of submitting a fake degree along with his nomination papers was proved against him.
5. Foreign media, envoys visit impact site of India`s botched air strike
• A group of foreign media persons, mostly from India, and ambassadors and defence attachés of various countries in Pakistan on April 10, 2019 visited the impact site of the botched Indian air strike near Jabba in the Balakot area of Mansehra district on Feb 26.
• Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor briefed the group about details of the incident, rejecting repeated false Indian claims and presenting ground realities. The visitors were shown craters created by the botched Indian air strike in barren open spaces with no loss to life or infrastructure.
• The group also visited a nearby madressah which, according to India claims, had been `hit by the air strike leading to killing scores of terrorists`.
6. New law proposes allowing medics private practice
• The Punjab government is drafting a law aimed at changing the management model of teaching hospitals, allowing doctors private practice in hospitals.
• The Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act will replace the Autonomous Medical Institutions Act 2004, allowing improvement in the working of government hospitals. Authorities concerned were actively discussing various clauses of the new law which the present government was determined to enforce.
• The uncontested parts of the proposed law include permission to doctors to opt for private practice in the teaching hospitals. And they would get a share of it as per their rank. Those opting otherwise would merely receive their salaries.
7. Meltdown continues as KSE-Index sinks to three-year low
• The stock market is in the third year of losses as the prices of shares all across the board fall like ninepins. On April 10, 2019, the meltdown continued with the KSE-Index sinking by 550 points, dragging the index to settle at the end of day`s trading at three-year low 36,579 points.
• From its peak on May 25, 2017 at 53,124 points, the bench-mark KSE-100 Index has tanked by 16,545 points (31 per cent)showing that almost a third of the investors` savings have been wiped off. The market capitalisation of the Pakistan Stock Exchange has eroded by a staggering Rs3 trillion from Rs10.5tr to Rs7.5tr in the same time period.
• Until the elections in July 2018, it was the political uncertainty that weighed on the minds of investors, but following the arrival of the new government, the market has been plagued by disturbing economic numbers. The reserves have continued to deplete with the government scraping the barrel and the fiscal side remains a major cause of concern.
April 11, 2019: International Current Affairs
8. Scientists reveal first photo of black hole
• Using a global network of telescopes to see `the unseeable`, an international scientific team on April 10, 2019 announced a milestone in astrophysics the first photo of a black hole in an achievement that validated a pillar of science put forward by Albert Einstein more than a century ago.
• Black holes are monstrous celestial entities exerting gravitational fields so vicious that no matter or light can escape. The photo of the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, or M87, a massive galaxy in the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster, shows a glowing ring of red, yellow and white surrounding a dark centre.
• The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration begun in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole using a network of Earth-based telescopes. The announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.
9. Alibaba creates ‘video fingerprint’ to fight piracy
• China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has created a project for “video fingerprints,” a technology that gives each original video a unique online identity, to fight piracy on its e-commerce platforms.
• Short videos have become a popular form of advertisement for sellers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall. But the frequently updated videos are often left unpatented due to a long application process of 10 to 30 days, facing increasing risks of being used by other sellers.
• To curb the new type of piracy, Alibaba’s security lab has created “fingerprints” for all original videos on Taobao and Tmall based on the characteristics such as coding and compression of each frame, said He Yuan, a senior algorithm expert at the lab.
10. Scientists develop non-invasive blood sensor
• Lithuanian scientists have developed a blood analysis sensor to take blood readings without breaking through the skin, the country’s Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) announced.
• The laser-based technology has been developed by scientists from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and Lithuanian technology company Brolis Semiconductors.
• The laser-based sensor can constantly measure levels of glucose, lactate, urea and serum albumin in blood without breaking through skin, says MITA.
