Current Affairs 16th March 2019

Current Affairs 16th March 2019 - Important Points

• World Sleep Day 2019 celebrated on - 15th March 2019
• World Consumer Rights Day 2019 celebrated on - 15th March 2019
• IIT Kharagpur signed MoU for - High Performance Computing Facility and Data Centre
• President presents Gallantry Awards for - Defence Investiture Ceremony-2019
• DRDO successfully test fired - Indigenous Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile

Current Affairs 16th March 2019 - Details

World Sleep Day 2019 celebrated on - 15th March 2019

The World Sleep Day was celebrated globally on March 15th, 2019 with the subject “Healthy Sleep, Healthy Aging.” The day is celebrated yearly on the Friday prior to the March Equinox on the Earth, when the subsolar point seems to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator, moving northward as visible from Earth.
The objective is to diverse society's attention to the load of sleep complications and its medical, educational, and social aspects, which impend the quality of life of about 45% of the world's population.
Main Highlights

• The main message for this year's World Sleep Day is 'Ageing & Sleep health' in the society.
• Healthier ageing and an improved understanding of how to sleep better with the passage of increasing age, is likely to benefit reduce the overall burden of underprivileged health on society.
• Current year the focus is on spreading awareness about importance of sleep for the improvement &  maintenance of physical as well as mental health of individual and how the amount of sleep for an individual changes with age. 
• Maximum grownups need 7-8 hours complete sleep while kids require even extra sleep for optimal
  learning and activities.

World Consumer Rights Day 2019 celebrated on - 15th March 2019

The World Consumer Rights Day was celebrated internationally on March 15th, 2019 with an objective to encourage basic rights of consumers and to make sure that these rights are respected and safeguarded.
Theme for this year

The subject of 2019 World Consumer Rights Day is- Trusted Smart Products.
According to the “Trusted Smart Products briefing” by the Consumers International, a smart product can join, share and interact with its customers and other devices. The most popular consumer smart products are smartphones, gaming consoles, smart Televisions, wearable health trackers, thermostats, toys & connected cars.
These smart phones, wearable fitness trackers, smart Televisions, many of the other smart products are
progressively becoming connected by default.
These gadgets collect and study user information and spread it to other connected devices in a network. This Network of smart gadgets is termed as the Internet of Things.
There are approximately 23 billion linked devices utilised worldwide and this approximation is supposed to triple-fold by year 2025.
By year 2025, 72% of users will be retrieving internet via smart phone and half of these fresh subscribers will come from China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

IIT Kharagpur signed MoU for - High Performance Computing Facility and Data Centre

IIT Kharagpur has inked an agreement with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to form a
1.3 Petaflop high-performance computing facility and information centre sponsored under the National
Supercomputing Mission.
The new supercomputing system would be utilised for specific challenge domains including
cryptography, chemistry, molecular dynamics, medicine discovery, artificial intelligence and data sciences.
Objectives of the Mission
The Mission envisions empowering India’s National academic and Research and Development institutions spread by connecting a vast supercomputing grid comprising of above 70 high-performance computing services.
Dedicated to bring supercomputing within the reach of the large Scientific and Technology community in the nations.
Envisioned to deliver a noteworthy qualitative and quantitative development in Research and Development and higher education in the disciplines of Science and Technology.
To enable the nation with a capacity of solving multi-disciplinary magnificent challenge problems.

President presents Gallantry Awards for - Defence Investiture Ceremony-2019

President Ramnath Kovind presented the Gallantry Awards and the Distinguished Service Decorations as part of the Defence Investiture Ceremony-2019 to Armed Forces Employees for showcasing noticeable gallantry, indomitable courage and dedication to job at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Delhi.
The recipients of awards are Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, who was bestowed the Param Vishisht
Seva Medal; Major Tushar Gauba, who was presented the Kirti Chakra and Vice Admiral Sunil Anand, who was presented the Nao Sena Medal, among others.
Gallantry Awards in India
The government of India established Gallantry Awards on 26 January 1950 and were believed to have
effect from the 15 August 1947.  Further, on 4 January 1952, 3 extra Gallantry Awards including the
Ashoka Chakra Class-I, the Ashoka Chakra Class-II and the Ashoka Chakra Class-III were introduced by the Government of India on 4 January 1952. These awards were renamed as the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra correspondingly in January 1967.
Order of priority of the Gallantry awards is the Param Vir Chakra, the Ashoka Chakra, the Mahavir
Chakra, the Kirti Chakra, the Vir Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra. Gallantry Awards are declared twice in India on the occasion of Independence Day and Republic Day.

DRDO successfully test fired - Indigenous Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile

Defence Research and Development Organisation has efficaciously test-fired indigenously fabricated and  developed Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile- MPATGM, in the deserts of Pokhran, Rajasthan.
The Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile are being introduced to replace the French made anti-tank
guided missile Milan and Soviet semi-automatic wire-guided missiles being used in service with Indian
Armed Forces. The test at Rajasthan was the 4th overall development trial of the Man Portable Anti-
Tank Guided Missile.
Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile
Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile integrates many advanced features, including, image infrared
radar- IIR seeker with integrated avionics.

The Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile is a 3rd-generation anti-tank guided missile, established by
Defence Research and Development Organisation in connotation with VEM Technologies Ltd.
The Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile is equipped with high-explosive anti-tank warhead.
The Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile has a top attack capability with a maximum engagement
range of about 2.5 kms.
The Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile capable of being fired from the shoulder and can be utilised
during day and night.