Current Affairs 26th August 2017

Current Affairs 26th August 2017 - Important Points

• Project Brainwave for real-time artificial intelligence launched by - Microsoft
•  Amit Shah, Smriti Irani sworn in as Rajya Sabha members on - 25th August 2017
• Rooftop solar programme launched by - Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik
• Amazon national reserve for mining opened by - Brazil
•  England to host 2018 International Table Tennis Federation Team World Cup on - 24th August 2017

Current Affairs 26th August 2017 - Details

Project Brainwave for real-time artificial intelligence launched by - Microsoft

Software giant Microsoft launched its Project Brainwave in August 2017, which is deep learning acceleration platform for real-time AI (artificial intelligence). Microsoft has launched the project during the time when real-time artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming important as cloud infrastructures process live data streams, whether they be search queries, sensor streams, videos or interactions with users.
Important highlights

• The Project Brainwave uses the massive FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) infrastructure that Microsoft has been deployed over the past few years.
• By attaching high-performance FPGAs directly to the data center network, DNNs can be served as hardware microservices, where a DNN can be mapped to a pool of remote FPGAs and called by a server without software in the loop.
• The system architecture minimizes latency, since the CPU doesn't need to process incoming requests, and allows very high result with the FPGA process the requests as fast as the network can stream them.
• The system has been architected to give higher actual performance across a wide range of complex models along with batch-free execution.
• This system is highly capable enough to handle memory-intensive, complex models such as Long Short Term Memories (LSTM), without using batching to juice throughput.
• Project Brainwave achieves unprecedented levels of demonstrated real-time Artificial Intelligence performance on extremely challenging models.

 Amit Shah, Smriti Irani sworn in as Rajya Sabha members on - 25th August 2017

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah and Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani took oath (in sanskrit)as Rajya Sabha members on 25th August 2017.
The BJP leaders by Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu administered their oath. Senior leaders including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accompanied the ministers. For Amit Shah, it was his first stint in the parliament, while for Smriti Irani it would be her second term, as she was sworn in as a member of parliament from Gujarat to the upper house in 2011 also.

Shah's entry into the Rajya Sabha is expected to give a boost to BJP, as the party lacks a majority in the house. Shah served as an MLA in the Gujarat assembly for five long terms previously.
The two senior leaders were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat state earlier this month, after much drama following Election Commission’s move of rejecting the votes of two dissident Congress MLAs to violate electoral rules, enabling Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to win from BJP's candidate Balwantsinh Rajput with 44 votes.

Rooftop solar programme launched by - Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched a grid-connected rooftop solar program through a net-metering system at the State Secretariat in the  capital city of Bhubaneswar on 23rd August 2017.
Speaking on the occasion Patnaik said that he hoped establishing rooftop solar systems through net-metering would be well accepted by the people.
He wished the initiative all success.” The Chief Minister also launched an online web portal of the given program. The solar program will be implemented by OREDA (Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency) aiming at harnessing renewable solar capacity through people’s participation to further strengthen the grid and reduce power loss in the state giving benefit to the public. It also aims to help the state to address the climate change action plan.
Important Highlights

• Under the program, consumers can install small subsidised solar plants on their rooftops and consume the generated solar power during the day time.
• Consumers can also export excess power to the grid through their service cables.
• The additional solar power generated could be exported through net-meter which is a special type of meter that will be provided by the respective power distribution companies.
• The delta between buying from the grid and selling to it will be billed to the consumer.
• The Net-Metre will be enabling the consumer to minimize electricity consumption by using solar power and simultaneously get a reduced bill on account of selling solar power to the grid.
• A consumer would be requiring an investment of about Rs 70 thousand per kW for a rooftop solar system.
• The investment on a rooftop solar system is about Rs 70 thousand per kW.
• The state government is providing a 30 percent subsidy to the consumers.

Amazon national reserve for mining opened by - Brazil

The Government of Brazil abolished a vast national reserve in the Amazon to open up the area to mining in August 2017. The area covers 46000 square kilometre and straddles the northern states of Amapa and Para. It is believed to be rich in phosphate, manganese, gold, zinc, and other minerals.
The government went on to state that nine conservation and indigenous land areas within it would be continued to be legally protected.

Key Highlights

• President Michel Temer issued a decree that abolished a protected area known as National Renca (Reserve of Copper and Associates).
• The size of the Reserve, which was created in 1984 to prevent mining activity from excessively encroaching on wildlife and indigenous communities, is even larger than Denmark.
• As per the decree, about 30 percent of the area will be opened for mining.
• The decree also stated that it does not override other existing environmental protection laws, such as protections to native vegetation and nature conservation areas.
• There are nine different protected zones in the park, two of which are indigenous lands where mining is completely banned.
• At least four other zones appear to be accessible to regulate mining activity.
• As per the government,the measure objective is to attract new investments, and to generate wealth for the country and employment and income for society.

 England to host 2018 International Table Tennis Federation Team World Cup on - 24th August 2017

ITTF (The International Table Tennis Federation) awarded hosting rights for the 2018 Team World Cup to England on 24th August 2017. The Team World Cup is ITTF’s second most prestigious tournament after the World Championships.
The 2018 Team World Cup will be staged at the iconic Copper Box Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 22nd February to 25th February 2018.
The World Cup team has 12 women's and 12 men's teams that includes Continental Champions, the host team and the other top finishers at the World Team Table Tennis Championships. The Team World Cup was last held in Dubai in 2015.

More about International Table Tennis Federation

• It is the governing body for all international table tennis associations.
• Founded by William Henry Lawes of Wymondham in 1926. The nine founding members of the body were England, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Wales and India.
• The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the table tennis sport.
• It is responsible to organise many of the International competitions and the World Table Tennis Championships which has continued since 1926.
• The first international tournament was held in January 1926 in Berlin while the first World Table Tennis Championships was held in London in December 1926.