Prelim Bits 19-02-2018

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)

• India's City Union Bank suffered a cyber attack via the SWIFT financial platform.
• It is a messaging network that financial institutions use to securely transmit information and instructions through a standardized system of codes. 
• SWIFT is headquartered in Belgium.
• It also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.
• For money transfers, SWIFT assigns each participating financial organization a unique code with either eight or eleven characters

Swami Ramakrishna Pramahamsa’s Birth Anniversary

• Ramakrishna Pramahamsa’s birth anniversary was on February 18^th.
• His spiritual movement indirectly aided nationalism, as it rejected caste distinctions and religious prejudices.
• Ramakrishna’s religious and spiritual philosophy was centered on Shakto, Advaita Vedanta and universal tolerance.
• Foremost among his innumerable disciples was Swami Vivekananda, who was instrumental in establishing the philosophy of Ramakrishna at a global stage.
• Vivekananda established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 to carry out the visions of his Guru Ramakrishna.

Assam- Wildlife Protection

• In a major initiative for wildlife protection, the forest guards in Assam were given modern weapons to check poaching of rhinos, tigers and other wild animals.
• Also for the first time wildlife fast-track courts have been set up to exclusively deal with poaching and wildlife crimes.
• Assam has five national parks and 19 wildlife sanctuaries and is home to 91% of Indian rhinos.
• The five national parks in Assam are

1. Kaziranga
2. Manasa
3. Nameri
4. Rajiv Gandhi Orang
5. Dibru Saikhowa

• Manas and Dibru saikhowa are the Biosphere reserve in the state.

Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS)

• GLASS was developed by WHO to foster standardized AMR surveillance globally.
• It released the first set of surveillance data on anti-microbial resistance recently.
• Key Findings of GLASS are

1. AMR is widespread in both high and low income countries.
2. The most com­monly reported resistant bacte­ria were Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, and Salmonella spp.
3. There is an alarming spike in the cases resistant to penicillin and ciprofloxacin.

Sambandh Initiative

• Western Naval Command hosted the Sambandh exercise last year.
• Participants were from the 10 Indian Ocean Littoral countries Maldives, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Mauritius.
• Naval officers and cadets from smaller countries that do not have big navies were welcomed aboard INS Vikramaditya -India's aircraft carrier as a part of the initiative.
• Apart from the Sambandh initiate, the Indian Navy sent its Mobile Training Team (MTT) to these countries.
• Training teams of the Indian Navy were sent to neighboring countries to train other countries cadets at their home base.

Map: Myanmar-Manipur border

• A dam being constructed by Myanmar across river   close to the boundary with India has stoked fears of submergence and water scarcity in Manipur’s Chandel district.
• The Indian states that border Myanmar are:

Arunachel Pradesh,Nagaland,Manipur,Mizoram

• Tip to remember easily: Myanmar MMAN.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Livemint, Down to earth.