Current Affairs on International

China commenced operations of world's longest high-speed railways

1. China in the last week of December 2016 commenced operations of Shanghai-Kunming line, one of the world's longest high-speed railways.
2. The line is a part of the China Railway High-speed’s system of high-speed rail corridors, beginning in Shanghai and ending in Kunming.
3. The Shanghai-Kunming line is 2252 km in length and longest east-west high-speed railway in China as it passes through five provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan and cuts travel time from Shanghai to Kunming from 34 hours to 11 hours with the maximum speed of the train is 330 km per hour.

Shankar Balasubramanian DNA expert chosen to be conferred knighthood 

1. Shankar Balasubramanian the India-born DNA expert who was chosen to be conferred with a knighthood by the British Queen as announced in the New Years’ Honours List 2017
2. Shankar Balasubramanian, the Chennai-born professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Cambridge, has been chosen for the prestigious knighthood award for year 2017.
3. According to the knighthood citation, 50-year old Balasubramanian is the co-inventor of Next Generation DNA sequencing, considered the most transformational advance in biology and medicine for decades. His work has spawned an entirely new discipline of Bioinformatics.

Britain to Launch New Pound Coin

1. The British govt has announced that it would launch a new one-pound coin at the end of March after 30 years of circulation of these coins.
2. It will scrap the current one pound coin by October.
3. The new 12-sided one pound coin would become legal tender on March 28th.

Poland buys Da Vinci and collection

1. The Polish government has purchased a private art collection, including one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings, for a fraction of its value.
2. The Czartoryski collection of about 86,000 pieces, based in the city of Krakow, includes da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine and works by Rembrandt.
3. Lady with an Ermine, painted in 1490, is one of only four portraits of women by Da Vinci.

First Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbour

1. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who arrived in Hawaii , will become the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor.
2. He pay's his respects at the USS Arizona Memorial, the site of the deadly attack that prompted the U.S. entry into World War II.

World’s Highest bridge Opens in China

1. China has opened the world’s highest bridge Beipanjiang Bridge sitting at 1,854 feet above the ground that overtakes the Sidu River Bridge,which is also in China, beating it by a mere five metres to become the highest bridge.
2. Stretched across a giant mountain overpass,the Beipanjiang Bridge cost a staggering £120million.
3. The giant Beipanjiang Bridge is the highest on the planet & is open to traffic.

Murray Knighted in New Year Honours List

1. Andy Murray received a knighthood in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s Honours list and was previously named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2012.
2. Joining Murray in being knighted in British sports is Mo Farah, who retained his 5,000& 10,000-meter titles at the Rio.

Pak PM Inaugurates Chashma Nuclear Project

1. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the Chashma Nuclear Project – III, having a capacity of generating 340 megawatts of electricity.
2. The 340MW power plant is a joint collaboration of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission & China National Nuclear Corporation.
3. This is the third project after successful operation of Chashma-I & Chashma-II projects and Chashma – IV Project is to be completed in 2017