Current Affairs July 01, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of July 01, 2019 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.
1. In Squash, India won a gold as Veer Chotrani beat compatriot Yash Fadte to win the Under-19 title at the Asian Junior Championship in Macau, China. With this victory, Veer became the third Indian to win the Asian trophy after Ravi Dixit and Vela Senthilkumar. It was a contest of fluctuating fortunes until Veer held his nerve to beat Fadte 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7. In the other two finals, India bagged two silver medals through Neel Joshi in the boys Under-17 category and Yuvna Gupta in the girls Under-15 section. India finished the tournament with one gold, three silver and as many bronze medals.
2. Arvind Kumar, a 1984 batch IPS officer from Assam- Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as the new chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Kumar is considered an expert on Kashmir, with specialisation in counter-terrorism and is said to have been closely involved in tackling Left-wing extremism at the IB. He also holds charge as the special director of Kashmir in the intelligence agency. Kumar succeeded Rajiv Jain as IB chief, who completed his tenure of two and half years. IB is India's internal intelligence agency and is headquartered at New Delhi.
3. For the 2019 kharif season, the West Bengal government has rolled out a free crop insurance scheme in collaboration with the Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC). The scheme called Bangla Shashya Bima (BSB) is applicable for farmers in 15 districts - Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Purba Medinipur, Malda, Hooghly, Nadia, Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Purulia, Dakshin Dinajpur, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas. The crop insurance scheme would be free of cost for the farmers since the government will pay the full premium. The crops that will come under insurance are aman paddy, aus paddy, jute and maize. All farmers taking loans (granted or applied for) and even those not taking loans can avail of the insurance. The insurance will be paid in four stages - for any losses suffered during planting, during cultivation, during the period post-cutting when crops are lying in the field, and for adverse weather situations. The amount will be decided by the state government and will be calculated per hectare.
4. Abburi Chaya Devi (86), the popular Telugu fiction writer, has passed away in Hyderabad on June 28, 2019. Born on 13th October 1933 in Andhra Pradesh, she was active in literary circles since the fifties and even in her 70s, was still known as a creative feminist writer. She highlighted the cause of women in her writings & received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for her book 'Thana Margam'. Chaya Devi is the wife of the late Abburi Varada Rajeswara Rao, who himself was a writer, critic and former Chairman of Official Languages Commission (OFC). Her works are Anaga Anaga (folk stories for children), Abburi Chayadevi Kathalu (short stories), 1991, Mrityunjaya (long story),1993 Tana Margam (short stories about the exploitation of women in the guise of family bonds).
5. The World Vitiligo Day (WVD) is observed every year on June 25 to raise awareness about the condition. The 2019 theme ‘The Quality of Life of a Vitiligo Patient’ focuses on mental and medical journey of vitiligo. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder wherein the immune system of the body attacks the healthy cells and in turn starts affecting the body. The condition is characterized by white patches on the skin that develops as a result of melanocytes within the skin. These are the cells that are responsible for the skin pigment melanin that gives color to your skin. The white patches appear when the melanocytes die off. The condition is also termed as Vitiligo or Leucoderma or White Leprosy.
6. Sarada Kumar Hota has been appointed as the new Managing Director of National Housing Bank (NHB) for a period of three years. Prior to this appointment, Hota was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Can Fin Homes. NHB, which is now 100% owned by the government, is the nodal agency for supervision, refinance and development of the housing finance segment.
7. Mohammed Baji (103), the eminent freedom fighter, has passed away at Sunari Sahi in Nabarangpur , Odisha. He was born on 20th January 1917 and was a bachelor. A close associate of tribal civil rights activist Laxman Nayak, Baji was injured in police firing during the 1942 movement when 29 tribals were killed while protesting before the Mathili police station in Malkangiri district. He had joined the Indian National Congress in 1936, the year Odisha became a separate province on the basis of language. He also joined the Quit India Movement and was held on August 19, 1942. He spent nearly five years in jail before he was released on June 25, 1947. After the freedom struggle, Baji was active in the Sarvodaya movement. He was the chairman of Utkal Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and a close associate of Utkal Sarvodaya Mandal. Baji led padayatras at Nabarangpur for the restoration of peace after the demolition of the Babri Masjid and again after the communal riot in Kandhamal in 2008.
8. The 13th National Statistics Day (NSD-2019) is celebrated on 29th June at the National level in India with theme “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” to popularize the use of Statistics in everyday life and sensitize the public as to how Statistics helps in shaping and framing policies. The 2019 theme has been chosen for intensive and focused discussions towards filling the data gaps and improvement of timelines/quality in SDGs. The day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Late Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in recognition of his invaluable contribution in establishing the National Statistical System. He had set up Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) at Kolkata in 1931 for research and training in Statistics.
9. Aparna Kumar, a 2002 batch IPS officer from UP cadre, has created history by becoming the first civil servant and IPS officer to achieve the incredible and rare feat of completing ‘7 Summits’ challenge.She hoisted India's tricolour on Mount Denali in Alaska, which is the highest peak of North America standing at 20,310 ft. She is also the first woman IPS DIG and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officer to successfully complete the South Pole expedition. The Seven Summits is a mountaineering challenge which includes scaling the highest mountains from each of the 7 continents. It includes Mount Everest in Nepal, Aconcagua in Argentina, Denali in the US, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount Elbrus in Russia, Mount Vinson in Antarctica, and Puncak Jaya and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia. Canadian mountaineer Patrick Morrow was the first man to climb the Seven Summits in 1986 while Indian Army officer Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal is the first Indian to summit the seven highest peaks spread across the seven continents.
10. The book titled ‘The New Delhi Conspiracy’ has been authored by Meenakshi Lekhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Delhi and a Supreme Court lawyer. It is co-authored by Krishna Kumar and is slated for release on July 8. The debut novel talks about undercurrents of Delhi's political landscape and attempts to lay bare what is influencing the course of the nation's political trajectory. The book talks of a malicious man with a dangerous agenda, an assassin on a diabolical mission, a courageous politician on a treacherous trail and a conspiracy that will shake the nation.
