Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh government has launched massive door to door campaign “DASTAK” against Acute Encephellitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephallitis (JE) disease. The campaign, which was launched in association with UNICEF, will run from 1st to 31st July. Under this state-wide campaign teams will go door to door in every village of the 75 districts of the state to create awareness about the communicable diseases as well as JE and AES. In this massive campaign, many departments of the state especially health, rural development, primary education will work together to spread awareness about the diseases through mass media communication and will ensure availability of clean drinking water, initiate sanitation drive, ensure vaccination and early treatment so that disease should be nipped in the bud.

Notes:
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a new initiative – Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy (STRIDE) to boost research culture in the country. The aim of STRIDE is to identify young talent, strengthen research culture, build capacity, promote innovation and support trans-disciplinary research for India’s developing economy and national development. Broadly, STRIDE will provide support to research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant. STRIDE shall support research capacity building as well as basic, applied and transformational action research that can contribute to national priorities with focus on inclusive human development. STRIDE shall support creation, development and integration of new ideas, concepts and practices for public good and strengthening civil society.

Notes:
The first-ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) will be held in New Delhi between 11th to 13th October. The initiative is a part of the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 which aims at doubling the agriculture export and integrating Indian farmers and agriculture products with global value chains. The Trade Fair is aimed at promoting cooperative to cooperative trade within the country and abroad leading to enhanced rural and farm prosperity. The fair offers a huge opportunity for the industry and business houses from India and abroad to build alliances, product sourcing and interact with the primary producers of a wide range of products and service providers.

Notes:
In Jammu and Kashmir, the district administration of Rajouri has been launched a campaign called “Operation Khumaar” to make 312 panchayats tobacco-free. The programme is run by the district administration to make panchayats free from tobacco and tobacco-based products. Under this programme, even the headmaster of the schools have been authorised to impose a fine on the sale of tobacco within 100 yards of school limits. Block Medical Officers (BMO) have been directed to set up counselling centres at all Community Health Centres (CHCs) to help tobacco consumers to quit this habit. The district officers have been urged upon to work in a mission mode so as to make the society free from the injurious tobacco and tobacco-based products.

Notes:
Santosh Rana (76), the veteran Naxalite leader, has passed away in Kolkata on June 29, 2019. He is one of the foremost leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and a major thinker on caste, class and tribal politics in West Bengal and winner of a top literary award in the State. The CPI-ML (PCC) was one of the very first Naxalite groups to participate in elections. Under his leadership, CPI-ML (PCC) was active in parts of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. It played a significant role in opposing the CPI-M led government during the Nandigram land agitation, which contributed to the electoral debacle of the Left Front in West Bengal. He argued in his award-winning autobiography, Rajnitir Ek Jibon [A Life in Politics], that the Left in India made a huge mistake as they never analysed and responded to the caste question.

Notes:
The book titled “A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief” has been authored by former Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar. The book is about the huge impact that the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had on the armed forces of India. The author called Kargil as the finest hour of Vajpayee . He credits Vajpayee for turning the strategic tactical loss into a massive victory and for which he gave full credit to the Armed Forces. Admiral Kumar was the Navy Chief between 1998 and 2001 and oversaw the Kargil conflict in 1999.

Notes:
The Indian passport has been ranked at the 86th position with a mobility score of 58 in the latest Henley Passport Index 2019. The score points out that Indian passport holder can access 58 countries around the world without a prior visa. The index includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations — including micro-states and territories. India shares the 86th position with Mauritiana and Sao Tome and Principe. The list is topped by Japan & Singapore with a mobility score of 189. South Korea, Finland and Germany have acquired 2nd position, while Denmark, Italy, and Luxembourg are on the third rank. France has dropped to the fourth spot, now sharing the position with Spain and Sweden. The ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.