Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
Former ISRO chief Dr. K Kasturirangan led Committee has recently submitted the draft National Educational Policy (NEP) to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in New Delhi. The policy draft recommends incorporation of Indian knowledge systems in the curriculum, constituting a National Education Commission and curbing arbitrary fees hikes by private schools. The expert panel also proposed massive transformation in Teacher Education by moving all teacher preparation and education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities or colleges. It added that the topics will include Indian contribution to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, psychology, yoga, architecture, medicine, as well as governance, polity, society, and conservation course on Indian knowledge systems. The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.

Notes:
Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh has become the first woman fighter pilot to fly by day a Hawk advanced jet aircraft. She achieved the feat at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Bengal. Lt Mohana’s training involved flying both air-to-air combat and air-to-ground missions. She has undertaken many practice missions which involved firing of rockets, guns and dropping high calibre bombs and has also participated in various Air Force level flying exercises. She has a total of over 500 hours of incident-free flying, of which 380 hours are on the Hawk Mk 132 jet. She had, along with two other women pilots, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvadi, joined the fighter stream in June 2016. Earlier, in May 2019, Flight Lt. Bhawana Kanth became the first daytime woman fighter pilot to fly a MiG-21 Bison.

Notes:
Puerto Williams is the main settlement, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. Recently, Puerto Williams has become the world’s southernmost city after the Chilean authorities upgraded its status from hamlet to city. It took over the title from Ushuaia, the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. Puerto Williams is the port of entry and major hub for scientific activity linked to Antarctica and the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.

Notes:
Ruma Guha Thakurta (84), the veteran Bengali actress & singer, has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. She was best known for her roles in Satyajit Ray-directed films such as Ganashatru (1989) and Abhijan (1962). She started her career as a dancer before moving to the then Bombay where she married singer Kishore Kumar in the early 1950s but they got divorced in 1958. Their son Amit Kumar is a singer and composer for Bollywood movies. She later married writer-director Arup Guha Thakurta and had two children – singers Sromona and Ayan. Ruma’s major film roles include “Palatak”, “Antony Firingee”, “80 Te Asio Na”, “Balika Badhu”, “Dadar Kirti”, “Bhalobasa Bhalobasa” and “Wheelchair”. “Jwar Bhata” will be remembered for being the debut of both Ruma and acting legend Dilip Kumar. Her other Hindi films were “Mashaal”, “Afsar”, “Raag Rang” and “Paar”. Ruma founded the Calcutta Youth Choir, a song and dance troupe, in 1958, which is known for its performance of folk and mass songs.

Notes:
The World Milk Day (WMD) is observed every year on 1st of June to provide an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicise activities connected with milk and the milk industry. In 2001, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) selected June 1st as World Milk Day, which celebrates the important contributions of the dairy sector to sustainability, economic development, livelihoods and nutrition. The 2019 theme is “Drink Milk: Today & Everyday”.

Notes:
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has recently ruled that all animals are legal persons entitled to legal rights like human beings in Haryana. The verdict comes nearly a year after Uttarakhand High Court passed a similar order to protect and promote greater welfare of animals. Both the orders were written by Justice Rajiv Sharma, who was transferred from Uttarakhand to the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh in 2018. The order was passed in a case where the Punjab and Haryana High Court was informed that 29 cows were packed in a cruel manner while being transported from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana. In response, Justice Sharma’s order emphasizes that animals cannot be reduced to mere property. This includes a ban in using animals to pull vehicles in extreme weather, limits on loads and the number of people that animals are made to carry, limits on the distances that an animal is made to walk at a stretch, instructions on how to tether an animal to the vehicle it is made to pull and a ban on the use of spike sticks, harness and other sharp instruments to avoid injuring the animal. The Court has also directed that animal-driven carts are given the ‘Right of Way’.

Notes:
Rajiv Mehrishi, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Indiam has been elected as external auditor of the World Health Organization (WHO) for four years from 2020 to 2023. He was elected at the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2019. This is the second major international audit assignment for the CAG this year following his selection for the post of External Auditor of Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome earlier this year in March 2019. Currently, Mehrishi is also on the Board of Auditors of the United Nations and Vice-Chair of the UN Panel of External Auditors.

Notes:
The Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) has jointly carried out a week-long special training exercise “Kharga Prahar-2019” in the plains of Punjab. The exercise, which began on May 27, was undertaken by various units and formations of Army’s Kharga Corps. The exercise setting also incorporated aspects of joint training wherein para drops from Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft were carried out and simulated battlefield air strikes were conducted in support of ground forces. Ambala-based 2-Corpa, popularly called as Kharga Corps, possesses 50% of the Indian Army’s offensive capabilities and has the mandate to launch offensive attack, in case any conflict or war breaks out with neighbouring Pak. Integrated with multiple military formations, Kharga has proved an effective weapon in various wars. In 1971, while positioned in West, it helped in division of Pakistan. The elite force was deployed somewhere in the desert sector during the Kargil conflict. The Kharga Corps has been stationed at Ambala since 1985.

Notes:
Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, the renowned scientist and cyclone warning specialist, has been appointed as the chief of India Meteorological Department (IMD). Popularly known as the ‘Cyclone man of India’, he will take charge of his new assignment on August 1 for a period of five years. Mohapatra and his team at the Cyclone Warning Division (CWD) of the IMD have earned praise for their accurate forecasts on cyclones, its wind-speed and likely impact on life and property including during the recent cyclone ‘Fani’, when their timely warnings enabled the authorities to ensure early evacuation of millions of people. Over the last six years, the CWD has given accurate forecasts on cyclones including when Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014) and Titli (2018) hit the eastern coast. The IMD is responsible for weather and climate-related forecasts in the country. It is also mandated to issue warning to people about severe weather phenomenon like cyclones, dust storms, heavy rain and snow, cold and heatwaves, among others.

Notes:
The book ‘Cricket World Cup: The Indian Challenge’ has been authored by veteran broadcaster and writer Ashis Ray. It is a book on the history of the tournament from an Indian perspective that has been formally unveiled by the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tom Harrison. The book reviews all tournaments from 1975 to 2015 and also previews the ongoing 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. All matches of India, since the inaugural World Cup 44 years ago, are recorded as well as every semi-final and final regardless of whether India featured in them or not.