Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Minister for Human Resources Development, Prakash Javadekar has launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS). The aim of the program is to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend. SHREYAS is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three central ministries, including the HRD, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Notes:
Karnataka has launched a major water conservation scheme titled ‘Jalamrutha’, which focusses on drought-proofing measures, including protection and rejuvenation of water bodies. The state the largest swathe of drought-prone land in the country next only to Rajasthan. ‘Jalamrutha’ will deploy scientific approaches to water budgeting, water harvesting and water conservation through the use of geospatial data, satellite imagery, topographical and geological data. It will be a community driven movement, which will be implemented by key line departments of the government, Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and private sector institutions. Water conservation strategy under this scheme comprises four components of water literacy, rejuvenation of waterbodies, creation of new waterbodies as well as development of watersheds and afforestation activities. It will operate on a four-tier institutional structure with planning and execution committees being set up at village, taluk, district and State levels.

Notes:
The 7th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Intersessional Ministerial Meeting (7th RCEP ISSL MM) will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 2nd March 2019. The aim of the 16-member RCEP is to cover issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights. From India, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu will attend the meeting. The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 countries namely 10 countries of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners (also known as AFP’s or ASEAN FTA Partners) namely Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

Notes:
India’s Shashank Shekhar has won the 10 kilometre race of Nepal’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Open Marathon and Run for Fun held in Kathmandu. Shekhar of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Contingent at Embassy of India in Kathmandu secured first position. RD Murgan also from CISF got third place. A total nine CISF personnel participated in 10 KM race category. The remaining seven personnel also successfully completed run and received Certificate of Achievement. COAS Open Marathon and Run for Fun is an annual event organised by the Nepal Army.

Notes:
The Lignocellulosic biomass (or LC biomass) refers to plant biomass that is composed of carbohydrate polymers (cellulose, hemicellulose), and an aromatic polymer (lignin). It is the most abundantly available raw material on the Earth for the production of biofuels, mainly bio-ethanol. It is in news recently because the Union Cabinet has approved the “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana” for providing financial support to Integrated Bioethanol Projects using lignocellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock. It has been launched as a tool to create 2G Ethanol capacity in the country and attract investments in this new sector. The scheme focuses to incentivize 2G Ethanol sector and support this nascent industry by creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and increasing Research & Development in this area. The ethanol produced by the scheme beneficiaries will be mandatorily supplied to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to further enhance the blending percentage under Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme. The JI-VAN Yojana will be supported with total financial outlay of Rs.1969.50 crore for the period from 2018-19 to 2023-24.

Notes:
The Tea Board of India is a state agency of the Government of India (GoI) established to promote the cultivation, processing, and domestic trade as well as export of tea from India. It was established by the enactment of the Tea Act in 1953 with its headquarters in Kolkata. The Tea Board India is responsible for the assignment of certification numbers to exports of certain tea merchants. Recently, it is in news because the Union Ministry of Commerce has reappointed P K Bezbaruah as the chairman of Tea Board for a period of three years. Bezbaruah, the owner of Bokahola Tea Company in Assam, was earlier appointed as chairman of Tea Board as its first non-IAS officer. He was also instrumental in initiating a revamp of the old electronic auctioning system.

Notes:
The Tripura government has launched a one-month project – Notun Disha (new direction) to provide training to school teachers. In it, the state government has decided to distribute laptops to 800 school teachers to assess the level of students’ development in different disciplines. Here, 800 teachers would be selected for the training, and selected NGOs, societies or educational institutions would provide them training. In February 2019, the state government held a survey to assess the educational status of students between third and eighth standard in government schools. The survey report has revealed that 60% of students (equal to 51,599) in the fifth standard cannot read Bengali language textbook from the second standard. Apart from this, as per the survey, 46% of the surveyed students cannot do subtraction and 81% students do not know how to solve division problems. Hence, the aim of the Notun Disha is to make the students efficient and capable in all subjects from the 3rd to 8th standard.

Notes:
The government policy think tank, Niti Aayog has recently released Delta ranking report. In it, the Hailakandi district of Assam has been ranked first among the 112 aspirational districts of India, followed by Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh. Hailakandi has made a giant leap from 52nd position to no. 1 position on the basis of its performance during November-December 2018 and January 2019. For securing the first rank as an aspirational district, Hailakandi will be given an allocation of Rs. 10 crore.

Notes:
Indore has been adjudged India’s cleanest city for the 3rd straight year in the central government’s cleanliness survey ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’. The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka. The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind at a function in New Delhi. Top ranked cities received a statue of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi as award for their work towards cleanliness. Every year, cities and towns across India are awarded with the title of ‘Swachh Cities’ on the basis of their cleanliness and sanitation drive as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that was launched in 2014. Three cities Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh bagged top awards. It was hat trick for Bhopal too. Bhopal was adjudged the cleanest capital city in the 2019 survey. Ujjain was awarded Cleanest Medium city in 3 lakh to one million category. While the New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the ‘Cleanest Small City’ award, Uttarakhand’s Gauchar was adjudged the ‘Best Ganga Town’ in the central government survey. The ‘Cleanest Big City’ award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the ‘Fastest Moving Big City’.

Notes:
The Israeli spacecraft “Beresheet” on it’s first-ever moon mission has recently sent its first selfie back to Earth. The image showing part of the Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in the background was beamed to mission control in Yehud, Israel — 37,600 km away. Earlier, on 22nd February 2019, the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and NGO SpaceIL launched the unmanned spacecraft Beresheet from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 22nd February 2019. The 585-kg Beresheet (Genesis) spacecraft took off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk. It is the Israel’s first-ever moon mission that will measure the lunar magnetic field to help understanding of the moon’s formation. So far, only Russia, the US and China have made the 239,000 mile (384,000km) journey and landed on the moon. For Israel, the landing itself is the main mission, but the spacecraft also carries a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, which will help understanding of the moon’s formation. It also carries a time capsule loaded with digital files containing a Bible, children’s drawings, Israeli songs, the recollections of a Holocaust survivor and the Israeli flag.