Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
The air force units of India and the United States are scheduled to participate in a 12-day joint exercise ‘Cope India 2019’ at two air force stations in West Bengal. The bilateral flying training programme will be held from December 3 to 14 of this year at two important airbases in West Bengal – Air Force Station Kalaikunda and Air Force Station Arjan Singh at Panagarh. Exercise CI19 is a long-standing bilateral US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)-sponsored Field Training Exercise (FTX), conducted with the IAF, focused on enhancing US-Indian mutual cooperation and building on existing capabilities, aircrew tactics and force employment. The exercise will showcase US and India’s efforts and commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. COPE INDIA began in 2004 as a fighter training exercise held at Air Force Station Gwalior. The exercise was last held in 2010.

Notes:
Slovenia has become the first NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) nation to appoint a female Chief of Armed Forces after Major General Alenka Ermenc took the post of Head of its Army. The country has approximately 7.500 soldiers, including active and reserve forces. Slovenia, which originally was part of Yugoslavia, joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. NATO is an international alliance that consists of 29 member states and 28 EU nations.

Notes:
The European Union has recently announced a long-term vision on combating climate change that aims to transform the bloc into the first carbon neutral major economy by 2050 – A Clean Planet for All . Under the plan, emissions of greenhouse gases after that date would have to be offset by planting trees or by burying the gases underground. Its plan will include steps such as investing in realistic technological solutions ( such as solar and wind energy ) to help lower carbon emissions. Thus, scientists said that net-zero emissions by 2050 are needed to have a fighting chance of keeping global temperatures under 1.5C this century. The Climate neutrality means your emissions are balanced by methods of removing warming gases from the atmosphere. So the warming emissions that are created by cars and power plants should be counteracted by the greenhouse gases removed from the air by the planting of new forests or through carbon capture technologies which would see the CO2 buried underground.

Notes:
India will chair the Kimberley Process (KP), a global initiative to remove conflict diamonds from the global supply chain, from 1st January 2019. KP is a joint initiative of different countries, industry and civil societies to control flow of conflict diamonds, which are used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments in the world. India is the founding member of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and is actively involved in KP activities to ensure that almost 99% of the diamond trade in the world is conflict free.

Notes:
On December 1, President Ram Nath kovind inaugurated the 13th edition of International CII Agro Tech 2018 with theme ‘Technology in Agriculture: Increasing Farmer’s Income’. The 4-day International Agro Technology and Business Fair is being organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). In the fair, the partner country is Great Britain while focus countries are Canada and China. Here, Punjab and Haryana are the the host states for international agricultural expo. A total of 195 exhibitors, including 37 foreign exhibitors from eight countries, will participate in the expo. The event will not only provides deep insight into the India’s food & agriculture market but also acknowledges a meaningful business interaction with & to the overseas participants.

Notes:
The book “Architecture of Justice: A Pictorial Walk-through of the Supreme Courts and High Courts of India” has been authored by father-son duo Vinay Thakur and Amogh Thakur. The 223-page coffee-table tome was recently released by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi at the Indian International Centre. The book, a sequel to Vinay’s earlier book ‘The Courts of India Past to Present’ (2016), is not about photographs alone, and is replete with interesting trivia and anecdotes about the monumental buildings. It takes a stroll through corridors of justice.

Notes:
In February 2019, India’s first international indigenous film festival will take place in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The fest is an initiative of activist film collective Video Republic that has been campaigning for indigenous communities in the State. The three-stop event will kick off on February 19 and 20, moving on to Puri from February 21 to 23 to eventually culminate in an interaction with the adivasi communities at Niyamgiri. It will showcase films made by indigenous people or made by non-indigenous filmmakers in collaboration with the indigenous communities. The aim of the fest is to build a platform for indigenous communities from the world over to share, have a dialogue, collaborate and to use cinema as a mode of united assertion, resistance and activism against exploitative forces.

Notes:
The Bilaspur Police in Chhattisgarh now holds the Guinness World Records for its ‘Rakhi with Khakhi’ as part of which girls and women tied rakhis to 50,033 police officials rakhis over a span of ten hours and then uploaded selfies with hashtags #rakhiwithkhaki and #HappyRakshaBandhan. The initiative was the brainchild of Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Sheikh Arif Husen & was held on 25th August 2018, a day before Raksha Bandhan. The Guinness World Records certificate was awarded to Bilaspur police at a function held at the Lakhiram Memorial Auditorium on 1st December 2018. The aim of the initiative is to reach out to women and girls and to assure them of security.

Notes:
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known by his initials AMLO, has been sworn-in as the new President of Mexico on December 1, 2018. He won the historic landslide victory at July 1 presidential election 2018 with over 50% of the popular vote. He started his six-year term with a promise to end the corruption, poverty and extreme violence that have plagued the country for more than a decade. This was the first time since the 1988 election that a presidential candidate was elected with an absolute majority (50%+1) of the votes cast. The President of Mexico is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces.

Notes:
On 3rd December 2018, the 80th Session of the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organization (WCO) was held in Mumbai, Maharashtra . The Session is being organized by the WCO and hosted by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), India. The Indian delegation was headed by CBIC Chairman, S Ramesh. The custom heads of more than 30 countries participated in the 3-day long discussion on various matters related to customs. Some of the important topics discussed during the meeting include trade facilitation, controlling illicit financial flow, performance measurement, challenges of small island economies, etc. The WCO is the only global organization which defines global standards and procedures for customs clearances at the border and their implementation. It is headquartered at Brussels, Belgium.