Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
Sulagitti Narasamma (97), the renowned social worker and Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Bengaluru on December 26, 2018. Born in 1920, she hailed from a community that was at the time referred to as ‘untouchable’. She is best known for extending free of cost midwife services to women at a time when medical help was hard to come by in rural areas. It is believed that she learned the art from her grandmother, Marigemma, at a very young age. She had helped deliver more than 15,000 babies in Krishnapura, a remote village in Pavagada taluk in Karnataka. Her work received special recognition in Krishnapura & was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Tumkur University in 2014. She was also conferred with the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018.

Notes:
Noted sitar player Manju Mehta has been conferred with the ‘Tansen Samman’ for 2018 by the Madhya Pradesh government for her contribution in the field of music. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar presented the award to Mehta at the inaugural ceremony of the 2018 Tansen Music Festival on December 25. She was given a cash award of Rs 2 lakh and a memento. Mehta is a recipient of several honours & learnt music from legendary sitar maestro late Pandit Ravi Shankar. Meanwhile, the ‘Raja Mansingh Tomar Honour’ was given to the Sankat Mochan Pratishthan in Varanasi for 2017 and the Natrang Pratishthan of New Delhi for 2018. The award is given to institutions for nurturing good music. The Tansen Music Festival is organised every year by the MP culture department in the memory of Tansen, one of the greatest artists in Indian history. It is being held in Gwalior since the past 94 years.

Notes:
On 27th December, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched a universal health coverage scheme, which is known as the ‘Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana’. Under the scheme, each household in the state will be able to avail medical treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh annually. The scheme will benefit 23 lakh households and will cover 1,350 critical diseases. A total of 99 government and 66 private hospitals have been selected under the scheme. With this, the hill state has become the first in the country to offer universal health coverage.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has declared the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) as National Park in compliance with the last condition imposed by a Supreme Court-appointed committee for the much awaited ‘translocation of Asiatic lions from Gir in Gujarat’. The move is expected to pave way for translocation of lions from Gir National Park (GNP) in Gujarat to Kuno. The Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Sheopur district of Gwalior division & has been chosen as a second home for over 500 Asiatic lions. It is spread over 750 sq km area.

Notes:
On December 26, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has been conferred the “Champions of Change” award by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for exemplary leadership in bringing about transformation in governance in the Northeastern state at an event organized at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The other awardees included Union Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan and Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey. The award was instituted by the Centre to identify remarkable progress made in 115 “aspirational” districts whose development is being monitored by NITI Aayog. The event was attended by eminent jurists, politicians, social leaders etc. The award is an initiative of the Interactive Forum of Indian Economy, a Government of India (GoI) recognized NGO.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved Submission of India’s 2nd Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), which contains 2014 updates of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. As per an official statement, in 2014, approx 2.607 billion tonnes of of CC-2 equivalent) of GHGs were emitted from all activities, excluding ‘land use, land use change and forestry’ (LULUCF) in India. The net national GHG emissions after including LULUCF were around 2.306 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The BUR contains five major components – National Circumstances; National Greenhouse Gas Inventory; Mitigation Actions; Finance, Technology and Capacity Building Needs and Support Received and Domestic Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) arrangements. As per the report, India is on course of achieving the target for emission intensity of the economy and share of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity.

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On December 30, India submitted its Sixth National Report (NR6) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The report was submitted online to the CBD Secretariat by the Environment Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, during the inaugural session of the 13th National Meeting of the State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) in New Delhi. With this, India is among the first five countries in the world, the first in Asia and the first among the biodiversity-rich mega diverse countries to have submitted the report. The submission of national reports is a mandatory obligation on parties to international treaties, including the CBD. The NR6 provides an update of progress in achievement of 12 National Biodiversity Targets (NBT) developed under the convention process in line with the 20 global Aichi biodiversity targets. As per report, the population of the lion has risen from 177 in 1968 to over 520 in 2015 and elephants from 12 thousand in the 1970s to 30 thousand in 2015. One-horned Indian Rhino which was on the brink of extinction during the early 20th century, now number 2400.

Notes:
Mrinal Sen (95), the legendary filmmaker, has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 30, 2018. Along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, he was often considered to be one of the greatest ambassadors of Bengali parallel cinema on the global stage with films like Ek Din Achanak, Padatik, Mrigaya, Akaler Sandhane, Chorus, Kharij, Khandahar, Bhuwan Shome, Akash Kusum and Calcutta 71. He made his directorial debut with Raat Bhore in 1955 and is known for making films that focussed on socio-politial issues. A recipient of 12 international film awards, Mrinal Sen was also a member of the Indian People’s Theatre Association. Sen was an ardent follower of Marxist philosophy.

Notes:
In Madhya Pradesh, the state government has decided to form a new Spiritual Department to strengthen inter-communal harmony and Sarvadharma Sambhav in the state covering all religions, sects and faiths. In the new department, the Religious Trust and Endowments and Happiness Department will be merged. The Directorate of Religious Trusts and Endowments, Pilgrimage and Fair Authority, Directorate of Mukhya Mantri Teerth-Darshan Yojana and Rajya Anand Sansthan working till now will also be included in the new department. Meanwhile, the proceedings of the formation of trust for Rivers Tapti, Mandakini and Kshipra will also be carried out. Law will be made to make holy rivers of the state a living unit. In many countries like America, England, Bangladesh, Myanmar etc, the Department of Spiritual Affairs is working under different names.

Notes:
“Finding Beauty in Garbage”, a documentary film based on the garbage of Dibrugarh town in Assam has bagged the Best Short documentary film award in Asia South East International Short Film Festival at Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The film gives a satirical take to the problem of garbage disposal. The 7 minute film was produced, directed and scripted by Satyamam Dutta who is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer presently posted in Dibrugarh. The burning problem of garbage disposal has been projected by Dutta with a satirical approach prompting viewers to think and realize how the disposal of garbage affects their life. The film has shown how the inhabitants of the city have become so accustomed and immune to the garbage and dirt around that they no longer want to fight with it but want to cohabit with them. The film is slated to be released on 1st January 2019 through video sharing website YouTube and other social media platforms.