Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
On August 1, East Bengal club has officially started the centenary celebrations on its foundation day with a glittering ceremony at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. On this occasion, the iconic football club awarded its highest honour – Bharat Gaurav – to India’s first cricket World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev. Kapil is no stranger to football as he had donned the club’s colours in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan in 1992. Kapil is no stranger to football as he had donned the club’s colours in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan in 1992.

Notes:
S S Deswal, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre, has been given the additional charge of the counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG). He succeeded Sudeep Lakhtaki and will hold the post in an additional capacity till a successor or regular DG is appointed. Deswal, the chief of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force, is Lakhtakia’s batchmate but his cadre is Haryana. The NSG is a counter terrorism unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It is also known as the ‘black cats’ & was raised in 1984 for combating terrorist activities with a view to protect states against internal disturbances. The NSG DG post is occupied by an IPS officer.

Notes:
In a major boost to national food security, the Government of India (GoI) has launched the One Nation-One Ration Card scheme on a pilot basis in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat from 1st August 2019. Families who have food security cards can buy subsidized rice and wheat from any ration shop in these states. Their ration cards should be linked with Aadhar Number to avail this service. The white Ration Card holders in Telangana have been getting the portability facility, enabling them to buy their subsidized rice and other food grains from any Fair Price Shop in the state. The same facility can be utilized anywhere in Andhra Pradesh now through PoS machines under the One Nation One Ration Card scheme which has come into force in the two states. The Centre is intended to extend the programme to all states by August 2020 so that the portability of the food security card implemented.

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind has been awarded the National order of Merit by the President of Guinea for his exceptional contribution to the advancement of overall relations and development of mutual cooperation between India and Guinea and for promoting friendship and partnership between the people of both the countries. This is the highest award of Republic of Guinea. Beside this, 3 MoUs were signed between the two countries viz. Cooperation in the Field of Traditional System of Medicine, e- Vidhyabharati – e-Aarogya Bharati Network Project and Renewal Energy. President Kovind also announced a new Line of Credit of US$ 170 million for Water Supply Project of Conakry city. Both countries also agreed on the need for reform of the UN Security Council to make it reflective of contemporary realities.

Notes:
The State Bank of India’s (SBI) Shanghai branch has become the first Indian bank to link up with China’s National Advance Payment System (CNAPS). After being a member of the CNAPS, SBI Shanghai can also offer real time transfer of local funds within China by routing them through the PBOC. It eliminates the need of tie up and maintenance of accounts with multiple Banks for fund transfer. The CNAPS provides real-time settlement services for all payments cleared in mainland China, as well as in all clearing banks in offshore yuan centers, such as Hong Kong. The CNAPS system is complemented by its international counterpart, the CIPS (China International Payments System or Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payment System), launched in 2015 with the aim of boosting international use of the Chinese currency, yuan. The CNAP was launched in 2008 by People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

Notes:
The 16th edition of Census 2021 will be conducted in 18 languages out of the 22 scheduled languages, while Census 2011 was in 16 of the 18 scheduled languages declared at that time. It also will introduce a code directory to streamline the process. Importantly, the latest census, as per the existing plan, will not collect caste data. The option of “Other” under the gender category is now “Third Gender”. It will be conducted in two phases: the houselisting phase with 34 parameters from April 2020 to September 2020 and the population enumeration phase with 28 parameters from February 9 2021 to February 28 2021. The decennial exercise would involve 31 lakh trained enumerators, with data collected digitally using Android based mobile phones. The Census data would be available by the year 2024-25 as the entire process would be conducted digitally and data crunching would be quicker.

Notes:
ISRO Chief, K Sivan has recently laid the foundation stone for Space Situational Awareness Control Centre (SSACC) at Peenya, Bengaluru. The aim of the control center is to monitor and protect high value space assets from space debris has been laid. The control centre will boost activities forecast for Space Situational Awareness and Management (SSAM), which has now considered a globally essential area because of the ever-growing man created space detritus figure and the multiple collision threat with functional satellites and space vehicles. This step will secure India’s expensive and strategically important satellites and future spacecraft from space detritus such as dead satellite remains, parts of orbiting bodies, near-earth asteroids and extreme weather situations. It would assimilate the tracking data of dead satellites from indigenous observation facilities produce important data from bare observations by inspection. It will also permit research activities to find solutions for space debris, space debris modelling and reduction.

Notes:
The Union Government has approved Rs 4,900 crore Kosi-Mechi Interlinking project for interlinking of Kosi and Mechi rivers of Bihar. This is the second major river interlinking project in the country to be approved after the Ken-Betwa project in Madhya Pradesh. The ambitious Kosi-Mechi project is unique in many ways. It will not only prevent recurring floods in north Bihar but also provide irrigation for a whooping over 2.14 lakh hectares of cultivable land in Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar districts, collectively called Seemanchal region. This approval comes after this project secured the last remaining mandatory technical-cum-administrative nod from Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Mechi is an important tributary of Mahananda river.

Notes:
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be felicitated with ‘Excellence in Cinema’ honour at the awards night of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) on August 8. The festival would pay tribute to the actor’s continuous contribution to cinema and popular culture in India with the award. Shah Rukh is the chief guest at the festival. He will be presented the award by Linda Dessau, who is the first female Governor of the State of Victoria. Helmed by the Victorian government of Australia, the IFFM is back for its 10th edition in the cultural city and will celebrate “courage” as its central theme in 2019. The felicitation will take place at the iconic Palais Theatre in Melbourne, which is one of the city’s heritage landmarks.

Notes:
According to the revised state-wise wild elephant population estimate based on the 2017 census, jumbo population across the country stood at 29,964 against 29,576 recorded as the mean figure in 2012. The South Region accounted for 14,612 followed by North East with 10,139 elephants. Among the South Indian states, Karnataka leads the table with 6,049 elephants followed by Kerala. The tiger population across the country is estimated at 2,967 as per the 2018 census. The census of tigers is undertaken at the national level once every 4 years and that of elephants at every 5 years. As per the India State of Forest Report 2017, there has been an increase of 6,778 kilometers of forest cover at the national level as compared to the assessment of 2015. The increase in forest cover is attributed to plantation and conservation activities both within and outside Recorded forest areas.