Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
The World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is observed every year on July 30 to raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights. Human trafficking is a global problem and no country is immune to it. Millions of victims fall into the hands of traffickers, lured by fake promises and deceit. Hence, the 2019 theme “Human Trafficking: call your government to action” is focusing on highlighting the importance of Government action in the interest of victims of trafficking. But the call to action is not only to Governments, we encourage everyone to take action to prevent this heinous crime.

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:
The book “Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age” has been co-authored by Microsoft President Brad Smith & Carol Ann Browne, and will release on September 11. The book will provide a behind-the-scene look at the multinational technology company and tell some of the biggest stories to hit the tech industry in the past decade. The book comes at a time when the company finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These include privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of AI, big tech’s relationship to inequality and the challenges for democracy, far and near.

Notes:
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has released a study titled “Economic Valuation of Tiger Reserves in India: A Value+ Approach”. The study is authored by the Centre for Ecological Services Management at the Indian Institute of Forest Management (Bhopal). It estimates the economic valuation of Bandipur Tiger Reserve and 9 other tiger reserves in the country. The purpose behind the report is to enhance tiger conservation by highlighting the holistic economic benefits of protected areas. The researchers used an array of methods to determine the economic, scientific, educational, cultural and recreational services of tiger parks. The reserves surveyed are Melghat Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra), Nagarjunasagar Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), Anamalai (Tamil Nadu), Bandipur (Karnataka), Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh), Pakke (Arunachal Pradesh), Palamau (Jharkhand), Panna (Madhya Pradesh), Similipal (Odisha), and Valmiki (Bihar). Founded in 1982, the IIFM is a premier national level institute engaged in education, research, training and consultancy in the area of Forest, Environment and Natural Resources Management and allied sectors.

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:
Devadas Kanakala (75), the veteran Telugu actor, has passed away in Hyderabad on August 3, 2019. Hailed from Yanam (neighbouring East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh) in Pondicherry, Kanakala began his career about five decades ago. He acted in about 100 films and would be best remembered for ‘O Seetha Katha’, ‘Siri Sirmuvva’, ‘Gorintaku’ and ‘Gang Leader’. He was also well-known to have trained South Indian megastars – Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi and Rajendra Prasad – through his film institute.

Notes:
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended the grant of the Institute of Eminence (IoE) status to 20 institutions such as IITs Madras and Kharagpur, Delhi University, University of Hyderabad, Amritha Vishwa Vidyapeetham and VIT. The recommendations are based on the reports of the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) under the chairmanship of N Gopalaswami. The aim of Institute of Eminence (IoE) scheme is to develop 20 world-class institutions which would put India on the global education map. Those selected will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures. The public institutions will also receive a government grant of Rs 1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

Notes:
On 5th August 2019, the 2nd All India Annual Conference of Indian Information Service (IIS) Officers was organized at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra in New Delhi. The Conference was organized with a view to attain greater integration of all Media Units under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in order to further amplify government communication. A Performance Review of Media Units under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MoI&B) was also conducted during the day-long meeting. The Conference was attended by Senior IIS Officers from all across the country, along with officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Prasar Bharati and Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Notes:
According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), all universities in India – public and private – will get final subscription to access the Swedish anti-plagiarism software Urkund from September 1, 2019. The Urkund software was chosen through a global tender process. As part of the exercise to prevent plagiarism in the coming years, the software will be provided free of cost anti-plagiarism software to all 900 universities, including private players. It will be available to teachers, students, researchers & everyone. The Union Government also notified the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018 to prescribe the graded punishment for plagiarism. Beside this, a UGC committee on improving research culture, headed by former Indian Institute of Science (IIS) director P. Balaram, noted that Indian academics have contributed 35% of all articles published in about 11,000 fake journals between 2010 and 2014. Most of these articles were in fake engineering journals, followed by articles in fake journals of bio-medicine and social sciences.

Notes:
The Delhi government has launched a project titled ‘Oral History Programme’ that seeks to record oral histories of the city as told by its senior citizens. The project is an attempt to democratise knowledge by recording stories told by hundred of common people in Delhi from different strata of society over the next two years. It is undertaken by Delhi Archives in collaboration with Ambedkar University. It aims to document the history of the city from the perspective of its inhabitants. The project will enable a richer representation of the city than allowed by official records and written documents. The Oral History programme is actually reviving a 3-decade old project of the Delhi Archives. In the 1980s, the official repository of the city’s records began an oral history programme that interviewed eminent personalities, including Gulzarilal Nanda, who served as the acting prime minister of the country twice, and Sushila Nayyar, a close aide of Mahatma Gandhi. But the project was stopped after 56 eminent people were interviewed.