Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
India’s transsexual woman Naaz Joshi has been crowned Miss World Diversity 2019 at Port Louis in Mauritius on August 3. She has made the country proud with a third successive victory in the beauty pageant Miss World Diversity. Apart from the Miss World Diversity title, Naaz also bagged the Best Project, Miss Congeniality, Miss People’s Choice Ambassador and Best National Costume titles. She was the first transgender in the world to win a coveted international crown against natural born females in 2017.

Notes:
Star India grappler Vinesh Phogat has bagged gold in women’s 53kg category of the Poland Open wrestling tournament in Warsaw on 4th August 2019. She prevailed 3-2 over local wrestler Roksana in the final of the competition. This was her third consecutive gold in the 53 kg category after winning Gold at Grand Prix of Spain and at the Yasar Dogu International at Istanbul, Turkey last month.

Notes:
The NASA scientists have characterized the first potentially habitable world outside our own solar system that may be suitable for life. The super-earth planet — named GJ 357 d — was spotted by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. It is estimated that planet is about six times the size of our planet and located a mere 31 light-years away. The planet orbits a dwarf star in the Hydra constellation and may have the right conditions to support liquid water as it lies within its star’s habitable zone. It may be noted that a super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth’s, but substantially below those of the Solar System’s ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.

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India has recently signed the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements (UNISA) to boost the confidence of foreign investors. It was signed by India’s High Commissioner to Singapore Jawed Ashraf, who was representing the Government of India (GoI). The purpose of the convention is to strengthen the international dispute resolution framework, and in turn help ease trade and commerce among countries. It will enable the enforcement of mediated settlement agreements amongst signatory countries. So far, the treaty named Singapore Convention on Mediation (SCM) has signed by 46countries including the United States, China, and India. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Convention on 20th December 2018 during its 73rd session. The Convention has opened for signature by all States in Singapore on 7th August 2019, and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Notes:
Kandikuppa Sreekant has taken charge as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Power Grid Corporation of India. He shall be on post till 31st December 2023 i.e. the date of his superannuation or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Prior to this post, he was serving as the director (finance) of Power Grid. POWERGRID is an Indian state-owned electric utilities company headquartered in Gurugram. It transmits about 50% of the total power generated in India on its transmission network.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has recently released a report card on “Breastfeeding & Infant & Child feeding Practices” with data from the State and UTs on 8th August in New Delhi. In it, Manipur has topped the rankings in the Breastfeeding report card in the country. National capital Delhi is also among the worst-performing States. It has been developed by devising a composite score based on three indicators namely early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and complimentary feeding at 6-8 months of child’s age. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar are at the bottom positions in the report card.

Notes:
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (or World Tribal Day) is observed on August 9 to front-up and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. The 2019 theme is ‘Indigenous Languages’. It was reported in the year 2016 that about 2680 indigenous languages were in danger and on the verge of getting extinct. To safeguard the loss of these indigenous languages, the United Nations (UN) has designated 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This will help in persuading, convincing and creating awareness to people about the Indigenous Languages.

Notes:
On 8 August 2019, Pakistan suspended the Lahore-Attari Samjhauta Express train service following the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu And Kashmir (J&K). Though, Indian Railways has clarified that the train has not been suspended & will run normally. The Samjhauta Express (also called the Friendship Express) consists of 6 sleeper coaches and an AC three-tier coach. The train service was started on 22nd July 1976, under the Shimla Agreement that settled the 1971 war between the two nations. On the Indian side, the train runs from Delhi to Attari and from Lahore to Wagah on the Pakistan side. The word Samjhauta means “agreement” in both Hindi and Urdu.

Notes:
The Manipur government has appointed a 9-year-old girl Valentina Elangbam as the State’s green ambassador after a video of her crying over felled trees goes viral. Hence, the state government issued an order in recognition of her immense love and affection for trees and for generating mass awareness on conservation of the environment for a period of one year from the date of issuing the order. Valentina is a Class V student of Amutombi Divine Life English School in Kakching town. She had planted the saplings of two Gulmohar (royal poinciana) trees by the side of a river when she was in Class I. However, in a rude shock to her, the trees were recently cut down as part of a road expansion project. Then, a video of the crying child over the trees was shared on Facebook by her uncle.

Notes:
Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has launched ‘Samagra Shiksha-Jal Suraksha’ drive on 9th August 2019 to create awareness about Water Conservation among all school students across country. One of the objectives of this mega drive is to encourage students towards judicious use and minimum wastage of water at home and school level. It is a time bound campaign with a mission mode approach. This concept of water conservation is essential for students so that they can understand the importance of water and how it is shaping their lives meaningfully, thereby enabling them to participate in water conservation activities in their day to day lives.