Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
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 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced its “Vikram Sarabhai Journalism Award in Space Science, Technology and Research” to recognize and reward journalists who have actively contributed towards the field of space science, applications, and research. Basically, the awards are part of the centenary year celebrations of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, father of Indian space programme. The nominations are open to all Indians who have a good experience in journalism. The articles published from 2019 to 2020 will be considered. The names of the selected candidates will be announced on August 1st, 2020. There are two categories of awards, wherein the first category holds a cash price of Rs 5,00,000, a medal and citation and two journalists or freelancers of print media will be awarded. On the other hand, the second category of the award holds 3 cash prizes of Rs 3,00,000, 2,00,000 and 1,00,000 and citation each for journalists or freelancers of print media.

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:
The RBI task force on Offshore Rupee Markets (ORM), headed by Usha Thorat, has suggested liberal currency market for offshore users. The panel recommended that onshore market hours may be suitably extended to match the flexibility provided by the offshore markets (or NDF markets). This is aimed at incentivizing non-residents to hedge in the onshore market. The Thorat panel suggested that banks may be allowed to freely offer prices to non-residents at all times, out of their Indian books, either by a domestic sales team, or by using staff located at overseas branches. It recommended that non-deliverable rupee derivatives (with settlement in foreign currency) may be allowed to be traded in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), and IFSC Banking Units may be allowed to deal in such derivatives with a distinct foreign currency-Indian rupee (INR) position limit.

Notes:
On the occasion of World Tribal Day (WTD-2019), the Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) has launched a new programme ‘Leather Mission’ from the tribal-dominated village of Chandala in Sirohi district of Rajasthan. Under this new programme, KVIC will give Leather Kits to the leather artisans across the nation. It will not only increase their incomes manifold but will also inspire the traditional leather artisans who had migrated to other jobs from their traditional skill to adopt this vocation again. The KVIC has also distributed approx 50 leather kits and 350 Bee-Boxes with live bee colonies under the programmes like Leather Mission, Kumhar Sashaktikaran Mission and Honey Mission.

Notes:
The International Youth Day (IYD) is observed every year on 12th of August to raise awareness of challenges and problems facing the world’s youth. The day reiterate our pledge to make education inclusive, equitable & relevant to the changing dynamics of 21st century to prepare our youths to be future ready. The 2019 theme “Transforming education” highlights efforts to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth, including efforts by youth themselves.

Notes:
A newly-discovered Kajin Sara lake in Manang district of Nepal is expected to set a new world record of being the world’s highest lake. It is located at an altitude of 5,200m, which is yet to be officially verified. Currently, Tilicho lake in Nepal holds the title, which is situated at an altitude of 4,919m in the Himalyan nation. Tilicho lake is 4 km long, 1.2 km wide and around 200m deep.

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat launched the India’s largest sanitation survey – Swachh Survekshan Grameen-2019. The aim of this 45-day long survey is to engage rural communities in improvement of the sanitation status of their districts and states through intensive campaign. The survey will take place in 18 thousand villages of 698 districts. Swachhata activities have also been planned at around 87 thousand public places where community meetings will be organized. People can also directly give their feedback through the mobile app. Under the 2nd edition of Swachh Survekshan Grameen, districts and states will be ranked on data collected from citizen feedback, direct observation and service-level progress.

Notes:
The researchers from IIT Kharagpur have developed a low-cost diagnostic device which can perform various pathological tests by using blood taken from a finger prick. The device requires only a paper strip based kit integrated with a smartphone to enable analytics and readout functions and an LED light for imaging. The key aspect of the kit is operational simplicity and extremely low running cost. The kit is developed by a research team led by Prof Suman Chakraborty.