Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
India’s first health-focused credit card has been launched by RBL Bank and digital healthcare platform Practo. The co-branded health credit card is powered by Mastercard and is available on both Practo and RBL mobile apps and websites. It offers benefits like unlimited and round-the-clock online consultations with experienced and qualified doctors, one free full body health check-up. In addition, the card also offers two complimentary domestic airport lounge accesses every quarter. Beside this, users can also use the card to earn points that can be redeemed for availing Practo services like ordering medicine, tests and online consultations. Currently, Practo is the only platform in the country that lets patients manage their healthcare needs end-to-end.

Notes:
Virasat-e-Khalsa, the pioneer museum depicting 550 years’ history and culture of Punjab and Sikhism, has scripted new chapter in its rising glory by becoming the most visited museum in the Asian sub-continent on a single day. The museum had witnessed a record footfall of 20,569 visitors on a single day on March 20. Hence, the “Asia Book of Records” had confirmed the record of “maximum footfall in a museum in a day” in the name of Virasat-e-Khalsa, which would feature in the next edition of the Asia Book of Records. Earlier, the museum was listed in the “Limca Book of Records-February 2019 Edition” and “India Book of Records-2020 Edition”. The museum was built by Punjab Government and was inaugurated in November 2011. The iconic museum stands out in terms of popularity, visitor footfall, architecture, grandeur and aesthetics; as also in its use of technology, infrastructure and world class standards of maintenance and upkeep.

Notes:
To mark the 77th anniversary of Quit India movement, the Uttar Pradesh has created a world record by planting more than 22-cr saplings in a day at 12.2 lakh locations in the state. For this noble cause, the state government launched a mega afforestation drive ‘Vriksharopan Mahakumbh’ with target to plant 22 cr saplings in a day. The previous record of planting 30,000 saplings was created by Savitribai Phule Pune University of Maharashtra in June 2019.

Notes:
The World Organ Donation Day (WODD) is observed every year on 13th of August to raise awareness about organ donation. This day strives to motivate people to donate their healthy and precious organs after death to save lives. It attempts to eliminate the myths and fears people have in their mind about organ donation. Organ donation can be life-changing for many. This practice can give a new life to the ones in need because one organ donor can save up to 8 lives. A donor can initiate to donate organs like heart, liver, intestine, kidneys, lungs and pancreas after his or her death. Later these organs can be transplanted into another person who is in urgent requirement. As per the national guidelines, anyone can be an organ donor irrespective of age, caste, religion and community.

Notes:
On the occasion of the 73rd Independence Day 2019, ISRO Chairman Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan has been honoured with the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam award by the Tamil Nadu government. However, Dr. Sivan could not receive the award at the Independence Day celebrations at Fort St. George but he is expected to collect the award from the Chief Minister at a later date. He won the award in recognition of his stellar work in promotion of science and technology. The Kalam award is to honour those who work for promoting scientific growth, humanities and students’ welfare and the awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu. The award carries 8 gm gold medal, Rs. 5 lakh in cash and a citation.

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched the 5th edition of the annual cleanliness survey – Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020) – with theme “Cleanliness is Our Right’’. The survey will be conducted in January 2020. On this occasion, the MoHUA also launched Swachh Nagar app for waste collection – solid, wet or Construction and Demolition (C&D). The Ministry also launched the Water PLUS Protocol which aims to provide a guideline for cities and towns to ensure that no untreated waste-water is released into the environment thereby enabling sustainability of the sanitation value chain.A city could be given the tag of Water+ if it ensures 100% treatment of wastewater and 10% use of treated wastewater, among other things.

Notes:
India has recently contributed $1 million to the UN Special Purpose Trust Fund (SPTF) for the Resident Coordinator System. The SPTF is a specific fund housed within the UN Secretariat. The fund has been established to receive, consolidate, manage and account for all contributions and financial transactions of the new Resident Coordinator system in a transparent and effective way. On real time basis, the SPTF web portal reflects all commitments, contributions and expenditures recorded for the fund.

Notes:
Dr. K Thangaraj, Chief Scientist at the city based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has bagged the prestigious J C Bose Fellowship for his outstanding scientific contributions in the field of population and medical genomics. The J C Bose fellowship is awarded to active scientists in recognition of their outstanding performance by the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science & Technology. Dr Thangaraj is a population geneticist. Some of his major works includes finding out the origin of Indian population– how humans migrated from Africa during different episodes and populated different parts of India. These studies led to further work on understanding how these populations interbred. He also showed how in the last 2000 years Indians started practicing endogamy resulting in many population specific genetic disorders.

Notes:
The Odisha Wetland Authority has recently approved implementation of an integrated management plan for Chilika (India’s largest brackish water lagoon), and Ansupa (State’s largest freshwater lake). The plan for Chilika & Ansupa will cost Rs 180 crore. The 5-year management of lakes is intended at strengthening livelihood of thousands of fishermen relying on the two water-bodies. Chilika is spread over 1,100 sq km and lakhs of tourists visit the lake to watch endangered Irrawaddy dolphins and migratory birds during winter. While Ansupa is famous for its sweet water fish, especially for labeo bata locally known as pohala. It is spread over almost 2 sq km & is also the wintering ground for 32 species of migratory birds. Its calmness, scenic beauty and forest coverage behold the visitors.

Notes:
On 23rd August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a 3-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. During the visit, PM Modi will receive the the UAE’s highest civil honour ‘Order of Zayed”. The honour was conferred to him in April 2019 in recognition of his distinguished leadership that gave a big boost to bilateral relations between the two countries. The award is named after the UAE’s founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It acquires special significance as it was awarded to PM Modi in the year of the birth centenary of Sheikh Zayed. So far, six countries — Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Palestine and Afghanistan — have given their highest award to Prime Minister Modi.After that, PM Modi will visit Bahrain that will be the first-ever Prime Ministerial visit from India to Bahrain.