Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
Priyam Chatterjee has become the first Indian chef to be awarded the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricoleto’ by the Government of France. The award recognises his contribution towards reinventing the gastronomic scene in India. Chatterjee is best known for revisiting the traditional dishes from his native state of West Bengal and giving it a French twist. He is currently the head chef at Jaan Restaurant Yacht in France.

Notes:
The Union Government has recently started registration for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan-Dhan Yojana (PM-KMY) with an aim to improve the life of Small and Marginal Farmers of the country. This scheme for farmers has been announced in the Union Budget 2019-20. The scheme is voluntary and contributory for farmers in the entry age group of 18 to 40 years and a monthly pension of Rs. 3000/- will be provided to them on attaining the age of 60 years. The farmers will have to make a monthly contribution of Rs.55 to Rs.200, depending on their age of entry, in the Pension Fund till they reach the retirement date i.e. the age of 60 years. The Central Government will also make an equal contribution of the same amount in the pension fund. The spouse is also eligible to get a separate pension of Rs.3000/- upon making separate contributions to the Fund. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) shall be the Pension Fund Manager and responsible for Pension pay out. The PM-KMY will be implemented across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Notes:
The World Elephant Day (WED) is observed every year on 12th of August to raise awareness of the worsening plight of Asian and African elephants. The day also observed to bring the world together to help protect & honour these gentle giants and to spread awareness about the critical threats they are facing. Elephant is also the National Heritage Animal of India. However, the state of this majestic animal is becoming pitiable due to man’s conflict with the wild. African elephants are listed as “Vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Their numbers are dwindling as poachers target them for their ivory. Habitat loss is another reason for their dwindling numbers.

Notes:
The researchers from IIT Madras have developed a multi-modal robot ‘GraspMan’ with good grasping, manipulation and locomotion abilities for use in industrial and field applications. The GraspMan is consists of a pair of graspers, which provide morphological adaptation. It will enable to conform to the geometry of the object being grasped. This allows the grasper to hold objects securely and manipulate it much like the human hand. The motivation behind this research is to realize a robot with a minimalistic design that can overcome the need for task-specific robots that are capable of navigating and manipulating across different environments without increasing the system complexity.

Notes:
Legendary Indian athlete and Olympian P.T. Usha has been appointed as a member of the Athletes Commission of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA). Usha will be one of the six members of the AAA Athletes Commission. The commission will be headed by 1992 Olympics gold medallist hammer thrower Andrey Abduvaliyev of Uzbekistan. Usha is known for her stellar performance at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where she missed the bronze in the 400m hurdles finals by 1/100 second. The ‘Payyoli Express’ was awarded with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 1983. Recently, Usha is nominated for the prestigious International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Veteran Pin Award.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched an initiative E-Step to empower student start-ups. The focus of E-Step is on boot camps, mentoring and training programmes which cover various aspects of entrepreneurship. The programme is part of Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS). It is specially crafted for students / start-ups / entrepreneurs to understand the basics of entrepreneurship from experienced trainers. The first phase of E-Step will be to organize day long boot camps across all New Age Incubation Networks (NAIN) across the state. The boot camp gives participants an overview of the current start-up system. It also acts as a platform for ideation where teams will work on various ideas based on problems, solutions, competitors and customer.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to set up Atal Bihari Vajpayee residential schools for children of labourers in all 18 divisions of state. Beside this, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced many projects in state in remembrance of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee including a memorial in Bateshwar, the former prime minister’s native village in Agra. A ‘Centre of Excellence’ will also establish in DAV College in Kanpur where Atal ji had his education. The state government also announced that the work to set up a medical university in Lucknow is underway and a satellite centre of KGMU is being set up in Balrampur, from where Vajpayee had contested elections in 1957.

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:
Ranjit Guru (61), the noted Odisha journalist and columnist, has passed away in Bhubaneswar on August 18, 2019. He was working with leading Odia daily Sambad in a senior editorial position. During his over a 3-decade long career in journalism, he was also associated with the leading newspapers like ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ and ‘The Asian Age’.

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.