Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
The High Level Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), headed by Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas, has recently submitted its report to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The main recommendations include making CSR expenditure tax deductible, allowing the carry-forward of unspent balance for a period of 3-5 years, and aligning Schedule 7 of the Companies Act (which outlines the kinds of activities that qualify as CSR) with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Committee has also recommended that companies having CSR-prescribed amount below Rs 50 lakh may be exempted from constituting a CSR Committee. It also suggested that violation of CSR compliance may be made a civil offence and shifted to the penalty regime.

Notes:
Rajasthan has bagged the “best innovation and initiative leadership award” for its achievements in higher education in the 14th World Education Summit (WES-2019). The award was received by the Minister of State for Higher Education Bhanwar Singh Bhati at the 14th summit in New Delhi. The representatives of 8 countries and 17 States of India participated in the 2-day summit.

Notes:
The book “Kashmir’s Untold Story: Declassified” has been authored by filmmaker Iqbal Chand Malhotra and defence analyst Maroof Raza. It will tell the riveting story of the history of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), from the time of its political and geographic consolidation under Maharaja Gulab Singh to the present-day. It will also shed light on why the special status was integral to the accession treaty. The book world reveal amazing insights into the Government of India (GoI)’s policy towards the state, right from 1889, when it first imposed central rule and dispossessed the rule of the then Maharaja, till date. It will also provide answers to some of the most asked questions on the situation in the Valley, like “Why has this state of siege in the Kashmir valley continued for 72 years since the Partition of India?”, “What role has Pakistan played in it all these years?”, or the question of the hour, “Will there ever be a resolution to the militancy in the state?”. Now, the former state has been bifurcated into two union territories — J&K and Ladakh.

Notes:
Rizia Rahman (79), the renowned Bangladeshi novelist and the Ekushey Padak winning author, has passed away in Dhaka on August 17, 2019. She was born in Kolkata in 1939 and migrated to East Bengal after the partition. Rizia wrote in all genres of creative work viz. short stories, poems, essays and children’s fiction but she was renowned for her novels. Some of her well-known novels are as follows: Bong Theke Bangla, Rokter Okshor and Ghar-Bhanga-Ghar.

Notes:
On the eve of 73rd Independence day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the Grama and Ward Volunteer system for effective delivery of schemes. The basic idea behind implementing the scheme is to ensure corruption-free governance and last-mile delivery of welfare schemes and services to every household and citizen in the State. The scheme will involve over 2.8 lakh volunteers. Under the scheme, one volunteer will cover 50 families in each village. Identity cards will be given to each volunteer and they would get an honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month. A toll-free telephone number – 1902 – would be set up at the call centre in the Chief Minister Office to receive the grievances of the people.

Notes:
Environmental NGO Greenpeace has recently released an analysis of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite data. as per country-wise world rankings, India is the world’s largest emitter of Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) as it has the maximum hotspots. It contributes more than 15% of all anthropogenic SO2 hotspots in the world. The major SO2 emission hotspots in India are Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, Neyveli and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Talcher and Jharsuguda in Odisha, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Kutch in Gujarat, Ramagundam in Telangana and Chandrapur and Koradi in Maharashtra. According to report, the vast majority of plants in India lack Flue-Gas Desulfurization (FGD) technology to reduce their air pollution. Individually, the Norilsk smelter complex in Russia is the largest SO2 emission hotspot in the world, followed by Kriel in Mpumalanga province in South Africa and Zagroz in Iran. Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh is at 5th position.

Notes:
Nepal is planning to hold SAARC Foreign Ministers’ informal meet on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in September 2019. The 18th SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014 and Pakistan was to host the next summit in 2016. But, the summit was cancelled after India boycotted the meeting, in the wake of the terror attack at a military base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), which killed 19 soldiers. Other countries viz. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan, also walked out following India’s decision to exit the summit to step up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. India also declared that it will participate only if Pakistan took steps to tackle terrorism.

Notes:
The State of Karnataka has got the first position in the SARAL – ‘State Rooftop Solar Attractiveness Index’ that evaluates Indian states based on their attractiveness for rooftop development. The index has recently launched by the Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC), RK Singh. Telangana has acquired the 2nd position, followed by Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The index has been designed collaboratively by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Ernst & Young (EY).

Notes:
On 18th August 2019, visitors to the Injambakkam beach in Chennai and Besant Nagar’s Eliot’s Beach noticed a blue shimmer on the waves i.e. Popularly known as ‘Sea Tinkle’. According to marine experts, the Noctiluca algae were behind this blue glow phenomenon. The algae exhibit the phenomenon of bioluminescence (or biologically produce light when disturbed). The light is produced by a chemical reaction in the presence of oxygen involving an enzyme called “luciferase”. Bioluminescence has been observed in fireflies, a few beetles and in marine creatures such as Anglerfish and copepods. Though the sight that algae produce is beautiful, their arrival may not be good news for marine health. Noctiluca are known to be voracious predators of planktonic organisms(diatoms) that leads to disruption of the marine food chain. Such blooms have been reported annually in the Northern Arabian Sea since the early 2000s. Goa, Mumbai and the backwaters of Kerala have witnessed these algal blooms. Recently the magical glow featured in the Malayalam movie Kumbalangi Nights, which gained much attention.

Notes:
The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network “TRAFFIC” has recently revealed a new report titled ‘Skin and Bones Unresolved: An Analysis of Tiger Seizures from 2000-2018’. As per new TRAFFIC analysis, India topped in the trafficking of tigers and tiger body parts over 19 years since 2000. Apart from tiger skin and bones, live tigers are also traded illegally in a number of cases. It accounted for 40.5% of total incidents (463) and 26.5% of tigers seized (626). Overall, the analysis estimated that 2,359 tigers and tiger body parts were seized during the period across 32 countries and territories globally, resulting from 1,142 seizure incidents. Around 95% of these seizures were recorded in countries that are home to tigers. The study was launched to coincide with discussions around the trade in tigers and other big cat species at the 18th meeting of governments that are parties to the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. It must be noted here that India has the world’s largest wild tiger population. The headquarters of TRAFFIC is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK).