Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
The first-ever International Day for Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief is observed on 22nd of August 2019 to honour the victims and survivors of heinous acts who often remain forgotten. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness about religious intolerance, and violence and discrimination against anyone based on their religion or belief.

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Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Government of India (GoI) has launched its latest initiative called the ‘San-Sadhan’ Hackathon – for Divyangjan accessible toilets. The aim of the initiative is to ease lives of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) by making toilets smarter, more accessible, and easier to use. In this hackathon, the government is looking for smart, scalable and innovative solutions for economical toilets for individual and community use in rural and urban contexts. The Hackathon is inviting researchers, start-ups, student innovators, technology enthusiasts, and industry experts to participate. The last date to apply for participating in the Hackathon is August 28. The shortlisted applicants will work to develop their prototype during the two-day Hackathon scheduled to be held in the month of September in New Delhi. The initiative is being organized jointly by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and 91springboard.

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The Asia-Pacific Group (APG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering. It has recently put Pakistan in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Blacklist) for its failure to meet its standards. The APG has also found that Pakistan was non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters of terror financing and money laundering. On 11 effectiveness parameters of terror financing and money laundering, Pakistan was adjudged as low on 10. According to officials, Pakistan could not convince the 41-member plenary to upgrade it on any parameter. Now, Pakistan has to focus on avoiding the blacklist in October 2019, when the 15-month timeline ends on the FATF’s 27-point action plan.

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In Madhya Pradesh, the Banjari village of Katni district has become an integral part of the digital map of the country. It is the first village in the state to be associated with the Prime Minister’s ambitious project – Digital India. In line with Digital India campaign, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEiTY) has envisaged the Digital Village Project. It has plans to build 1000 digital villages across the country. The digital village will not only help in providing connectivity in every village but it will also help in bridging the digital divide between rural and urban areas. This will also open new jobs and employment. Akodara village of Sabarkantha district of Gujarat is the first digital village in the country.

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According to the latest date by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the Amazon Rainforest Forests in Brazil has recorded 74,155 fires since January 2019. Its satellite data showed an 84% increase as compared to the same period in 2018. The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world, which covers more than 5 million square kilometres across nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. It acts as an enormous carbon sink & stores up to an estimated 100 years worth of carbon emissions produced by humans, and is seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming. It is the most significant climate stabilizer as it creates 20 percent of the air we breathe and it also holds 20% of the fresh flowing water on the planet. But in the last half-century alone, nearly 20% of the forest has disappeared. Scientists have warned that if tree loss in the Amazon were to pass a certain “tipping point”, somewhere between 25 -40%, deforestation could start to feed on itself and lead to the demise of the forest within a matter of decades. Hence, preserving the forest is of critical importance for both the region it encompasses and the rest of the world.

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The researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a novel technique for production of meat which is completely natural. The lab-grown meat is nutritious and will be a step towards cruelty-free food. The taste of the final meat product will remain similar as raw meat but with improvised nutritional values as per customer needs. The product can be printed in varying shapes and sizes using a 3D bioprinter with the edible components and preserved for future use. According to researchers, the meat industry has been facing immense pressure in keeping up with the food requirements due to rapid increase in population. Citing predictions from the UN population prospects, Dr Biman B Mandal stated that the current meat industry will not be able to meet the global needs by 2050. Around 4,000 litres of water are required to produce one kg chicken meat and more than 8,000 litres of water are required to produce one kg of mutton. Hence, the lab grown meat made will have immense value in the Indian as well as the foreign market as it is nutritious and can be tuned for the high in demand needs of fast-food joints.

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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) is organizing the 7th ‘Community Radio Sammelan’ at Dr B R Ambedkar Bhawan in Delhi from Aug 27-29 with theme ‘Community Radio for SDGs’. The Sammelan’ will witness discussion on various flagship schemes of the government such as the Jal Shakti Abhiyaan and efforts for disaster risk reduction. Beside this, research, production, broadcasting, dissemination of social welfare messages through social media and content management for community radio stations will also be discussed. The ‘Sammelan’ will witness participation of all operational community radio stations across the country.

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The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) under its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) has launched the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) project to develop a framework of virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. Till date, there are more than 3 crore digital resources available through the National Digital Library (NDL). The contents cover almost all major domains of education and all major levels of learners. More than 50 lakh students have registered themselves in the National Digital Library with about 20 lakh active users. The NDL has been integrated with UMANG App and users can register through www.ndl.gov.in or through the mobile app.

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Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has recently launched a school education portal ‘Shagun’, which links over 15 lakh schools across the country to provide all the information on school education. The schools have been geo-tagged and all the data provided by them can be accessed through this portal. According to HRD officials, there would also be a third-party verification of the information provided by schools. Through this initiative, more than 2.3 lakh educational websites can be integrated.

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For the first time, the researchers have sighted a critically endangered species of tarantula – Peacock Parachute Spider (or Gooty Tarantula) beyond its known habitat in the Eastern Ghats. The spider belongs to the genus ‘Poecilotheria’. The spider was spotted by a team of researchers of the Puducherry-based Indigenous Biodiversity Foundation (IBF) in the Pakkamalai Reserve Forests near Gingee in Villupuram district. The spider was first sighted in 1899 by Reginald Innes Pocock on the basis of a single female specimen in Gooty. The known habitat of Peacock Parachute Spider is in degraded forests near Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. Tarantulas are biological pest controllers and there is a huge demand for them by collectors in the pet trade. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorised it as Critically Endangered.