Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh launched a scheme named “School Fagadaba” (Make education bettter) to improve infrastructure of government schools in the state. The aim of the scheme is to ensure better infrastructure, quality education and overall improvement of government schools to make them model schools. In the first phase of the scheme, one school from each of the 60 Assembly constituencies in the state has been selected. The overall purpose of School Fagadaba is to improve the government schools in terms of physical and manpower gaps and increase in enrollment of students.

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.

Notes:
Dr. Jagannath Mishra (82), the 3-times former chief minister of Bihar, has passed away in Delhi on August 19, 2019. He was known for sharp political acumen and bold decision-making, which he demonstrated during the peak of his career. Mishra was the last Congress chief minister of Bihar between December 1989 and March 1990. He also served as a Union minister in the P V Narasimha Rao cabinet. He was one of the most powerful leaders of the state in pre-Mandal politics who brought the infamous ‘Press Bill’ to curtail the freedom of the press. Currently, he was a member of Bhartiya Jan Congress (Rashtriya).

Notes:
The task force, headed by CBDT member Akhilesh Ranjan, constituted by the Union government for drafting the new Direct Tax Code (DTC) has recently submitted its report to Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman. The task force was constituted to replace the 6-decades-old Income Tax Act 1961. It is believed that the task force has suggested changes in the slab for personal income tax & corporate tax. At present, the personal income tax structure has 3 categories — for people below the age of 60, for people above the age of 60 but less than 80, and the third for people of 80 years and above. Currently, companies with turnover up to Rs 400 crore attract tax at the rate of 25%. This covers 99.3% of all the companies registered. Now, the report is expected to be placed in Parliament as a part of Union Budget 2020-21.

Notes:
To mark the 75th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Punjab government has rolled out a mega health insurance scheme named ‘Mahatma Gandhi Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana’. It will cover 76% of the state’s population. The scheme has clubbed with the Centre’s health insurance scheme titled ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) for the poor. As per latest Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), Ayushman Bharat would have covered only 14.86 lakh families while the Punjab scheme in its new form, will benefit a total of 46 lakh families. Like the original PMJAY, the Punjab government will provide cashless health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per year. The Centre and the state government will bear the cost of the annual premium for 14.86 lakh families in the ratio of 60:40. For the remaining beneficiaries, the Punjab government will bear the entire expense.The Punjab scheme with 1,396 treatment packages will be implemented through over 450 empanelled hospitals, including 200 government hospitals.

Notes:
On 21st August 2019, the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched the world’s biggest teacher training programme – , NISHTHA – in New Delhi under which more than 42 lakh teachers will be trained across the country. The acronym ‘NISHTHA’ stands for ‘National Initiative for School Head’s and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement’. The purpose of the integrated programme is to build the capacities of around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and Heads of the school at the elementary level in all government schools, faculty members of states councils of Educational Research and Training and other educational departments. The integrated training will motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first-level counsellors.

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Navneeth Murali, an Indian-American teenager from New Jersey, has won the 2019 South Asian Spelling Bee (SASB) contest. The prize money for this contest is USD 3,000. The SASB is an annual spelling bee platform in the US for children of South Asian descent. The competition is open to any student at or below the age of 14, who has at least one parent or grandparent who is of South Asian descent, or whose lineage can be traced to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and/or Sri Lanka.

Notes:
In a first-of-its-kind initiative in Asia, 8 armed forces veterans have initiated a high-end adventure sports survival training and self-defence mission at a pan India level titled ‘Op-Blue Freedom’ as a part of their parent project — Special Forces Adventures (SFA). The SFA is led by Major (retd) Vivek Jacob and has veterans from the Indian Army Para Commandos and the Naval Marine Commandos (MARCOS). ‘Op-Blue Freedom’ is a nation-wide adaptive scuba diving programme for people with disabilities as well as able-bodied persons. The purpose of the program is to train adventure enthusiasts in special forces skills like survival techniques, emergency first response skills, unarmed combat, endurance and fitness. Recently, ‘Op-Blue Freedom’ is in news because the Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and football legend Bhaichung Bhutia have flagged off dive for Delhi-NCT leg for the Op-Blue Freedom.

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.

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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.