Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

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:
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:
The World Bank (WB) has recently released a report titled ‘Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis’ to address human and environmental harm. The study evaluated how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals and plastics suck oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems. Both rich and poor countries are at risk from poor water quality as a result of pollution. The researchers noted that a key contributor to poor water quality is nitrogen, which, applied as fertiliser in agriculture, eventually enters rivers, lakes and oceans where it transforms into nitrates. Early exposure of children to nitrates affects their growth and brain development, impacting their health and adult earning potential. The report also found that when Biological Oxygen Demand (an indicator of overall water quality) crosses a certain threshold, GDP growth in areas affected by the problem drops by as much as a third because of the impact on health, agriculture and ecosystems.

Notes:
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has extended title sponsor rights to Paytm for the Indian cricket team’s international and domestic matches with a winning bid of Rs 3.80 crore per match for the 4-year cycle commencing October, 2019. Over the next 4 years, India is set to host at least 86 international men’s matches in bilateral series & BCCI is thrilled with the 57% hike in sponsorship amount. Besides men’s international cricket, BCCI offers extension of sponsorship rights to domestic cricket and women’s international games at no additional cost.

Notes:
Union Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel has recently launched the book titled – “the Diary of Manu Gandhi (1943-44)” at a function in New Delhi. The book has been brought out by National Archives of India (NAI) in collaboration with Oxford University Press on the occasion of 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The book originally written in Gujarati language and has been edited & translated by a well known scholar Dr. Tridip Suhrud. The first volume of the book covers the period of 1943-1944. It throws light on Gandhiji’s life as a prisoner and his endeavour to establish the possibility of collective non-violence. It also chronicles the spiritual and educational pursuits of a woman who takes up writing as a mode of self examination. She shares a moving portrait of Kasturba Gandhi’s illness and death. Manu Gandhi (Mridula) was a grand niece of Mahatma Gandhi, and stayed with Gandhiji till his assassination. She was an aide to Kasturba Gandhi during her imprisonment in the Aga Khan Palace in 1943.

Notes:
The first-ever World Youth Conference for Kindness has been inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. It organized by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). The theme of the conference was ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Gandhi for the Contemporary World: Celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’. The conference was in commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. Its purpose is to provide youth with creative, effective methods of engaging and in realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It sought inspiration from Gandhi’s championing of non-violence. The conference hosted 60 international delegates from over 27 countries, each of whom work in the field of positive social change.

Notes:
In France, the 45th edition of G7 summit was held in Biarritz on 24-26 August 2019 with theme “Fighting Inequality”. The annual meet was attended by the leaders of 7 member states — France, Italy, Canada, United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are in Biarritz to discuss various issues during the G7 meeting. PM on way to France to attend G7 meeting in Biarritz; Theme of the summit is ‘Fighting Inequality’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the G7 meeting in which India has been invited as a partner country.

Notes:
South Korea has recently conducted 2-day drill exercise to practise defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan. The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo. The exercise will involve warships and aircraft. The drill — re-named “East Sea territory defence training” — will solidify the military’s resolve to defend the Dokdo islands and the area surrounding the Sea of Japan. The delayed exercise comes as tensions with neighbouring Japan continue. Seoul has controlled the rocky islets in the Sea of Japan since 1945 when Tokyo’s 35-year colonial rule over the Korean peninsula ended. Tokyo also claims the islands and accuses South Korea of occupying them illegally. The two nations are both market economies, democracies and US allies, and both are threatened by nuclear-armed North Korea.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government has recently launched its exclusive education TV channel – Kalvi Tholaikkatchi – to benefit students of classes I to XII. The content will include shows aimed at school children, besides those on jobs and related issues. The Education TV will telecast programmes from 6 am to 9.30 pm every day. The programmes will be based on board exam preparation for students, employment news and opportunities for the youth and career-guidance information. The content for the channel has been prepared by a group of 25 teachers and the programmes will also have guest speakers like authors and subject experts. The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has also contributed towards content development for the channel. The TN SCERT has a channel on YouTube already with around 2.5 lakh subscribers and more than 3,000 videos. The videos range from chapter-wise tutorials on subjects to easy science experiments conducted by middle school students.

Notes:
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar has inaugurated the National Centre for Avian Ecotoxicology at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural Sciences (SACON) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The purpose of the center is to explore the impact of chemical contaminants on individual species of birds and, where possible, link them to population and communities. The centre would study the movement of environmental contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and drugs through the food chain, and their harmful effects on birds. The Union Ministry allocated Rs 4 crore for the centre, which contains instruments such as High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC), Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAC) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS).