Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

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:
Rajiv Gauba, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary for two years. His tenure will be effective from August 30, 2019 & will succeed Pradeep Kumar Sinha. Gauba is currently posted as Union Home Affairs secretary. The Cabinet Secretary is the top-most executive official and senior-most civil servant of the Government of India (GoI). He works under the direct charge of the Prime minister.

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:
The Union Tourism Ministry has decided to offer e-Tourist Visa fee based on tourist footfall to attract foreign travellers from over 160 countries to India. The ministry has proposed to introduce e-visa fee for short duration of 30 days during peak tourism season – from July to March — at a charge of 25. However, the e-visa fee during the lean period — from April to June — is to be kept at 10. The Ministry also introduced a new 5 year e-tourist visa the fee of which will be 80 and the fees of one year e-visa would be 40. Though, there will be no visa fee for tourists from 14 Pacific Island nations belonging to Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) — Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue Island, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu — and Myanamar, Argentina, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa and Uruguay. Both the Ministry of Home Affairs (HA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) have given approval to the flexible e-tourist visa regime.

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:
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:
India will host the Conference Of Parties (COP 14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) from 2nd to 13th of September 2019 at the India Mart and Expo in the Greater Noida area of New Delhi. The event will see participation of over 3000 representatives from over 200 countries which will include Ministers from around 100 countries. The focus of the conference will be on desertification and degradation of land.

Notes:
The Project SU.RE (Sustainable Resolution) is a joint project of CMAI (Clothing Manufacturers Association of India) of United Nations (UN) & IMG Reliance (International Management Group). It has been inaugurated by Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani during Lakme Fashion Winter/Festive 2019 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The purpose of this project is to move towards sustainable fashion that contributes to a clean environment. The sustainability resolution reflects the thought of Mahatma Gandhi. Project SU.RE involves 16 leading retail fashion brands and is a step towards responsible and smart business. Top fashion and retail brands such as Future Group, Shoppers Stop, Aditya Birla Retail, Arvind Brands, Lifestyle, Max, Raymond, House of Anita Dongre, Westside, Spykar, Levis, Bestsellers and Trends are signatories to the project.

Notes:
Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa is representing India at the 2019 Indo Pacific Chiefs of Defence (CHOD) Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The theme for the conference is “Collaboration in a free and Open Indo – Pacific”. The conference will provide perspectives on common challenges faced by attending nations and elicit open discussions on the same. More than Chiefs of Defence of 33 countries are participating in the conference.

Notes:
The 8th edition of joint military exercise titled Shaheen VIII has started between the air forces of China and Pakistan in Chinese city of Holton, which is closer to the Indian border near Ladakh. The purpose of the exercise is to improve training standards of the two air forces through mutual learning. It comes at a time when the country’s relations with Pakistan have hit rock-bottom. The air to air war games is said to be an exercise to develop a mechanism for interoperability of both countries’ air forces. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is keeping a close eye on the Pakistan-China aerial exercise in which both the countries have deployed latest fighter jets.