Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

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:
Wing Commander Shalija Dhami has scripted history by becoming India’s first female officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to become the Flight Commander of a flying unit. She took over as flight commander of a Chetak helicopter unit at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Chetak is a single engine turbo shaft, light utility helicopter with capacity of 6 passengers and has maximum speed of 220 km/hour. Flight Commander is the second in command of the unit. The helicopter is suitable for commuting, cargo / material transport, casualty evacuation, Search & Rescue (SAR), Aerial Survey & MAybePatrolling, Emergency Medical Services, Off-shore operations and Under slung operations.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
On 29th August 2019, the 12th India Security Summit (ISS) was held in New Delhi on the theme “Towards New National Cyber Security Strategy”. During the conference, the various issues discussed such as protection of critical national infrastructure, emerging cyber threats: Incidents, Challenges and Response. The Government of India (GoI) has taken various measures to combat cyber threats. To combat cyber crime, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already rolled out a scheme ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)’ in the country. Beside this, “Cyber Swachhta Kendra” which is a part of the Government of India’s Digital India initiative under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is also in force.

Notes:
The Bimal Jalan Committee has suggested that the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) economic capital framework must be periodically reviewed after every five years and its accounting year (July-June) be aligned with the fiscal year that ends on 31 March. The Committee has recommended that the central bank pay interim dividend to the government (a practice that started in 2016-17) only under exceptional circumstances. The committee also recommended that the RBI should put in place a framework for assessing the market risk of its off-balance sheet exposures in view of their increasing significance. The panel also suggested a clearer distinction between the two components of economic capital — realised equity and revaluation balances — mainly because of the volatile nature of the revaluation balances.

Notes:
In shooting, 20-year old Elavenil Valarivan from India claimed her first senior World Cup gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle competition at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on 28th August 2019. With this, Valarivan became the third Indian to achieve the feat. In her debut year at the senior level, Elavenil shot 251.7 in the finals to help India extend their new-found dominance in the event. Though, Valarivan’s top prize did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in 2018 World Championships. Elavenil is a junior World Cup gold-medallist besides being an Asian champion.

Notes:
The Government e Marketplace (GeM) has signed an MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to benefit MSMEs, women entrepreneurs, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) and various loan beneficiaries under MUDRA and Stand-up India scheme. The MoU will enable promotion of special initiatives of GeM like Womaniya and Start-up Runway with SIDBI stakeholders. GeM and SIDBI will also take steps to ensure payments within a guaranteed time-frame to sellers, enhance working capital availability through bill discounting and control NPAs through control of end use.

Notes:
On the occasion of National Sports Day (NSD), Bajrang Punia and Deepa Malik have been conferred with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2019 in recognition of their outstanding achievements in the sport of wrestling and para-athletics, respectively at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. With this, Malik (49) became the first Indian woman para-athlete and the oldest athlete ever to be conferred the prestigious award. She also became only the second para-athlete after double Paralympic gold-medallist javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia, who received the recognition in 2017, to have won the prestigious award. The Khel Ratna award carries a prize purse of Rs 7.5 lakh.

Notes:
The Delhi Cabinet has given “in principle” approval to the free-ride scheme of providing free rides for women in city buses and metro trains. For this cause, the Delhi Assembly also passed Supplementary Demands for Grants of Rs 290 crore. Of the Rs 290 crore, Rs 140 crore is for free rides for women in buses and Rs 150 crore for rides in metro trains. The free-ride scheme is slated to begin from October 29. Though, women employees of the Delhi government, local bodies and undertakings will not be entitled for transport allowance if they opt for free ride in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses. Both DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) will strengthen their ticket checking mechanisms prevent “misuse” and “pilferage” of single journey passes.

Notes:
The Saidan Secondary School of Mizoram has been crowned Under-14 boys champions of 2019 Subroto Cup International Football tournament after defeating Unique Model Academy of Manipur 2-0 in the summit clash. It was the Mizoram school’s first title win in the tournament. Saidan also won the best team award (Rs 3,00,000) while its player B Romalsawma was titled the best player of the tournament. The best goalkeeper award went to Manipur’s Bijando and Lalbulliana of Saidan Secondary School was declared the best coach. The fairplay award went to Our Lady Mount Carmel High School of Goa. The best goalkeeper, best player and fairplay award winners won Rs. 50,000 each.