Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
Prominent economist Abdalla Hamdok has taken charge as the new Prime Minister of Sudan and vowed to work towards ending the country’s economic crisis and establishing peace. In his new role, Hamdok will be tasked to deal with Sudan’s mounting economic problems viz. high inflation and unemployment after decades of poor governance. His biggest challenge would be integrating his country into the international economy after 20 years of crippling United States trade sanctions.

Notes:
On 25th August 2019, Komalika Bari from Jharkhand has become recurve cadet world champion at the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid, Spain. In the final, she defeated higher-ranked Sonoda Waka of Japan 7-3 and earn India’s 2nd gold on the final day of the Championships. Earlier, India also won a gold in the compound junior mixed pair event and a bronze in the compound junior men’s team event. Thus, India concluded their campaign with two gold and one bronze medal in their last event. Now, the 17-year-old Komalika is now India’s second recurve cadet world champion (under-18) after Deepika Kumari who won the title in 2009. This was also India’s fourth individual world championship title after Deepika (cadet and junior) and Palton Hansda (compound junior in 2006). This is the last tournament for the Indian archers to play under the national flag as the World Archery’s suspension of the country will come into effect after this event.

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 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.

Notes:
Indian Para-badminton player Manasi Joshi from Rajkot has recently clinched her first gold in women’s singles category at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland. In the final, she defeated 3-time SL3 world champion Parul Parmar with a score of 21-12, 21-7.

Notes:
For the first time, the 25th Senior Women’s National Football Championship is scheduled to be held in Arunachal Pradesh from 10th to 24th September 2019. The tournament will be held in the oldest town of the state Pasighat in East Siang District. A total of 30 teams from across the country, representing various States, Union Territories and Indian Railways will participate in the tournament. The teams have been divided into 8 groups — A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu &Kashmir and Telangana is in group H. The inaugural match will be played between Railways and Mizoram.

Notes:
The India Child Well-Being Index is a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being through 3 dimensions of healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. The index has been prepared by NGOs World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. The researchers used a total of 24 indicators to create the score instead of just considering income poverty. The 24 indicators are divided into three categories: Healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. As per index, Kerala (0.76) has acquired the topped spot due to its exceptional performance in health, nutrition and education facilities. Tamil Nadu (0.67) bagged the 2nd spot, followed by Himachal Pradesh (0.67) . Though, Meghalaya (0.53), Jharkhand (0.50) and Madhya Pradesh (0.44) featured at the bottom of the index. Among the Union territories, Puducherry led the way with a score of 0.77 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli featured at the other end with a score of 0.52.

Notes:
On 30th August, the 2019 edition of Malayala Manorama New Conclave was held in Kochi. It is the Kerala’s first and only news conclave deals with the most contemporary and compelling theme―New India; New government; New aspirations; New challenges; New frontiers; New avenues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conclave via video-conference from New Delhi. During the conclave, discussions were held on varied topics like new Indian nationalist, politics, new boundaries of belief, youth, and opportunities for Kerala. On this occasion, Shashi Tharoor launched a language challenge on twitter – #LanguageChallenge – to help people learn one word each from languages other than their mother tongue. The initiative began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the media to unite India with the help of language.

Notes:
S Aswatha Narayana from Odisha has created history by becoming the first Indian to win gold at 45th World Skills competition 2019 in Kazan city of Russia. He bagged the gold in water technology in the competition that was held between August 23-27. He was also rewarded as ‘Best of Nation’ amongst the Indian competitors. Pranav Nutalapati from Karnataka won Silver in Web Technologies. While Sanjoy Pramanik from West Bengal and Shweta Ratanpura from Maharastra both won bronze in Jewellery and graphic design technology respectively. Shweta has also earned the distinction of being the only female candidate to win a medal for India at World Skills Kazan 2019. In all, a 48-member Indian team returned with the best-ever finish at the competition by winning 19 medals and Medallions of Excellence.

Notes:
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has launched Walk to Work on Wednesdays (WWW) campaign in the state. The campaign is a part of the nationwide Fit India Movement, which has been launched in the country by the Prime Minister. The idea of ‘walk to work’ will have multiple benefits like cost cutting of fuel including reduction of CO2 emission, reduction in congestion in the city and the most important “health and fitness” for the citizens.