Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has recently launched the new ‘Africa Centre for Climate and Sustainable Development’ in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and FAO to fight climate change and boost sustainable development in Africa. The centre will provide a fast-track, demand-driven mechanism for African countries to access grant resources that support policies, initiatives, and best practices on climate change, food security, access to water, clean energy, and accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. The Africa Centre has its roots in a declaration endorsed by the G7 meeting of the Environment Ministers in 2017. The new centre is established to facilitate coordination among the G7 and African countries on common initiatives in Africa to develop and scale-up innovative solutions for sustainable development, and to achieve the goals set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

Notes:
Global watchdog Transparency International (TI) has recently released 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. Here, India has improved its ranking and jumped three positions to 78th with a CPI score of 41 at the 2018 index. Denmark has topped the index with 88 points, followed by New Zealand (with 87 points) and Finland with 85. Sudan was the worst with a score of 10 points, while Somalia and Syria followed it up with 13 points each. Overall, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50 in the 2018 CPI, with an average score of only 43. The 2018 index revealed that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world. While there are exceptions, the data shows that despite some progress, most countries are failing to make serious inroads against corruption.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has been awarded the Carnot prize for his contribution towards sustainable energy solutions by the team of University of Pennsylvania on January 30. The award recognizes Goyal’s tenure as minister of power in which he is credited to have reformed the electricity sector and extended access to electricity to 18,000 villages, as documented by the International Energy Agency (IEA). He was to be awarded the prize by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Design in October 2018. But, he had to skip the event because of the Amritsar tragedy in which over 60 people died after being mowed down by a train.

Notes:
Germany, France and the UK have officially set up a payment channel with Iran called INSTEX, to help continue trade and circumvent US sanctions. The long-awaited special payment system will help save the Iran nuclear deal by allowing Tehran to keep trading with EU companies despite Washington re-imposing sanctions after US President Donald Trump abruptly quit the accord in 2018. The three countries have launched the device at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania. The new institution ‘INSTEX’ is a project of the three governments and will receive the formal endorsement of all 28 EU members. The Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) is registered in France and will be headed by German banker Per Fischer, a former Commerzbank director.

Notes:
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has been renamed as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade with a mandate to deal with matters related to start-ups, facilitating ease of doing business among others. The move comes amidst demand by traders’ body CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) for forming a separate ministry for internal trade. The newly-named department under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry will look into matters related to promotion of internal trade, including retail trade, welfare of traders and their employees, facilitating ease of doing business and start-ups. Earlier, the matters related to internal trade were under the domain of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

Notes:
A team from INS Dronacharya has won the Regetta trophy (also called The Cock) in the Kochi Area Pulling Regatta 2019 of the Southern Naval Command (SNC) in the Ernakulam Channel on January 31. The Boat Pulling regatta is one of the most prestigious and traditional naval sporting activities conducted in the Navy. The boats used in the regatta are 27-feet-long ‘whalers’ — a type of seaboat — each having a crew of five ‘pullers’ (rowers) and one coxswain (helm). The boats are named as ‘whalers’ as they were used in ancient times for hunting whales at sea. Races during the regatta were held in four different categories – – junior sailors, senior sailors, officers and best whaler. The boats had to cover a distance of 1.6 km in the Ernakulam Channel, starting from the Venduruthy-Vikrant Bridge and finishing at the North Jetty of the navy. The regatta is considered a signature event of the Command, which requires the highest standards of physical and mental fitness and sustained hard work.

Notes:
The 12th edition of the India’s premier air show – Aero India 2019 will be held at Air Force Station at Yelahanka in Bengaluru from February 20 to 24. The Ministry of Defence has lined up programmes for Start-Ups Day, Women’s Day, Daily Students’ Day, Drone Olympics and photography contests as sideshows to make it an interactive affair. More than 350 exhibitors will be accommodated in five hangers at the Air Force Station. This year, the aero show is themed ‘The Runway to a Billion Opportunities’, to communicate India’s value proposition in addressing the immense opportunities in the aerospace and aviation sectors in the country today. The logo for Aero India 2019 is inspired by the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Notes:
In Tamil Nadu, the 37th edition of the ICT Academy Bridge 2019 conference was held in Chennai with theme “Fostering India for Industry 4.0″. The event brought together industry experts, academic leaders and government policy-makers to address the challenges faced by India Inc. in the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution & therefore creating a correlated education ecosystem and formulating a strategic regulatory framework. It is the largest Industry-Institute Interaction Event of Asia and is organized by ICT Academy. The city witnessed more than 1,000 participants from government, industry and academia.

Notes:
Manipur-based filmmaker and music composer Aribam Syam Sharma has decided to return his 2006 Padma Shri award in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that the Centre wants to push through. The 83-year-old filmmaker made the decision after families of around 855 martyrs of the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation of 1979-85 returned the citation that the Sarbananda Sonowal government had given them in 2016. The government had also honored these families with Rs 5 lakh each for the sacrifice of the martyrs. The protests have rocked the entire northeast against the proposal to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries. The film fraternity of the region backed the decision of Manipur filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma to return his Padma Shri in protest against the bill. The Bill seeks to fast-track the process of granting citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who came to India till December 31, 2014, allegedly because of religious persecution.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government has set up a 17-member committee to review various schemes being implemented for the welfare of tribals in the state. The committee will be headed by former MLA and Shramjeevi Sanghatna president Vivek Pandit. The panel will undertake the study of various works done for providing employment opportunities, minimum wages and proper livelihood to tribals. As per a recent government order, the committee will suggest measures to ensure that children in tribal regions were not deprived of education. The committee will hold its meetings every three months and submit its recommendations to the government.