Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
Indian Hockey Captain Manpreet Singh has been honoured with the 2018 Player of the Year award by the Asian Hockey Federation while women’s team striker Lalremsiami bagged the Rising Player of The Year prize. Manpreet led the Indian team to an unbeaten streak at the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat where the team was declared joint winners with Pakistan. He also contributed to the team’s silver medal win at the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda and continues to remain instrumental in the Indian midfield. The 18-year-old Lalremsiami put up an impressive performance as a striker at the 2018 World Cup. She was also a part of the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires where the under-18 team won a silver medal. The Indian men’s team was awarded the 2018 Best Performance of The Year for being the only Asian side to have reached the top eight at the World Cup in Bhubaneswar.

Notes:
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been elected third time unopposed as the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The elections of the office bearers and executive committee members of WFI for the next four-year term (2019-2023) were held at the Constitution Club of India (CCI). Along with Brij Bhushan, I.D. Nanavati has been elected as the Senior Vice President, V.N. Prasood as the Secretary General and Satyapal Singh Deshwal as the Treasurer. Singh, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Kaiserganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh, was the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang.

Notes:
On 24th February 2019, Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey rolled out “National Action Plan – Viral Hepatitis” to eliminate viral hepatitis at Mumbai in presence of Amitabh Bachchan, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in South-East Asia Region. The aim of the programme is to combat hepatitis and achieve countrywide elimination of Hepatitis C by 2030. The programme is also in line with the country’s global commitment towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3. India has affirmed this commitment at the 69th World Health Assembly. Viral hepatitis is a global public health problem that kills nearly 2.72 lakh people annually. It is an inflammatory condition of the liver caused by five known hepatitis viruses — A, B, C , D and E. Of these, B and C are known to cause 96% mortality. India is one of the few countries to roll out management of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in a public health approach and offer free diagnostics and drugs lifelong to its beneficiaries.

Notes:
The first-ever Skill Saathi Youth Conclave has inaugurated by Union Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Rail Auditorium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The program aims to create a mass movement around skill development in the state and inspire youth to make the most of various skill development opportunities in the country. The conclave was aired live across 427 locations in Odisha, where more than 2 lakh candidates were mobilized for career counseling under Skill Saathi initiative. The initiative provides information on vocational training programs under Skill India mission, conduct psychometric test and provide face-to-face counselling interventions to guide aspirants to make the right choice of based on their interest and aptitude.

Notes:
In Chess, Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta lifted the 2019 Cannes International Open trophy with 7.5 points. He took an easy draw with Pier Luigi Basso of Italy in the ninth and final round. It was a clear point lead over nearest rivals Nikita Maiorov of Belarus, Nasuta Grzegorz of Poland and Yuri Solodovnichecko of Ukraine.

Notes:
Leg-spinner Rashid Khan claimed a hat-trick and became the first-ever bowler to bag four wickets in four deliveries in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) on February 17, 2019. Rashid’s impressive bowling performance in the third and final T20I also helped Afghanistan sweep the T20I series by a margin of 3-0 against Ireland in Dehradun. With this feat, Rashid also became the 7th bowler in the T20I history to bag a hat-trick and in the process also completed his second five-wicket haul in the format. Overall, Khan became the 2nd bowler in the history of the sport to do so in international cricket after Sri Lankan veteran Lasith Malinga pick up 4 wickets in 4 balls. Malinga achieved the milestone during the 2007 Cricket World Cup against South Africa.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh government has again declared Monkeys as vermin for the next one year in 11 districts’ 91 tehsils and sub-tehsils of state. Monkeys were declared as a vermin species because have been adversely affecting crops and causing harm to humans. Hence, this allows state forest authorities and people to carry out extermination (hunting/poaching) of monkeys on a large scale. Vermin are wild mammals and birds that are harmful to crops, farm animals or that carry disease. As per Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, States can send a list of wild animals to the Centre requesting it to declare them vermin for selective slaughter. The Central Government may by notification, declare any wild animal other than those specified in Schedule I and part 11 of Schedule H of the law to be vermin for any area for a given period of time. As long as the notification is in force such wild animal shall be included in Schedule V of the law, depriving them of any protection under that law.

Notes:
On 27th Feb, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the National Youth Parliament Festival (NYPF-2019) awards to the winners at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The winners from the national level competition were Shweta Umre from Maharshtra (Ist Position), Anjanakshi M.S from Karnataka (IInd position) and Mamta Kumari from Bihar (IIIrd position). The 2019 fest was jointly organized by National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), under the aegis of Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. Youth in the age bracket of 18-25 years were invited to participate in the District, State and National level Youth Parliaments. The fest was based on the theme of ‘Be the Voice of New India’ and ‘Find solutions and Contribute to Policy’. It provided a chance to the youth to brainstorm about new India and to find ways and chalk out plans to realize our resolves before 2022.

Notes:
In Rajasthan, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has recently inaugurated the ‘Titanwala Museum’ in Bagru that showcases the Chhipa community’s hand-block printing. The museum will be open from Monday to Sunday between 9 am and 6 pm. The Bagru hand-block printing is one of the traditional techniques of printing with natural colour followed by the chippas of a remote place of Rajasthan. It uses vegetable dye colors such as indigo/dabu (a mixture of mud resist dabu and indigo dip dyeing techniques) and harda (which is a yellow base color). The art of block printing is a labor intensive process which requires lot of skillfulness, time and tolerance power of artisan. The wooden blocks of teak-wood are used for printing the design which are soaked in oil overnight and then washed before put to use. These collections of block are considered to be the wealth of Chhipa’s that they have collected over a period of time. The cloth to be printed is soaked in the solution of clay and other chemicals to make the fabric soften and then dried before used for printing. Neat stamping is foremost to get the appealing prints.After printing, cloth is left for drying in sun for final touch-up. Different types of motifs used in Bagru printing are Aath Kaliya, Chopad, and Kamal.

Notes:
The World Day of Social Justice is observed every year on February 20 to recognize the need to promote efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion and unemployment. The day focuses on the plight of social injustice throughout the world and presses for improvements and solutions. The 2019 theme is “If You Want Peace & Development, Work for Social Justice”.