Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2019

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India Steel 2019 Exhibition and Conference has started in Mumbai on January 23. The three-day event organised by Ministry of Steel will help chart out the future growth path of the steel industry. The event will provide an opportunity for all the stakeholders to deliberate and identify ways to contribute towards building a robust roadmap for the further growth of the steel sector. Over 250 exhibiting companies from 15 countries, over 200 International buyers and large number of delegates are expected to hold business meetings during this event. More than 10 thousand business visitors both from India and abroad are expected to visit.

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Andry Rajoelina has been sworn-in as the new President of Madagascar after taking the oath of office in Antananarivo before 9 judges of the High Constitutional Court. He won the 2018 Malagasy presidential election with 56% of the vote.

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Team India skipper Virat Kohli has become the first player-ever in history to win all three of top ICC awards after being named captain of the ICC’s Test and ODI teams of 2018 for a fabulous run in international cricket. These are: the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards. Kohli scored 1,322 runs at an average of 55.08 in 13 Tests with five hundreds during the calendar year while in 14 ODIs he amassed 1202 runs at an astonishing average of 133.55 with six centuries. He also scored 211 runs in 10 T20Is. He also ended the year at No. 1 in both the rankings for Tests and ODIs. His performance was put into sharper context by the fact that India played most of their cricket in 2018 away from the subcontinent. Among the other major winners were Rishabh Pant, who was named the Emerging Cricketer of the Year. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena was named the Umpire of the Year, while New Zealand cricketer Kane Williamson won the Spirit of Cricket award.

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The Union Cabinet has approved recently the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Kuwait for cooperation on the recruitment of domestic workers. The MOU provides a structured framework for cooperation on domestic workers related matters and provides strengthened safeguards for Indian domestic workers including female workers deployed in Kuwait. The MOU is initially valid for a period of 5 years and incorporates provision for automatic renewal. Around three lakh Indian domestic workers deployed in Kuwait will benefit from the decision. The MOU will promote bilateral cooperation in domestic workers related matters between the two countries.

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India has been ranked 80th at the Global Talent Competitive Index (GTCI) 2019, according to a report released by INSEAD business school in partnership with Tata Communications and Adecco Group. It was released during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos on 22nd January 2019. The list is topped by Switzerland, followed by Singapore, the US, Norway and Denmark. According to the report, India’s biggest challenge is to improve its ability to attract and retain talent. Above all, there is a need to address its poor level of Internal Openness (116th) — in particular with respect to weak gender equality and low tolerance towards minorities and immigrants and its disappointing showing in lifestyle (112th) indicators. The survey measures how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent, ranking 125 countries and 114 cities across all groups of income and levels of development.

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India has been ranked at 54th position in the list of world’s most innovative countries, according to Bloomberg 2019 Innovative Index. It is for the first time that India has made it to the rankings. South Korea has topped the Index for the sixth time in a row with a total score of 87.38, followed by Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, Sweden, U.S., Japan and France in the top 10. The annual Bloomberg Innovation Index (BII) analyses dozens of criteria using seven metrics, including research and development spending, manufacturing capability and concentration of high-tech public companies. In the 2019 Index, India is among the new entrants from the world’s largest emerging economies with a total score of 47.93. Barring India, other nations include Mexico, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia also made a surprise entry. Bloomberg has published top 60 economies out of 95 economies analyzed for the ranking process for the year 2019. Each economy has been assigned a score from 0-100 on the basis of seven equal-weighted metrics.

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The Indian Africa Field Training Exercise (IAFTX-2019) will be conducted at Aundh Military Station and College of Military Engineering in Pune from March 18 to 27. The joint training exercise is being conducted with more than a dozen African countries and India to synergise humanitarian mine action and joint peace operations. The IAFTX-2019 is a positive step towards growing political and military ties with the member nations of African continent and will boost the already strong strategic cooperation between the countries.

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The Government of India (GoI) has recently instituted an annual award titled Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar. The award is to be announced every year on 23rd January on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. For the year 2019, 8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the award for its commendable work in Disaster Management. The Award recipient will receive a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh. The 8th Battalion of NDRF was raised in 2006 and is a highly specialised Rescue and Response Force with large area of responsibility covering National Capital Region (NCR), Uttarakhand, Western UP & Haryana. The battalion has participated in 314 major operations and rescued over 50,000 people. In the devastating Kerala floods in 2018, the battalion had rescued 5,338 victims and evacuated 24,000 people to safety. Other major disasters in which this NDRF battalion participated are Leh cloud burst (2011), Kedarnath floods (2013), cyclone Hudhud (2014), Chennai floods (2015) and Tripura floods (2018).

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The Union cabinet has approved the landmark amendment to Article 280 of the Constitution to increase the financial and executive powers of the 10 autonomous councils in the Sixth Schedule areas of the Northeast Region (NER). The amendment would impact a population of about 1 crore tribals living in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The Finance Commission would be mandated to recommend devolution of financial resources to the councils. Till now, the autonomous councils have depended on grants from Central Ministries and the State governments for specific projects. As per the proposed amendment, there will be State Election Commissions (SECs) for holding elections to the autonomous councils, village and municipal councils in the areas of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura. At least one third of the seats would be reserved for women in the village and municipal councils in the Sixth Schedule areas of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura. Here, Meghalaya has for the time being opted out of the provision for elected village and municipal councils and one-third reservation for women.

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ISRO has successfully launched a military satellite ‘Microsat-R’ and a student satellite ‘Kalamsat-V2’ into their designated orbits from PSLV-C44 launch vehicle. The launch was the 46th flight of the PSLV which lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. PSLV-C44 is the first flight of PSLV-DL, a new variant of PSLV with two strap-on motors. With this launch, India also becomes the first country to use the fourth stage of a space rocket as an orbital platform for microgravity experiments. The PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages.