Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2019

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently released its biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) update at the World Economic Forum (WEF-2019) in Davos. In it, IMF estimates India’s economic growth at 7.3% in 2018-19, 7.5% in 2019-20 and 7.7% in 2020-21. With the latest outlook, India will remain the fastest-growing economy in the world, at least for the next two years. The IMF report stated that India’s economy is poised to pick up in 2019, benefiting from low oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening than previously expected as inflation pressures ease. The latest growth projection by the IMF is a tad higher than the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) estimate of 7.2%, but lower than the RBI’s estimate of 7.4%. But it is in line with the World Bank’s estimate of 7.3%.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government has approved a proposal to grant 5% quota to the Kapu community in the state, after the Central Government recently passed a Bill to provide 10% reservation to Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) from the general category in jobs and education. The decision to ensure that half of the quota under the EBC category be reserved for upper caste Kapus was taken after a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The Kapus are primarily an agrarian community based in the Andhra-Telangana region. It is one of the dominant caste groups with political influence in the state. The Kapu community comprises nearly 26% of the state’s five crore people.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards for the year 2017 have been announced on 23rd January 2019. In it, ‘Nireeswaran’ by V.J. James has been adjudged the best novel of 2017, while Aymanam John’s Ethara Characharangalude Charitra Pusthakam has secured the award for the best short story. Mindaprani, written by Veerankutty, is the best poetry. The award is given each year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy) to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit.

Notes:
Atin Bandyopadhyay (85), the renowned Bengali writer, has passed away in Kolkata on 19th January, 2019. Born in 1934 in Dhaka, he had taken up various jobs as a sailor, school teacher, factory manager, journalist to finally became a writer. He won the 2001 Sahitya Akademi award for his compilation of short stories ‘Panchashati Galpo’. His masterpiece is considered to be a four-part tetralogy on the Partition: “Nilkantha Pakhir Khonje”, ”Manusher Gharbari”, “Aloukik Jalajan” and “Ishwarer Bagan”.

Notes:
Naomi Osaka from Japan has won the women’s singles 2019 Australian Open Tennis Tournament. She beat Czech Petra Kvitova in a seesaw Australian Open final by 7-6 (7-2) 5-7 6-4 to win back-to-back Grand Slams and become the new World No.1. Osaka is known for her multi-ethnic background and her shy, candid personality. On the court, she has an aggressive playing style with a powerful serve.

Notes:
Jayant Kaikini, renowned Kannada poet short-story writer, columnist and playwright and lyricist, has won the prestigious 2018 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for ‘No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories’ at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet. The novel is a collection of short stories set in Mumbai dating back to the 1980s. It offers a fine-grained, ground-up view of arguably India’s greatest metropolis. The book was originally written in the southern Indian language of Kannada and translated into English by the award-winning translator Tejaswini Niranjana. The $25,000 (£19,100) prize rewards the best writing about south Asian culture from writers of any ethnicity and from all over the world, will be split equally between author and translator. It will be split equally between author and translator. No Presents Please is the first work in translation to win the award in the prize’s eight-year history.

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry signed an agreement with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for India’s Participation in Programme for International Student Assessment- PISA 2021. The student assessment by PISA will ensure learning outcome through education. Students will be selected by PISA through random sampling. The format for the student assessment will be offline and the question to Indian students will be related to India’s perspective only. The PISA test will help reveal where they stand globally as far as learning outcomes are concerned. PISA is a triennial international survey in which students are assessed in reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem-solving. The purpose of the survey is to evaluate the education system worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. The CBSE and NCERT will be part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.

Notes:
The Ministry of Defence launched a mobile app ‘RDP India 2019’ to let people watch highlights of the 70th Republic Day event all over the world. This app contains information about the Parade on Rajpath, New Delhi, including Order of the March, details of the tableaux presented by different States and Ministries, children cultural performances, fly past and names of recipients of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019. It was extremely informative to the spectators witnessing the Parade and was widely appreciated. The app also had the provision for live streaming of the Parade. People who desire to know the theme and ideas depicted in the tableaux and also those who for some reason could not witness the Parade on Rajpath or watch it on TV, can still download the app and gather all information about the event. This new initiative is in sync with the Digital India campaign of the Government.

Notes:
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Atal Setu — the third Cable bridge across river Mandovi in Panaji, Goa. The new bride is four-lane and 5.1Km long, and is expected to overcome the bottlenecks and curb traffic jams at Panaji Circle and Panaji entrance. It is constructed by the GIDC (Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation) and engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro. This is the third bridge across Mandovi River. It is named as ATAL SETU in memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpeyee.