Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
For the 2019 kharif season, the West Bengal government has rolled out a free crop insurance scheme in collaboration with the Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC). The scheme called Bangla Shashya Bima (BSB) is applicable for farmers in 15 districts – Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Purba Medinipur, Malda, Hooghly, Nadia, Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Purulia, Dakshin Dinajpur, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas. The crop insurance scheme would be free of cost for the farmers since the government will pay the full premium. The crops that will come under insurance are aman paddy, aus paddy, jute and maize. All farmers taking loans (granted or applied for) and even those not taking loans can avail of the insurance. The insurance will be paid in four stages – for any losses suffered during planting, during cultivation, during the period post-cutting when crops are lying in the field, and for adverse weather situations. The amount will be decided by the state government and will be calculated per hectare.

Notes:
Abburi Chaya Devi (86), the popular Telugu fiction writer, has passed away in Hyderabad on June 28, 2019. Born on 13th October 1933 in Andhra Pradesh, she was active in literary circles since the fifties and even in her 70s, was still known as a creative feminist writer. She highlighted the cause of women in her writings & received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for her book ‘Thana Margam’. Chaya Devi is the wife of the late Abburi Varada Rajeswara Rao, who himself was a writer, critic and former Chairman of Official Languages Commission (OFC). Her works are Anaga Anaga (folk stories for children), Abburi Chayadevi Kathalu (short stories), 1991, Mrityunjaya (long story),1993 Tana Margam (short stories about the exploitation of women in the guise of family bonds).

Notes:
The book titled ‘The New Delhi Conspiracy’ has been authored by Meenakshi Lekhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Delhi and a Supreme Court lawyer. It is co-authored by Krishna Kumar and is slated for release on July 8. The debut novel talks about undercurrents of Delhi’s political landscape and attempts to lay bare what is influencing the course of the nation’s political trajectory. The book talks of a malicious man with a dangerous agenda, an assassin on a diabolical mission, a courageous politician on a treacherous trail and a conspiracy that will shake the nation.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh government has launched massive door to door campaign “DASTAK” against Acute Encephellitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephallitis (JE) disease. The campaign, which was launched in association with UNICEF, will run from 1st to 31st July. Under this state-wide campaign teams will go door to door in every village of the 75 districts of the state to create awareness about the communicable diseases as well as JE and AES. In this massive campaign, many departments of the state especially health, rural development, primary education will work together to spread awareness about the diseases through mass media communication and will ensure availability of clean drinking water, initiate sanitation drive, ensure vaccination and early treatment so that disease should be nipped in the bud.

Notes:
Dr. Narinder Batra, President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA), has been elected as a member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) during the IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. Batra now has a rare distinction of becoming a member of the IOC, while heading a National Olympic Committee (NOC) as well as an international federation. He is the first Indian to have this distinction. He has already become the first Indian to head an international federation of an Olympic sport — that of International Hockey Federation (FIH). With the election of Batra, the number of Indians who are currently active members of IOC will rise to two. Reliance Foundation Chairperson Nita Ambani was elected as an individual member of the IOC in 2016. She is the first Indian woman to be elected to the prestigious seat.

Notes:
The autobiography titled “Lessons Life Taught Me, Unknowingly” has been authored by Bollywood actor Anupam Kher i.e. set to hit stands on 5 August. It is a story of a small town boy who dared to dream. It is a story about hope, disappointments, success, failures and eternal optimism. The book will be an extraordinary, riveting and no-holds-barred saga in which Kher will make some behind-the-scenes revelations, and share anecdotes and rare nuggets from his life and the lessons it taught him. He has over 530 films in several languages, both in India and the West, 100 plays and numerous TV shows to his credit. He is a winner of two National awards, 8 Filmfare awards and a BAFTA nomination. He is also a recipient of the Padma Shree and Padma Bhushan awards.

Notes:
Indian middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu from Andhra Pradesh retired from all forms of cricket on July 3, 2019. He did not specify reasons for calling it quits. He was in India’s official standbys list for the on-going World Cup but was omitted twice. Rayudu played 55 ODIs for India, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05. However, he did not play any Test.

Notes:
The United Nations’s Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day (MSME) Day is observed every year on 27 June to raise public awareness of their contribution to sustainable development. These types of enterprises are responsible for significant employment and income generation opportunities across the world and have been identified as a major driver of poverty alleviation and development. MSMEs tend to employ a larger share of the vulnerable sectors of the workforce, such as women, youth, and people from poorer households. MSMEs can even sometimes be the only source of employment in rural areas. The 2019 theme is ‘Big Money For Small Business: Financing the SDGs’.

Notes:
The state of Maharashtra achieved first rank in NITI Aayog launched “Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index (AMFFRI). The index ranks states based on the degree of reforms they have undertaken in agricultural marketing. Gujarat ranked second with a score of 71.5 out of 100, closely followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. NITI Aayog launched an index to rank States and UTs based on implementation of seven provisions proposed under model APMC Act like joining e-NAM initiative, special treatment to fruits and vegetables for marketing and level of taxes in mandis. These indicators reveal ease of doing agribusiness as well as opportunities for farmers to benefit from modern trade and commerce and have wider option for sale of her/his produce. These indicators also represent competitiveness, efficiency and transparency in agri markets.

Notes:
The Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK) is the first and the only Indian manufacturing plant to be included in the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) of World Economic Forum (WEF). The lighthouses are chosen for their leadership in applying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to drive financial and operational impact. The factories were selected based on their success in integrating these technologies to increase efficiency and drive innovation. Tata Steel’s IJmuiden plant at Netherlands is already a member of this network. The TSK steel plant is the largest single-location greenfield steel project in India and is located at Jajpur district in Odisha.