Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
Arvind Kumar, a 1984 batch IPS officer from Assam- Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as the new chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Kumar is considered an expert on Kashmir, with specialisation in counter-terrorism and is said to have been closely involved in tackling Left-wing extremism at the IB. He also holds charge as the special director of Kashmir in the intelligence agency. Kumar succeeded Rajiv Jain as IB chief, who completed his tenure of two and half years. IB is India’s internal intelligence agency and is headquartered at New Delhi.

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 first-ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) will be held in New Delhi between 11th to 13th October. The initiative is a part of the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 which aims at doubling the agriculture export and integrating Indian farmers and agriculture products with global value chains. The Trade Fair is aimed at promoting cooperative to cooperative trade within the country and abroad leading to enhanced rural and farm prosperity. The fair offers a huge opportunity for the industry and business houses from India and abroad to build alliances, product sourcing and interact with the primary producers of a wide range of products and service providers.

Notes:
Santosh Rana (76), the veteran Naxalite leader, has passed away in Kolkata on June 29, 2019. He is one of the foremost leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and a major thinker on caste, class and tribal politics in West Bengal and winner of a top literary award in the State. The CPI-ML (PCC) was one of the very first Naxalite groups to participate in elections. Under his leadership, CPI-ML (PCC) was active in parts of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. It played a significant role in opposing the CPI-M led government during the Nandigram land agitation, which contributed to the electoral debacle of the Left Front in West Bengal. He argued in his award-winning autobiography, Rajnitir Ek Jibon [A Life in Politics], that the Left in India made a huge mistake as they never analysed and responded to the caste question.

Notes:
The book titled “A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief” has been authored by former Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar. The book is about the huge impact that the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had on the armed forces of India. The author called Kargil as the finest hour of Vajpayee . He credits Vajpayee for turning the strategic tactical loss into a massive victory and for which he gave full credit to the Armed Forces. Admiral Kumar was the Navy Chief between 1998 and 2001 and oversaw the Kargil conflict in 1999.

Notes:
A team of herpetologists from the Forest Department and two NGOs — Help Earth and Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) have discovered the Impressed Tortoise (Manouria impressa) in Yazali area of the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the first-ever recorded sighting in India of this tortoise which is on a red list of threatened species. Chelonian is an order of reptile that includes turtles, terrapins and tortoises. The male Impressed Tortoise is smaller than the female which is 30 cm in length. This Manouria species is one-third the size of the Asian Forest Tortoise. There are only two species of tortoises under the Manouria genus. India was known to be the home of only the Asian Forest Tortoise (Manouria emys) until the discovery of the Impressed Tortoise. The Asian Forest Tortoise, the largest in mainland Asia, is found only in the northeast, as are 20 of the other 28 species of chelonians.

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:
Manoj Kumar Nambiar, MD of Arohan Financial Services (AFS), has been elected as new chairman of Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN). The MFIN is an industry association consists of 56 NBFC-MFIs (Non Banking Financial Company-Micro Finance Institutions) and 40 associates including Banks, SFBs (Small Finance Banks ) and NBFCs. It is also the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) for the regulated NBFC-MFI.

Notes:
The South Central Railway (SCR) has recently commissioned the longest electrified tunnel of 6.6 km built at a total cost of Rs 460 crore between Cherlopalli and Rapuru stations. The tunnel is part of the 113-km new railway line completed recently between Obulavaripalli– Venkatachalam – Krishnapatnam Port. The electrified tunnel is constructed in the shape of ‘Horse Shoe’ on New Australian Tunnelling Method. The height of the tunnel (rail level to roof) is 6.5 metres and the minimum height of the contact wire is maintained at 5.2 metres. The new line would facilitate direct and viable connectivity between South Coast and West Coast Railway and improve freight revenue of the zone.

Notes:
The book titled ”War over Words: Censorship in India, 1930-1960” has been authored by Devika Sethi, who teaches modern Indian history at IIT-Mandi. The book explores the diverse mechanisms and motivations for censorship and its role in the shaping of the modern Indian republic. It looks at state censorship in India in the transition period from colonial to national rule, when historical actors behaved in unpredictable ways. The book is divided into four parts – Guarding the State, Protecting the Public: Censorship Policies and Practices in the 1930s; Protests and Publicity: Banning Non-Indian Authors; Political or Military? Censorship in India during the Second World War; and The Censored Turn Censors: Freedom and Free Speech.