Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
Two-time Olympic gold medal winning Hockey Player Keshav Dutt and former India Football Captain Prasun Banerjee has been chosen for 2019 Mohun Bagan Ratna. This is the first time that the club is conferring the award on a sportsperson from a discipline other than football. Dutt (93) was part of the team that won gold in the 1948 (London) and 1952 (Helsinki) Olympics. Prasun was a prominent midfielder of his times. He played in three Asian Games in 1974, 1978 and 1982 and was part of an Asian All Star XI team. The Best Footballer for the 2018-19 will be given to Arijit Bagui. Mohun Bagan will also felicitate pacer Mohammed Shami, India’s hat-trick hero of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, while footballer Ashok Chatterjee will be given the Lifetime Achievement award. The Mariners will also give Life Memberships to Sourav Ganguly, ChuniGoswami, Dr Vece Paes, Prasenjit Chatterjee and Deb Shankar Halder. The awards will be given away on Mohun Bagan Day on July 29. July 29 is celebrated as the ‘Mohun Bagan Day’ because on this day in 1911, the Mariners became the first club to defeat a British club, East Yorkshire Regiment, and lift the IFA Shield.

Notes:
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal government has decided to bring legislation in the Assembly for ensuring the job security of Journalists in the State. The legislation aims at social security of Journalist. Besides, it will deal with the issues of retrenchment of Journalists and closure of TV channels and Newspapers publication houses.

Notes:
The students at the IIT Madras have developed a smart agricopter to eliminate manual spraying of pesticides in agricultural fields and help identify crop health by using a imaging camera. The innovation will allow spraying pesticides 10 times faster and with 100% precision at the same cost as manual spraying. The current version of Project Smart Agricopter is a hexacopter drone with the capacity to carry 15 liters of pesticide.

Notes:
Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and London Mayor, has officially took over the charge as new British Prime Minister after Theresa May handed in her resignation to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He promised to leave the European Union (EU) on 31st October 2019 under a “new deal, a better deal” with the 28-member economic bloc. Mr Johnson is expected to use the opportunity to increase the number of women in full cabinet positions and boost the representation of ethnic minorities.

Notes:
Ehsan Mania, the current Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has been appointed chief of the ICC’s influential Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA). The move may not be music to Indian board’s (BCCI) ears. The fear within the Indian cricket circles is that it could pit India against Pakistan in the corridors of the game’s administration in the near future. F&CA is one of the ICC’s most important committees & is responsible for designing budgets for ICC events and distributing money to its member countries.

Notes:
The third edition of Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG-2020) is scheduled to be held in Guwahati, Assam from 18th January 2020. The Games will see participation of more than 10,000 athletes and officials. It will be conducted in partnership with Indian Olympic Association (IOA), School Games Federation of India & Assam as host State. The first edition was held in New Delhi, while Pune hosted the 2nd one in 2019.

Notes:
The World Hepatitis Day (WHD) is observed every year on 28rd of July to raise awareness about the disease which causes inflammation of the liver and claims around 1.4 million lives every year. The date of 28 July was chosen because it is the birthday of Nobel-prize winning scientist Dr Baruch Blumberg, who discovered hepatitis B virus (HBV) and developed a diagnostic test and vaccine for the virus. The host country for WHD 2019 is Pakistan and the theme for this year is “Invest in eliminating hepatitis“. Hepatitis is preventable, treatable, and in the case of hepatitis C, curable. However, over 80% of people living with hepatitis are lacking prevention, testing and treatment services.

Notes:
After nearly four decades, Chandigarh has finally received affiliation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Now, the city can also have its own team in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic tournaments organised by the BCCI. This was stated by Union Territory Cricket Association (UTCA) President Sanjay Tandon. Following the development, Chandigarh cricketers, who were earlier forced to represent Punjab or Haryana to be able to play at the national or international level, can now directly represent the city. UTCA was registered in 1982 and since then various attempts were made to get the affiliation. Delhi is the only other Union Territory with BCCI affiliation.

Notes:
Six-time world champion & Olympic bronze medallist, MC Mary Kom claimed gold in the 51kg category at the 23rd President’s Cup by defeating Australia’s April Franks by 5-0. She asserted her supremacy in a lop-sided 51kg bout final in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. The 36-year-old Indian had also won a gold medal at the India Open boxing tournament in May 2019. She is looking to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the World Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The 2019 World Boxing Championships for women will be held from September 7 to 21.

Notes:
The 22nd National Conference on e-Governance 2019 will be held with the theme “Digital India: Success to Excellence” on 8-9th August 2019 at Shillong, Meghalaya. It is being organized by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), in association with Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the State Government of Meghalaya. This is the first time that the event is being organized in the North-Eastern region of the country. The conference will provide a platform to disseminate knowledge on effective methods of designing and implementing sustainable e-Governance initiatives to provide end-to-end Digital services, exchange experience in solving problems, mitigating risks, resolving issues and planning for success. The Conference at Shillong is part of the DARPG’s 100 days initiatives in the new Union Government. 28 States and 8 Union Territories will participate in the 22nd National e-Governance Conference. Over 450 delegates are expected to attend the Conference.