Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
The 2019 edition of India and China joint military exercise titled “Hand-in-Hand” will be held in Umroi near Shillong, Meghalaya in December 2019. It will be a two-week exercise which will be based on counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. The exercise aims to build close relations between the armies of the two countries. It comes in the backdrop of situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has so far remained peaceful. It will be a company-level exercise, where around 120 troops from each side will be participating.

Notes:
Noted vocalist Dr. S Sowmya has been chosen for the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy and she will preside over 93rd annual conference of the Academy to be held between December 12, 2019, and January 1, 2020. A student of Dr. S. Ramanathan and T. Mukta, Ms. Sowmya equally excelled in her academic pursuit and obtained a doctorate from the Madras University. Beside her, Sangita Kala Acharya awards will go to vocalists Seetha Narayanan and M.S. Sheela. Nagaswaram player Vyasarpadi Kothandaraman and vocalist Rajkumar Bharathi will get the TTK awards while Aarti N. Rao will get the Musicologist Award. All awards will be conferred during the Sadas of the Academy on January 1. The Nritya Kalanidhi award for Dance will be conferred on Priyadarshini Govind at the inauguration of the dance festival on January 3, 2020.

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:
The Government of India (GoM) has reconstituted the Group of Ministers (GoM), under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, looking after the issues of how to prevent sexual harassment at workplace and strengthen legal frameworks. The other members of the reconstituted GoM are: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani. The GoM was set up to examine and give recommendations for strengthening the legal and institutional frameworks to deal with and prevent sexual harassment at workplace in October 2018.

Notes:
The Western Railway (WR) has opened the first-of-its-kind printing press heritage gallery of the Indian Railways at Mahalaxmi in Mumbai. With this, the Western Railway Mahalaxmi General Stores Depot (GSD) has become the first in Indian Railways to portray a heritage gallery of the printing and allied machines used in the Western Railway Printing Press since 1948, which are still in working condition. The GSD Mahalaxmi is spread over 12,171 sq meter area, which is a British-era single-storey building made with black stone having interiors made with wood, has its own beauty and uniqueness. The press came into existence in 1912 under the Greater Indian Peninsular Railway (GIP) Bombay, as the railway needed stationery and tickets to run the operations.

Notes:
In a first, the Goa government has decided to ply ‘water taxis’ in its inland waterways between Panaji and Old Goa. The announcement was made while tabling the performance budget of the River Navigation department (RND) for the financial year 2019-2020. The department also plans to upgrade existing ferry ramps and jetties and provide better facilities on all the ferry routes. The RND has a fleet of 34 ferry boats which cater to different inland routes, connecting islands to the mainstream areas. The Central government’s Sagarmala project has also funded reconstruction of 9 jetties in Goa. A flagship programme of the Ministry of Shipping, the Sagarmala project aims to promote port-led development by exploiting India’s 7,500 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and its strategic location on international maritime trade routes.

Notes:
Attoor Ravi Varma (88), the well-known poet and translator, has passed away in Thrissur, Kerala on July 26, 2019. He was considered as one of the pioneers of modern Malayalam poetry. He was recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Ashan Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, and Kendra Sahitya Academy Award. His poems ignored metre and used free verse. His major works include Kavitha; Attur Ravi Varmayude Kavithakal (1957-1994); Attur Ravi Varmayude Kavithakal (1995-2003); J.J. Chila Kurippukal; Oru Pulimarathinte Katha; Nale Mattoru Nal Matram; Randam Yamangalude Katha; and Puthunaanooru: Thamizh Kavithakalude Mozhimattam.

Notes:
In a bid to promote electric mobility, the GST Council has decided to reduce GST Rate on Electrical Vehicles from 12% to 5% and on charger or charging stations for Electric vehicles from 18% to 5%. The new rates will come into effect from the 1st of August 2019. The Council also approved an exemption from GST on the hiring of Electric Buses by local authorities. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held the meeting through video conferencing. This is the first GST Council meeting after the presentation of 2019 Union Budget in Parliament on 5th of July.

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:
The Ministry of Culture has recently announced to include the remaining languages from 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution — Nepali and Santhali in the Sub-Field of Field “Literature” in the scheme component ‘Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships to Outstanding Artistes in the Fields of Culture’. The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) of Dwarka is the nodal institute for handling the scheme of the fellowship till selection process. “Literary Arts” is one of the Fields under this Scheme where candidates can apply for research in 22 languages as their Sub-Field. These 22 languages include the following 20 languages from the 8th Schedule of Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution along with English and Khasi:- (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Bodo, (4) Dogri, (5) Gujarati, (6) Hindi, (7) Kannada, (8) Kashmiri, (9) Konkani, (10) Maithili, (11) Malayalam, (12) Manipuri, (13) Marathi, (14) Oriya, (15) Punjabi, (16) Sanskrit, (17) Sindhi (18) Tamil, (19) Telugu and (20) Urdu.