Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
India has notified a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Marshall Islands, which enables a bilateral sharing of banking & ownership information and allows officials of one country to undertake tax examinations in the other. The TIEA for exchange of information with respect to taxes was signed on March 18, 2016 at Majuro, the Capital of the Marshall Islands. India notified the TIEA on May 21, 2019. The TIEA is based on international standards of tax transparency and exchange of information and enables sharing of information on request. The agreement will enhance mutual cooperation between India and the Marshall Islands by providing an effective framework for exchange of information on tax matters which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance. The Marshall Islands are a sprawling chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and the Philippines.

Notes:
The Delhi Metro has become the India’s first-ever project to receive power generated from a waste-to-energy plant. According to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the project is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Swachh Bharat Mission”. This will also help in creating awareness on the importance of waste management and utilizing waste in a sustainable manner. The DMRC has started receiving 2 MW power from a 12 MW capacity plant in Ghazipur. The DMRC will take approximately 17.5 million units per annum from this plant. However, the energy off-take will depend upon the actual generation of the plant. The waste-to-energy plant set up by East Delhi Waste Processing Company Limited (EDWPCL) is based on a public private partnership (PPP) involving the Delhi government, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and EDWPCL. The waste-to-energy plant will mitigate over 8 million tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) over the life of the project.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently reconstituted the federal policy think-tank National Institution of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog by introducing key Cabinet ministers as members as ex-officio members. Defence minister Rajnath Singh, Home minister Amit Shah, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar are now ex-officio members of the think tank that is headed by Mr. Modi. Rajiv Kumar will continue to be the vice-chairperson, along with full time members—Ramesh Chand, VK Saraswat and VK Paul.On 15th June 2019, Prime Minister will chair the 5th meeting of NITI Aayog’s Governing Council to discuss various issues concerning water management, agriculture and security. The council includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of union territories, several union ministers and senior government officials. This will be the first governing council meeting under the new Modi government. NITI Aayog was constituted via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on 1st January 2015 & replaced the erstwhile planning commission.

Notes:
The Sinai Peninsula is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Africa. Recently, it is in news because the Egyptian security forces has killed 14 suspected militants during a raid carried out in the restive Sinai Peninsula in response to a deadly checkpoint attack. The Islamic State extremist group had claimed responsibility for attack in which 8 Egyptian police officers have been killed in a militant attack on a checkpoint in the northern Sinai peninsula. The attack took place west of the city of El-Arish, as local people celebrated the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr on 5th June 2019.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has recently signed a deal worth around Rs 300 crore for buying more than 100 SPICE bombs from Israel. The IAF fighter jets used these bombs to target Jaish-e-Mohammed training camps in Pakistan’s Balakot on 26th February 2019 after the ghastly Pulwama terror attack in which over 44 CRPF jawans lost their lives after a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden SUV into the convoy which was passing from the area. As per the contract, the advanced SPICE bombs would be delivered to the Air Force in the next 3 months as the deal is under emergency powers. SPICE bomb has a standoff range of 60 km and approaches the target as its unique scene-matching algorithm compares the electro-optical image received in real-time via the weapon seeker with mission reference data stored in the weapon computer memory and adjusts the flight path accordingly. Israeli defence firm Rafael Advanced Defence Systems manufactures the weapon.

Notes:
Former President Jimmy Carter will be bestowed with the George H. W. Bush Award for Statesmanship for his contributions to relations between the U.S. and China. A private award ceremony is scheduled June 12 at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The George H. W. Bush Foundation has said that the award goes to people who have made profound contributions to the development of constructive and mutually beneficial relations” between the U.S and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Notes:
The first-ever World Food Safety Day (WFSD) has officially celebrated on 7th June 2019 to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe. The theme of this year’s inaugural WFSD ‘Food Safety, everyone’s business’ invites us to recognize that food safety is everyone’s business. The day gives us an opportunity to share the outcomes of the two food safety conferences, discuss ways in which food safety can incentivize healthy diets, and discuss how the United Nations in New York can further support the efforts to improve food safety. The day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in December 2018. The UN has designated two of its agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – to lead efforts in promoting food safety around the world.

Notes:
Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has recently launched the ‘Pink Sarathi’ vehicles to attend to the complaints of women passengers travelling in city buses. The vehicles are procured by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) under the ‘Nirbhaya’ scheme. The corporation had received Rs 56.07 crore from the Union government under the scheme and had taken up various measures for the safety of women passengers, including the launch of Pink Sarathi vehicles.

Notes:
In Tennis, World No. 2 Rafael Nadal has lifted the French Open Men’s Singles title for the 12th time. In the summit clash played at Paris on June 9, he defeated Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to win at the Roland Garros for the third straight year. Hence, Nadal became the first player to win 12 Singles titles at the same Grand Slam and has now won 18 majors overall. Nadal is now just two titles behind Roger Federer’s all-time record of 20 majors and is three ahead of world number one Novak Djokovic. Nadal also took his Paris record to an astonishing 93 wins and just two losses. The win also gave Nadal an 82nd career title and 950th match win.

Notes:
Crazy Mohan (67), prominent theatre artiste and ace scriptwriter for Tamil films, has passed away in Chennai on 10th June 2019. Born in 1952, as Mohan Rangachari, ‘Crazy’ was an epithet that he acquired after his popular play ‘Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam’. An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing stage plays and established his own drama troupe called “Crazy Creations” in 1979. He entered the film industry after a long and successful career as a theatre personality. He penned the scripts for several super hit films, including Kamal Haasan-starrer “Avvai Shanmugi”, “Vasool Raja MBBS”, and “Michael Madhana Kamarajan”, besides acting in many.