Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
Sunil Chhetri has become the India’s highest capped footballer by surpassing Bhaichung Bhutia’s 107 international matches. In his milestone match of the King’s Cup football tournament in Buriram, Thailand, he scored the lone goal for his side in the 31st minute from a spot kick for his 69th goal. However, his effort did not make any difference as India ranked 101, lost 1-3 to higher ranked Curacao. The 82nd ranked Caribbean island nation has two players associated with English Premier League and some others in European leagues. They scored three goals in the space of 18 minutes through Roly Bonevacia, Elson Hooi and Leandro Bacuna.

Notes:
China has successfully launched a space rocket from sea for the first time and became the third nation to successfully demonstrate the ability to launch satellites into orbit from a floating platform after Russia and United States. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced that a Long March 11 rocket was launched from a floating launch pad in the Yellow Sea just off the coast of Shandong on 5th June 2019. China now spends more than Russia and Japan on its civil and military space programmes. Earlier this year, China became the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon. It also unveiled ambitious plans to build a research base on the lunar surface, send a probe to Mars and build a space station in Earth orbit.

Notes:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend the two-day meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors in Japan on June 8 and 9. This will be the first overseas visit of Ms. Sitharaman as Finance Minister. Besides Ms. Sitharaman, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is also likely to attend the meeting at Fukuoka in Japan. Among other things, the meeting is likely to focus on risks and challenges being faced by the global economy, investment in infrastructure and international taxation. G-20, which is a group of developing and developed nations, includes India, the U.S., the U.K., China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, France and Australia. The G20 meetings, convened annually since 1999, provide a forum for key countries in the international financial system to discuss major international economic issues and to coordinate to achieve the stable and sustainable growth of the global economy.

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:
Bancha in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh has become the first village in India to have zero wooden stoves and almost no use for LPG cylinders with all its 75 houses relying on solar-powered stoves to meet their cooking needs. The team of IIT Mumbai has designed a special solar stove & now no trees are being cut by the villagers for lighting their stoves. The project of installing solar power plates, batteries and stoves in all the 74 houses was started in September 2017 and got completed by December 2018. The success story of Bancha is an eye opener which shows the potential of renewable energy. Not only will it help the nation economically but will also prove to work wonders for the environment if implemented across India.

Notes:
R V Janakiraman (79), the former Puducherry Chief Minister and senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader, has passed away in Puducherry on 10th June 2019. He began his career as a taxi driver and later went on to become a fleet operator before foraying into politics. He was the Chief Minister between 1996 and 2000, heading the coalition government of DMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress. Mr. Janakiraman became the Chief Minister in 1996 and represented the Nellithope Assembly constituency for five consecutive times.

Notes:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced that harmful single-use plastics will be banned in the country from 2021 to reduce ocean waste. He declared it a global challenge to phase out the plastic bags, straws and cutlery clogging the world’s oceans. Currently less than 10% of plastic used in Canada gets recycled. The Canadian government said that one million birds and over 100,000 sea mammals worldwide are injured or die each year when they mistake plastic for food or become entangled. Single-use items represent some 70% of the plastic waste littering the marine environment. Canada’s move follows one by the European Union (EU), which late last year announced a similar ban. Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Italy, along with the European Union, subscribed at 2018 G7 summit in Quebec to a new charter against pollution in the world’s oceans. The non-binding Ocean Plastics Charter called on participating countries and the EU to commit to making all plastics reusable, recyclable or recovered by 2030.

Notes:
The 16th Asia Media Summit 2019 has started in Siem Reap, Cambodia on June 12. The theme of the summit this year is Media Digitisation with a focus on developing markets. Over 600 delegates from 42 countries are participating in the 3-day summit which is hosted by the Ministry of Information, Cambodia in partnership with Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD). One of the highlights of the summit is a round table among CEOs of broadcasting networks which will discuss digitisation and its impact on media credibility. The Asia Media summit is one of the leading international broadcasting events. It gives the opportunities to Information Ministers, broadcasters, media practitioners, industry leaders, academia, researchers, experts and media policymakers throughout the globe to gather and discuss on developing media’s quality and to cope with challenges during the times of high technological revolution.

Notes:
Dr. I V Subba Rao, a 1979 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, will continue as secretary to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on a contract basis in the rank and pay of a secretary of the Government of India (GoI). His tenure will be co-terminus with the tenure of the vice president.

Notes:
The Indian Navy hosted a maritime information sharing workshop under the aegis of the Information Fusion Centre — Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Gurugram, Haryana on June 12. Over 41 delegates from 29 countries of the IOR participated in the two-day event. The aim of the workshop was to explain participants about IFC-IOR and its information sharing mechanisms and promote sharing of best practices in this field. The event included issues such as maritime terrorism, piracy, human and drug trafficking, humanitarian assistance as well as disaster relief and the legal perspective of combating these challenges.