Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
The National Book Trust (NBT) has appointed educationist and author Govind Prasad Sharma as its new Chairman. Born in 1939, Sharma has served as the Principal of Government P.G. College, Madhya Pradesh. Later, he was appointed as the Additional Director of Higher Education (Gwalior Chambal Division) and has also been the Director of Madhya Pradesh Hindi Granth Akademi. He is the author of more than six academic books and several research papers, and has edited a few collected works. NBT is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Higher Education of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). The activities of the Trust include publishing, promotion of books and reading, promotion of Indian books abroad, assistance to authors and publishers, and promotion of children’s literature.

Notes:
Eminent Indian playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar has been chosen for the 2019 META Lifetime Achievement Award. He will be conferred upon with the award on March 12, along with the winners of the 14th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) festival. Elkunchwar is critically-acclaimed and widely-known for having experimented with a wide range of drama and is considered a powerful force in both Indian and Marathi theatre scene. He has over 30 plays and essays to his credit including works like ‘Sultan’, ‘Holi’, ‘Garbo’, ‘Yatanaghar’, and ‘Atmakatha’. His 1985 play ‘Wada Chirebandi’ (Old Stone Mansion) has been staged in Marathi, Hindi and Bengali, besides being adapted for television.

Notes:
In Bangaluru, the Government of Karnataka has declared 2019 as the ‘Year of Water (or Jalavarsha)’ to emphasise the importance of water becoming a scarce commodity and the need to conserve it. The declaration will apply to all government departments. This initiative is expected to spread water literacy, focus on conservation, promotion of smart water usage and encourage green initiatives. A sum of Rs 500 crore and an additional `100 crore has been granted to implement the initiative, under which, over 14,000 water bodies across the state will be rejuvenated over the next two years. Under this movement, various activities and campaigns related to water conservation, protection and rejuvenation of waterbodies will be taken up through government departments; educational institutions and NGOs.

Notes:
The 7th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Intersessional Ministerial Meeting (7th RCEP ISSL MM) will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 2nd March 2019. The aim of the 16-member RCEP is to cover issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights. From India, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu will attend the meeting. The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 countries namely 10 countries of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners (also known as AFP’s or ASEAN FTA Partners) namely Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

Notes:
In Tripura, the joint border guarding exercise “Mainamati Maitree Exercise 2019’ was held between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) as a part of ‘Confidence Building Measures’ between the two border guards. The exercise was named after the Mainamati hill range situated 8 km west of Comilla township in Bangladesh, which is home to an ancient Buddhist archaeological site in the region. The main purpose of this exercise was to plan and conduct anti-smuggling and anti-criminal activity related operations with an aim of achieving better joint operational efficiency and border management in the area.

Notes:
On the occasion of National Science Day (NSD-2019), the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Prakash Javadekar launched Rs 250 Crore scheme ‘STARS’ to fund 500 science projects. The selection of these projects would be done on the basis of competitions.The project will be coordinated by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Interested candidates will have to submit applications to take part in the competition. The applications will release on the first week of April 2019. The acronym of STARS stands for “Scheme for Translational and Advanced Research”. Beside this, the HRD Ministry in collaboration with the National Skill Ministry and Labour and employment Ministry collaboratively launched SHREYAS – Scheme for Higher Education Youth for Apprenticeship and Skills to empower non-technical courses.

Notes:
The book titled “Designing Destiny: The Heartfulness Way” has been authored by Spiritual teacher Kamlesh Patel, who is popularly known as Daaji. He addressed key issues related to destiny and how it shapes one’s life in his new book. The author provides practical wisdom on how to use heartfulness practices to refine lifestyle and design destiny, including destiny in the afterlife. He elaborates on the subject of consciousness, the role of evolution, and explains what happens to people at the time of birth and death – and how people can act in those pivotal moments when life takes a turn. In the book, Daaji shares how beliefs determine the relative importance of fate and free will in people’s lives. He also shares a set of simple heartfulness practices and lifestyle changes that can help people design their destiny. The author also explores the meditative practices in the light of destiny besides fundamental aspects of well-being, like healthy sleep patterns, heartful communication, eating patterns, living in tune with natural cycles and so on.

Notes:
On March 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated an Indo-Russian joint venture (JV) that will manufacture the new 7.62×39 mm caliber Kalashnikov AK-203 rifle in Korwa near Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. The Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt Ltd is a joint venture between India’s Ordnance factory and a Russian firm. It will produce the last series of Kalashnikov rifles in the Korwa Ordnance Factory. AK 203 is the latest derivative of the legendary AK-47 rifle. According to officials, the AK 203 guns would replace the existing India-made INSAS assault rifles in the Army, Air Force and Navy. It is to be noted that Amethi is the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Notes:
Anil Kumble, a former Indian captain of Tests and ODIs, has been reappointed as the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket Committee for the third consecutive time. This 3-year stint will end in 2021 and be his final term as the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee. He was appointed as the head of the panel in the year 2012 for his first term. Kumble was reappointed for his second term in the year 2016 which would keep him in office till 2018. The ICC Cricket Committee is representative of all stakeholders in the game, including players and umpires. It is empowered to make recommendations on cricket playing issues.

Notes:
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has recently ordered a ban on molasses in the state in the aftermath of the hooch tragedy in two districts – Golaghat and Jorhat – which claimed 158 lives. Molasses is an important component in making “sulai”, an intoxicating drink widely consumed in the tea garden areas of Assam.