Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

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:
The Zero Discrimination Day (ZDD) is observed every year on 1st of March to promote equality before the law and in practice throughout all of the member countries of the UN. The days aims to tell people that nobody should be differentiated based on their HIV status, age, sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, language, geographical location or migrant status. The 2019 campaign ‘Act to change laws that Discriminate’ challenges people to act against laws that discriminate in their country. The campaign encourages people to ask themselves “What if …” and to think about their own actions. For example: ‘What if your neighbour had tuberculosis? Would you stop to chat?’

Notes:
On Feb 28, Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani launched a comprehensive programme for the development of knitting and knitwear sector in the country under the PowerTex India scheme in New Delhi. The total outlay for the knitwear scheme is Rs. 47.72 crore & would be in operation till March 31, 2020.The programme for knitting and knitwear units, catering to domestic and exports markets, has 8 components where the industries would get support to install machinery under group work shed scheme, buy yarn, go in for solar energy, have common facilities and create new service centres under public private partnership mode. The scheme envisages creation of new service centres on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by industry and association in the knitting and knitwear clusters. Some of the major knitwear clusters in the country are Tiruppur, Ludhiana, Kanpur, and Kolkata.

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:
Bhagwan Lal Sahni, a BJP leader from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, appointed new Chairman of the newly constituted National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The NCBC was given constitutional status by Parliament in 2018, after repealing the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993. The NCBC which previously only could recommend on the issue of inclusion or exclusion of a community in the Central list of OBCs will now have the powers of a civil court as it has been given Constitutional status, on par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

Notes:
Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be honoured with the first-ever ‘Bhagwan Mahavir Ahimsa Puraskar’, which is instituted by the Akhil Bharatiya Digambar Jain Mahasamiti. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 2.51 lakh, a memento and a citation and will be presented to Varthaman on 17th April 2019, coinciding with Mahavir Jayanti. In the ongoing India-Pakistan standoff, Varthaman was held for three days under captivity in Pakistan after his Mig-21 Bison aircraft was shot down in an aerial dogfight. He shot down a Pakistani Air Force F-16 before he was forced to eject and landed across the Line of Control (LoC). He was captured by Pakistan forces soon after and was released on March 1.

Notes:
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti politician and sports administrator, has been re-elected president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) for an 8th term despite being embroiled in a forgery case brought by Swiss investigators. Sheikh Ahmad is considered a major powerbroker in world sport & won a new five-year term until 2024.The OCA is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. The headquarters of the OCA is located at Kuwait City.

Notes:
‘The New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019’ has recently signed by the five rhino range nations – India, Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and Malaysia – for the conservation and protection of the species at the recently held 2nd Asian Rhino Range Countries meeting in New Delhi. The declaration was signed to conserve and review the population of the Greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran rhinos every four years to reassess the need for joint actions to secure their future. The declaration includes undertaking studies on health issues of the rhinos, their potential diseases and taking necessary steps; collaborating and strengthening wildlife forensics for the purpose of investigation and strengthening of transboundary collaboration among India, Nepal and Bhutan for the conservation and protection of the Greater one-horned rhino. The meet was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in collaboration with IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group, WWF- India and Aaranyak.

Notes:
The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to ensure better utilisation of infrastructure facilities during training programmes. The NCGG has been set up by the Government of India (GoI) under the aegis of DARPG (Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances). It aims to promote good governance through capacity building on public policy and governance both at national and international level and carrying out studies research on issues relating to governance. Its head office is at New Delhi. The IICA, registered as a society, is under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with the primary objective of establishing, managing, maintaining and running a world class institute.