Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
Suresh Raina has become the first Indian batsman to cross 8000 runs in T20 cricket. He achieved this feat when he scored 12 runs against Puducherry in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Delhi on Feb 25. With those 12 runs, Raina has now scored 8,001 from 300 T20s which consisted of 284 innings. It was incidentally his 300th T20. Beside this, Raina is the second Indian after MS Dhoni to have played 300 T20 matches. Apart from Raina, Virat Kohli (7833) and Rohit Sharma (7795) are the only other batsmen in the top 10 list of the highest run-getters in T20 cricket. Overall, Raina is the sixth highest with David Warner (8111 runs), Shoaib Malik (8603), Kieron Pollard (8839), Brendon McCullum (9922) and Chris Gayle (12,298).

Notes:
The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem & downgraded the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by folding it into the U.S. Embassy to Israel. For decades, the consulate functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Now, that outreach will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit, under the command of the embassy. The symbolic shift hands authority over U.S. diplomatic channels with the West Bank and Gaza to Ambassador David Friedman, a longtime supporter and fundraiser for the West Bank settler movement and fierce critic of the Palestinian leadership. The downgrade is the latest in a string of divisive decisions by the Trump administration that have backed Israel and alienated the Palestinians, who say they have lost faith in the US administration’s role as a neutral arbiter in peace process.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently addressed the Construction Technology India 2019 conference on ‘Global Housing Technology Challenge’, in New Delhi. Here, PM Modi declared the 2019-2020 as the Year of construction technology in a bid to increase the use of modern technology in the construction sector. The purpose of the 2-day conference was to identify innovative and globally established technologies that can be used in the Indian context. In the event, developers, academia, technology providers, researchers etc. participated. Those technologies which are identified during the conference will be invited to design and build lighthouse projects of around one thousand housing units each in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
The General Assembly of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has decided to include cricket in the sports programme in the 2022 edition of the Asian Games, which is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China. The last time cricket featured in the Asian Games was in the 2010 and 2014 edition but Team India opted out of the event on both the occasions citing hectic schedule. The 2010 and 2014 editions saw cricket being played in the twenty-20 format and that is likely to continue during the 2022 Asian Games in China.

Notes:
The World Wildlife Day (WWD) is observed every year on 3rd of March to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna & flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. The 2019 theme “Life Below Water: For people and planet” aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Notes:
Indore has been adjudged India’s cleanest city for the 3rd straight year in the central government’s cleanliness survey ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’. The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka. The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind at a function in New Delhi. Top ranked cities received a statue of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi as award for their work towards cleanliness. Every year, cities and towns across India are awarded with the title of ‘Swachh Cities’ on the basis of their cleanliness and sanitation drive as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that was launched in 2014. Three cities Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh bagged top awards. It was hat trick for Bhopal too. Bhopal was adjudged the cleanest capital city in the 2019 survey. Ujjain was awarded Cleanest Medium city in 3 lakh to one million category. While the New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the ‘Cleanest Small City’ award, Uttarakhand’s Gauchar was adjudged the ‘Best Ganga Town’ in the central government survey. The ‘Cleanest Big City’ award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the ‘Fastest Moving Big City’.

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 3rd edition of the bilateral joint exercise “Al Nagah 2019” is scheduled to be held between India and Oman from 12th to 25th March at Jabel Al Akhdar Mountains in Oman. In the exercise, both the armies will exchange expertise and experience in tactics, weapon handling and firing. The aim of this exercise is to enhance interoperability in counter terrorist operations in semi urban mountainous terrain.

Notes:
The Rice Knowledge Bank – Assam (RKB-Assam) is an agriculture web portal i.e. dedicated to enhancing knowledge on rice production techniques, agricultural technologies, best production practices and state agriculture facts. It serves to address the challenges for agricultural development by supporting fast and effective transfer of technologies and knowledge from the research laboratory to farmer’s fields. RKB-Assam has been launched as part of the World Bank funded project- Assam Agri-business and Rural Transformation (APART). The portal is the result of efforts of Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services Society (ARIAS), Assam Agricultural University (AAU); with technical assistance from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has constituted a 5-member committee to examine the issues related to framing of a proper, structured scheme for providing insurance cover to advocates and suggest modalities for its implementation. The committee, under the chairmanship of Legal Affairs Secretary Alok Srivastava, will recommend a comprehensive insurance scheme for the welfare of advocates all over the country to address concerns relating to untimely death and medical insurance. The committee will submit its reports within 3 months.