Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria has been appointed as the new Vice Chief of Indian Air Force (IAF). He succeeded Air Marshal Anil Khosla. Prior to this post, Bhadauria was head of IAF’s Bengaluru-based Training Command. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Air Force on June 15, 1980 with the Sword of Honour. He went on to hold several important positions such as Commandant of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Senior Air Staff Officer at the Central Air Command and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from January 2016 to February 28, 2017. Bhadauria served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Southern Air Command from March 1, 2017. He took over as the chief of the Bengaluru-based Training Command on August 1, 2018.

Notes:
Pungam Kannan (80), the former Indian footballer, has passed away at Kolkata, West Bengal. Born in Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu, Kannan played 14 matches for India & was the former Mohun Bagan & East Bengal forward. He won Santosh Trophy for Bengal twice in a row (1971-73) and was the top-scorer. It was legendary German coach Dettmar Cramer who had given him the best appreciation by calling him ‘Pele of Asia’ in 1968 when he was invited by the AIFF to conduct two-week coaching in Mumbai.

Notes:
Arjuna awardee and star Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar won the ‘Outstanding achievement as a player award’ at the 4th edition of the annual India Golf Industry Association (GIA) awards at the Delhi Golf Club. The GIA awards were held along with the 8th India Golf & Turf Expo (IGTE), South Asia’s largest golf trade show. Bhullar won the 2018 Fiji International, a European Tour event, and also holds the rare distinction of becoming the youngest golfer on the Asian Tour to achieve nine career victories on tour.

Notes:
The Government of Nepal has launched an ambitious 45-day ‘Everest Cleaning Campaign’ to bring back tonnes of trash from Mt. Everest from 14th April 2019. The campaign is led by Solukhumbu district’s Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality and aims to collect nearly 10,000 kgs of garbage from Mt. Everest. Every year, hundreds of climbers, Sherpas and high altitude porters make their way to Everest, leaving behind tonnes of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste – including empty oxygen canisters, kitchen waste, beer bottles and faecal matter – on the highest peak, which has lately acquired notoriety as the “world’s highest garbage dump”. The campaign will conclude on May 29, the day marked every year to commemorate the first summit of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The collected waste will then be showcased in Namche town, before being ferried down to Kathmandu, where it will once again be showcased on World Environment Day (WED-2019) on June 5. After that, it will finally be sent out for recycling.

Notes:
Barcelona FC has successfully defended its Spanish La Liga crown after beating Levante UD in the final at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on April 27, 2019. The club’s Argentine superstar and team captain Lionel Messi decided the game and scored the winning goal in the 61st minute in a 1–0 home win over Levante, which allowed Spanish club Barcelona to clinch the league title. This was Barcelona’s 26th La Liga league title and 8th in last 11 seasons.

Notes:
Archaeologists in Telangana have recently unearthed a rare life-sized stucco sculpture from a Buddhist site at Phanigiri in Suryapet. It is considered to be the biggest stucco sculpture found in the excavations in the country till date. The sculpture is about 1.73 metres in height and 35 cm in width. According to officials of department of heritage, the sculpture represents one of the Bodhisattvas belonging to the Jathaka Chakra. It is believed that a life size stucco Bodhisattva was created nearly 1,700 years ago by craftsmen at Phanigiri at the peak of Ikshavaku dynasty rule. Apart from the life-sized stucco, these excavations brought to light a Mahastupa, apsidal chaitya grihas, votive stupas, pillared congregation halls, viharas, platforms with staircases at various levels, sculptural panels with Brahmi inscriptions, belonging to Satavahana period from first century BC, continued with Mahayana till the end of Ikshuvaka period and others in 3rd – 4th century AD.

Notes:
The Union Environment Ministry has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which aims to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20%-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024. The committee will be chaired by the Secretary, Union Environment Ministry. The NCAP is envisioned as a five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. There would be a review every five years. The purpose of the committee is to ensure inter-ministerial organisation and cooperation, share information and resolve issues that could arise between ministries. The NCAP requires cities to implement specific measures such as ensuring roads are pothole-free to improve traffic flow and thereby reduce dust (within 60 days) or ensuring strict action against unauthorised brick kilns (within 30 days).

Notes:
For the second year in a row, Iraq has become India’s top crude oil supplier in 2018-19 fiscal year and meet more than a fifth of the country’s oil needs. According to official data sourced from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Iraq sold 46.61 million tonnes (mt) of crude oil to India during April 2018 and March 2019, which is 2% more than 45.74 mt it had supplied in 2017-18 fiscal. Saudi Arabia also maintained its position as the 2nd-largest crude supplier to India during the year followed by Iran and United Arab Emirates (UAE) which toppled Venezuela to become India’s fourth largest crude supplier. Despite US sanctions on Iran, the country’s crude oil supply to India increased 6.24% to 24 MT in 2018-19. India managed to import a sizeable amount of Iranian crude last year primarily due to waivers and winding down period provided by US.

Notes:
State-owned telecom firm BSNL has become the first operator to start optical fibre-based high-speed broadband service in Pulwama with launch of ‘Bharat Fibre’. This is the first such FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) service deployment in the (Kashmir) Valley under this unique revenue share model. The Bharat Fibre services are provided on the optical fibre right up to the customer premises. This service has been launched in a business partnership model with the local channel partner of Pulwama area, on a revenue sharing basis. BSNL provides FTTH service with a monthly charge in the range of Rs 777-16,999 in over 160 telecom districts with a minimum speed of 2 megabit per second (mbps).

Notes:
Mangaluru City Police has launched an all-women police patrol unit ‘Rani Abbakka Force’ for the protection of women and children. The force will cover the malls, beaches, educational institutions, places of religious importance, and public transport system in the city. It will handle issues related to eve-teasing and chain-snatching, among others. The all-women police patrol force has been named after the 16th century warrior of coastal Karnataka, Queen Abbakka of Ullal near Mangaluru, who fought the Portuguese in the 16th century. At present, 50 women policewomen have been deployed in ‘Rani Abbakka Force’ in the city, with each patrol team having five policewomen. The Rani Abbakka Force was also launched by the Udupi district police recently.