Current Affairs Quiz- November, 2019

Notes:
Paleontologists have recently discovered the rare bones of huge Jurassic sea predator “Pliosaurs” in a cornfield in the village of Krzyzanowice in Poland. The remains of pliosaurs are rare in Europe. The ancient sea monster measured up 30 feet long and lived about 150 million years ago. They had powerful, large skulls and massive jaws with large, sharp teeth. Their limbs were in the form of fins and were mostly found in the prehistoric seas that covered modern-day Europe.

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The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has launched a mass cleanliness-cum-awareness drive in 50 identified beaches under the programme called ‘Swachh- Nirmal Tat Abhiyaan’ from 11 -17 November 2019. The purpose of the initiative is to strive to make coastal areas across the country clean and to create awareness amongst citizens about the importance of coastal ecosystems so as to save marine creatures from plastic waste, industrial effluents and other harmful substances. The identified beaches are in 10 coastal States/ UTs viz. Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. 

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The Uttar Pradesh government has launched a dedicated web portal and a mobile application  “e-Ganna App” for sugarcane farmers of the state. Now, the ane supply slip will be issued to the farmers by sugar mills online. The portal and the App will ensure transparency in the process of getting slips, and facilitate sugarcane supply by farmers to mills and check irregularities. It will also help in eradicating cane mafia and middleman and strengthen cane development societies. 

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Indian sprinter Dutee Chand has been named in the TIME 100 Next i.e., an expansion of the TIME 100 list of the most influential persons in the world. The list is an initiative of TIME magazine. It  highlights 100 rising stars who are shaping the future of business, entertainment, sports, politics, health, science, activism etc. Dutee had won two silver medals — 100m, 200m — at Jakarta Asian Games and became the first Indian sprinter to win the 100-m at the World University Games.

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The 7th edition of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Asia Regional Conservation Forum was held in Islamabad, Pakistan. During the summit, experts said that the rapid melting of glaciers and reduced snowfall in the Himalayas due to climate change will cause water and food shortage for more than 8 hundred million people inhabiting the region if effective adaptation and mitigation measures are not implemented before 2030. The Himalayan mountain range is 2,500Km long with an average width of around 300 kilometers spanning China, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. It is home to around 15,000 glaciers, holding around 600 billion tonnes of ice, which feed major perennial river systems including the Indus and Mekong, and sustain 1.65 billion people.

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The 11th BRICS Summit 2019 has been attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Brasilia.During the summit, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accepted Prime Minister Modi’s invitation to be the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in 2020.

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Ravi Prakash, a PhD scholar of ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI- Bengaluru), has won the $25,000 BRICS-Young Innovator Prize for inventing an affordable indigenous milk chilling unit for smaller and marginal rural dairy farmers. Prakash was a part of 21-member delegation sent to Brazil by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the 4th BRICS-Young Scientist Forum (YSF- 2019).

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India has been ranked 78th among 178 nations in the 2019 Global Bribery Risk Index, which was released by Trace Bribery Risk Matrix.The Matrix evaluates countries under four parameters which are business interaction with the government, anti-bribery deterrence, transparency and civil society oversight.TRACE is a US based organisation which provides ranking to various countries in terms of the risk of bribery companies face in doing business in those countries.

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The first-ever international buyer seller meet on agriculture and horticulture produce has started at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. As per the Union Ministry of Agriculture, this event is part of the initiative of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to bring the North-Eastern states of India on the export map.The 10 International buyers from 7 countries of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, UAE, Sultanate of Oman and Greece participated in the meet and interacted with exporters.

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Veteran coach Arsene Wenger has been named FIFA’s Chief of global football development. He would be responsible for the growth of the game for both men and women around the world and would also be the leading authority on technical matters, including potential changes to the sport’s laws.