Current Affairs Quiz- November, 2019

Notes:
The 7th edition of the North East Festival (NEF-2019) was held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi on 11th November. The aim of the 3-day fest is to showcase and create awareness about India’s North-East, and to promote entrepreneurship and tourism. The festival was an attempt to bring the best of the region under one roof and build bridges.

Notes:
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. 

Notes:
To encourage organ donation, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced an annual award in the name of Suraj Sethi, whose organs were transplanted in six persons following hisdeath in a road accident on October 29.He was a resident of Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district & was working at Surat.

Notes:
Sri Lanka has become the first South Asian nation to criminalize several offences related to match-fixing after it passed a bill labelled “Prevention of Offences Related to Sports” in which offences related to corruption in sports will carry a prison term of up to 10 years, as well as various fines. The legislation not only seeks to punish any person related to a sport who is directly involved in fixing, but also those who provide inside information. If a curator prepares a pitch to benefit betting operators or any other ground staff or support staff receives money or any other reward to disclose the condition of the playing surface comes under the ambit of a criminal offence. 

Notes:
G Kamala Vardhana Rao, an IAS officer 1990 batch from Kerala Cadre, has been appointed as new CMD of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).The ITDC is a hospitality, retail and education company owned by Government of India, under Ministry of Tourism. It came into existence in October 1966 and owns over 17 properties under the Ashok Group of Hotels brand across India.

Notes:
The 9-day humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) exercise code-named ‘Tiger Triumph’ has been started between armed forces of India and United States on the Eastern seaboard (at Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh). The aim of the first-ever tri-services exercise is to develop inter-operability between the militaries of the two countries in HADR operations.

Notes:
India will host the 19th Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) 2020 in New Delhi. This will be first time that India is hosting a such high-level meeting of China-led eight-member economic and security bloc after becoming full member of the organisation in 2017. The latest Summit of heads of government was held in Tashkent in November 2019. The SCO is an influential regional security grouping which is seen as a counterweight to NATO. The aim of the SCO is to maintain peace, stability and security of the region.

Notes:
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).

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.