Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
The biggest festival of Nepal  – Bada Dashain – has begun at famous Hanumandhoka Dashain Ghar in Kathamndu with Vedic rituals. The 15-day festival starts on first day of Navaratri with Ghatsthapana (traditional urn). Devotees performed Ghatsthapana and sowed maize and barley seeds for germination of the auspicious Jamara (barley shoots) in various parts of the country today.  During Dashain, people worship goddess Durga for nine days. On tenth day of festival, elders give golden barley shoots and put Tika on the forehead of younger members of the family and bless them for peace, progress and prosperity in the life. 

Notes:
The International Day of Older Persons is observed every year on 1st October to highlight the important contributions that older people make to society and raise awareness of the opportunities and challenges of ageing in today’s world. The 2019 theme is ‘The Journey to Age Equality’.

Notes:
The first-ever National Nutrition Survey have been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and UNICEF between February 2016 and October 2018 to measure malnutrition. The key findings of the survey, which are yet to be made public,are as follows: nearly 10% of children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years are pre-diabetic, 5% are overweight and another 5% suffer from Blood Pressure (BP). The report is providing first time hard evidence of the coexistence of obesity and under-nutrition among school going children.

Notes:
Annu Rani has become the first Indian to qualify for Women’s Javelin Throw final at World Athletics Championships (WAC) in Doha. She smashed her own national record during the qualification round of the Championships with best attempt of 62.43 metres.

Notes:
As part of the celebration of the 2019 International Day of Older Persons, President Ram Nath Kovind has conferred the Vayoshreshtha Samman-2019 on the eminent senior citizens and institutions in recognition of their services towards the cause of the elderly persons. The Vayoshreshtha Samman is a Scheme of awards instituted by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and  Empowerment  and gradually upgraded to the status of National Awards for institutions involved in rendering distinguished service for the cause of elderly persons. The awards are intended to show-case the government’s concern for senior citizens and its commitment towards them with the aim of strengthening their legitimate place in the society.

Notes:
The Union Water Ministry has  excavated an old, dried-up river in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) that linked the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. The aim is to develop a newly discovered river as a potential groundwater recharge source. This “ancient buried river” is around 4 km wide, 45 km long and consisted of a 15-metre-thick layer buried under soil. The discovery was made by a team of scientists  from the CSIR-NGRI (National Geophysical Research Institute) & the Central Groundwater Board (CGB) during a helicopter-borne geophysical survey covering the Prayagraj and Kaushambi region in Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
The book titled ‘India and the Netherlands – Past, Present and Future’ has been penned by Indian Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony. The book highlights the significant place India occupied in the Dutch worldview and the relationship between the two nations secured by strong economic ties and vibrant exchanges in culture, sports, and yoga.

Notes:
Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has flagged off  the nation-wide ‘Fit India Plog run’ at Indira Gandhi stadium in New Delhi to mark 150th Gandhi Jayanti. Plogging is a concept brings together fitness and cleanliness as participants pick up plastic and other waste from the road while jogging. The run is being organised at over two thousand places all over the country including 225 places in the national capital.

Notes:
The Delhi Cabinet has recently approved a Bill to set up India’s first sports university in Delhi, which will offer graduation, post graduation and doctorate degrees in cricket, football, and hockey among other sports. The Delhi Sports University (DSU) is proposed to be set up as a State university and it will have a full-fledged Delhi Sports School (affiliated to the CBSE) for imparting education with emphasis on sports and to groom the students for a career in sports. The university will come up in 90 acres of land in Mundka and there will also be sports schools.

Notes:
The Uttarakhand government has launched an awareness campaign – Urjagiri – to stop power theft & saving. Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat  has instructed the officers of UPCL Vigilance Cell to effectively stop the power theft so that honest customers do not have to bear the brunt of the power theft.