Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
Novak Djokovic, World No. 1 won his 76th tour-level title by defeating Aussie John Millman 6-3, 6-2 to win the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. It is the 10th time the Serbian has lifted a trophy on his main draw debut at a tour-level event.

Notes:
Bahrain sprinter  Salwa Eid Naser has become the first woman athlete from Asia to win the 400m gold in the ongoing IAAF World Athletics Championships (WAC) Doha 2019.  She clocked 48.14 seconds i.e., the third-fastest lap in history and the fastest in 34 years.

Notes:
Indian captain in the shortest format, Harmanpreet Kaur has become the first Indian cricketer to play 100 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) as she took the field against South Africa in Surat on 5th October 2019. She achieved this milestone before MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, who have played 98 T20Is for India. Beside this, she is also the first Indian cricketer – male or female – to sign a Big Bash League contract with Sydney Thunder in Australia. In June 2017, she became the first Indian to sign with Surrey Stars in ECB’s Kia Super League.

Notes:
The Nobel Prize 2019 for Physics has jointly been awarded to three scientists – James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz – groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of the universe and the Earth’s place in the cosmos. One half of the award was given to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for the discovery of an exo-planet orbiting a solar-type star. They will share a 9-million kronor cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. The laureates will receive them at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10. 

Notes:
The book titled ‘150 Years of Celebrating the Mahatma the South African Legacy’ has been penned by author and journalist Fakir Hassen. It is a 160-page coffee table that records how commemorations of Gandhi’s activities (including his birth and death anniversaries) were confined to the local Indian community only.

Notes:
Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio has been named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Indigenous Peoples. She made history as the first indigenous performer nominated for a best actress honor at the 2019 Academy Awards for her performance in the film “Roma”, in which she speaks in an indigenous language and in Spanish.

Notes:
The Reliance Mutual Fund has been renamed as Nippon India Mutual Fund (NIMF). The name change came after Nippon Life Insurance of Japan completed the acquisition of 75% stake in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management from Reliance Capital. Nippon Life is Japan’s largest life insurance company and a global financial services conglomerate. It manages assets worth over $700 billion.

Notes:
India has slipped sharply by 10 places to rank 68th on the 2019 WEF Global Competitiveness Index due to improvements witnessed by several other economies. The index is compiled by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). In the overall competitiveness ranking, Singapore replaced the US to take the first position.

Notes:
The “Spirit Of Kerala”, which is directed by Arun Joseph, has become the first Indian short film that bagged the People’s Choice Award at the recently concluded My Rode Reel film competition. It is a short film by a group of Malayali youngsters on Vallamkali (boat racing) that showed the celebration of the spirit of survival in the face of disaster. My Rode Reel film competition is touted as the ‘world’s largest short film competition’.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the first -ever National Hindi Science writers conference has started on 11th of October in Lucknow with an aim to release science writing from the clutches of English and to promote use of Hindi and other Vernacular languages. More than one thousand science writers from across the country are participating in this conference which is aimed to bring all Hindi and vernacular language science writers at one platform and to promote Hindi in the field of science writing.