Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
On 11th October 2019, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan  has  launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN)  initiative in New Delhi during the 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare.  The aim of the initiative is to assure dignified, respectful and quality health care at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility in order to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths. It also provides a positive birth experience to both mother and infant.  

Notes:
Kadri Gopalnath (69), the well known Saxophone master & Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Mangaluru on 11th October 2019.  He was considered as a pioneer in playing Carnatic ragas on his Saxophone. His production East-West is a fusion of western and Indian music. 

Notes:
On 9th October 2019, the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme “DHRUV”  has been launched by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank   from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Headquarters at Bengaluru and will conclude on 24th of this month at IIT Delhi. 60 brightest and talented students from Science, Mathematics and Performing Arts have been chosen for the programme. The programme is named after the Pole Star and every student to be called ‘DHRUV TARA’. It aims to sharpen innovative imagination, skills and knowledge of the students who are expected to contribute to bringing solutions to socio-economic, political and environmental issues in the country. 

Notes:
Noted environmentalist and social activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt has been awarded the Indira Gandhi award for national integration for the years 2017 and 2018 in recognition for his services in promoting and preserving national integration in the country. This award is consists of a citation and Rs 10 lakh in cash to be given to the awardee by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Bhatt hails from Uttarakhand and was a pioneer of the Chipko movement.

Notes:
In Madhya Pradesh, the 10th edition of the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav-National Cultural Festival is being organized by the Union Ministry of Culture from 14th to 21st of October under the ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ campaign in Jabalpur, Sagar and Rewa. The fest  will display diverse forms of folk, art and culture of 22 states. It will showcase the cultural heritage of India through performances of art, folk music, dance, handicrafts and cuisines of Leh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal.

Notes:
The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated on every year on 11th of  October to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls’ face. It aims to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights. The 2019 theme is “GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable”. The day also reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research.

Notes:
The 10th edition of the joint military exercise “Vajra Prahar” between India and the United States gas started at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle on October 13 & will last till October 28. It  is a Special Forces joint training exerciseconducted alternately in India and the US.

Notes:
The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction  (IDDR) is observed every year on 13th of October to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. The 2019 theme “Reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services” is based on Target (d) of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: ‘Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption services, among them health and education facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030’.

Notes:
In London, Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have jointly won the prestigious 2019 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for their novels – ‘The Testament’ and ‘Girl, Woman, Other’, respectively. The pair will split the literary award’s £50,000 prize money equally. The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they “couldn’t separate” the two works. Atwood (79) is the oldest-ever Booker winner, while Evaristo is the first black woman to win since its creation in 1969.

Notes:
Air India has become the first airline in the world to use a Taxibot on a A-320 aircraft with passengers on board. Taxibot is a robot-used aircraft tractor for taxiing an aircraft from parking bay to runway and vice-versa. Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani flagged off flight AI665 and it was carried to runway using Taxibot at Terminal 3 of the Delhi Airport – to Mumbai. It is a pilot controlled semi-robotic towbar-less aircraft tractor used as alternate taxiing equipment.